How nasty is Apivar for humans?

[bobba]

Apivar has been used, and therefore misused, globally for many many years. In that time, has a single incidence been recorded, anywhere in the world, of a toxic effect on someone from eating honey with Amitraz in?

I believe not.

So I'm not particularly concerned by it.

Not from eating contaminated honey. But it is a dangerous substance:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16496489/
https://adc.bmj.com/content/88/2/130
Just because no poisoning indecent has been directly attributed to contaminated honey does not mean its therefor completely safe. Pernicious effects can be hard to link to whats causing them, so its small effects over time you may hardly notice. But agree the risk is probably very low/negligible.

My personal fear is that we are exposed to so many industrial agents, and although they are all tested individually little is known about the combined effects they may have.

Its a bit like saying, here is a tiny bit of lead to eat, dont worry its a safe dose. An tmr you can have a tiny bit of lithium, but fear not, its a safe dose. Then the next day you can have some arsenic, and so on. No thanks....

So I just think you should always use pesticides responsibly, and follow the instructions. But if your situation allows you remove supers before treatment, or if you can leave them on a little longer after treatment, then why not be on the safe side.

 

[bobba]

https://www.theapiarist.org/queens-and-amitraz-residues-in-wax/

Good reading.

It turns out that, although amitraz (the active ingredient in Apivar) is not wax soluble, it’s broken down (hydrolysed) to a formamide and a formamidine.

formamidine is both wax soluble and an endocrine disruptor. I just want to make clear, I do not know if it affects human endocrine systems, but it does in some species.

Endocrine disruptors minic hormones so can be dangerous in incredibly small amounts, particularly in chronic exposure (exposure over a long time).