Tobias Biermann
Research engineer
Widespread Pesticide Distribution in the European Atmosphere Questions their Degradability in Air
Author
Summary, in English
Risk assessment of pesticide impacts on remote ecosystems makes use of model-estimated degradation in air. Recent studies suggest these degradation rates to be overestimated, questioning current pesticide regulation. Here, we investigated the concentrations of 76 pesticides in Europe at 29 rural, coastal, mountain, and polar sites during the agricultural application season. Overall, 58 pesticides were observed in the European atmosphere. Low spatial variation of 7 pesticides suggests continental-scale atmospheric dispersal. Based on concentrations in free tropospheric air and at Arctic sites, 22 pesticides were identified to be prone to long-range atmospheric transport, which included 15 substances approved for agricultural use in Europe and 7 banned ones. Comparison between concentrations at remote sites and those found at pesticide source areas suggests long atmospheric lifetimes of atrazine, cyprodinil, spiroxamine, tebuconazole, terbuthylazine, and thiacloprid. In general, our findings suggest that atmospheric transport and persistence of pesticides have been underestimated and that their risk assessment needs to be improved.
Department/s
- Centre for Environmental and Climate Science (CEC)
- BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
- ICOS Sweden
- Combustion Physics
- LTH Profile Area: Aerosols
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
Publishing year
2024-02
Language
English
Pages
3342-3352
Publication/Series
Environmental Science and Technology
Volume
58
Issue
7
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
Topic
- Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
- Environmental Sciences
Keywords
- atmosphere
- Pesticide Distribution
- pesticides
- risk assessment
- transport
- air quality
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0013-936X