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. 2024 Feb 7;58(7):3342-3352.
doi: 10.1021/acs.est.3c08488. Online ahead of print.

Widespread Pesticide Distribution in the European Atmosphere Questions their Degradability in Air

Ludovic Mayer  1 , Céline Degrendele  1   2 , Petr Šenk  1 , Jiři Kohoutek  1 , Petra Přibylová  1 , Petr Kukučka  1 , Lisa Melymuk  1 , Amandine Durand  2 , Sylvain Ravier  2 , Andres Alastuey  3 , Alex R Baker  4 , Urs Baltensperger  5 , Kathrin Baumann-Stanzer  6 , Tobias Biermann  7 , Pernilla Bohlin-Nizzetto  8 , Darius Ceburnis  9 , Sébastien Conil  10 , Cédric Couret  11 , Anna Degórska  12 , Evangelia Diapouli  13 , Sabine Eckhardt  8 , Konstantinos Eleftheriadis  13 , Grant L Forster  4   14 , Korbinian Freier  15 , François Gheusi  16 , Maria I Gini  13 , Heidi Hellén  17 , Stephan Henne  18 , Hartmut Herrmann  19 , Adéla Holubová Šmejkalová  20 , Urmas Hõrrak  21 , Christoph Hüglin  18 , Heikki Junninen  21 , Adam Kristensson  22 , Laurent Langrene  10 , Janne Levula  23 , Marie Lothon  16 , Elke Ludewig  6 , Ulla Makkonen  17 , Jana Matejovičová  24 , Nikolaos Mihalopoulos  25 , Veronika Mináriková  24 , Wolfgang Moche  26 , Steffen M Noe  27 , Noemí Pérez  3 , Tuukka Petäjä  23 , Véronique Pont  16 , Laurent Poulain  19 , Etienne Quivet  2 , Gabriela Ratz  15 , Till Rehm  28 , Stefan Reimann  18 , Ivan Simmons  29 , Jeroen E Sonke  30 , Mar Sorribas  31 , Ronald Spoor  32 , Daan P J Swart  32 , Vasiliki Vasilatou  13 , Henri Wortham  2 , Margarita Yela  31 , Pavlos Zarmpas  25 , Claudia Zellweger Fäsi  18 , Kjetil Tørseth  8 , Paolo Laj  23   33 , Jana Klánová  1 , Gerhard Lammel  1   34
Affiliations

Widespread Pesticide Distribution in the European Atmosphere Questions their Degradability in Air

Ludovic Mayer et al. Environ Sci Technol. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: atmosphere; degradation; pesticides; risk assessment; transport.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of pesticides quantified in the particulate phase: (A) latitudinal distribution (third-order polynomial regression) and (B) related to agriculture (area fraction within 10 km, in %). On each figure, the gray line represents the regression and the dotted lines represent the 95% confidence interval.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pesticide mean concentrations quantified at each site in the particulate (all sites) and gaseous phases (6 sites).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pesticides identified as prone to long-range atmospheric transport (blue area, FT = free tropospheric), pesticides quantified in the planetary boundary layer (white area), and pesticides never observed (gray area) ordered along model estimate of half-life in air. Not pictured is one pesticide never observed, i.e., fluazinam, with a model-estimated half-life of 1956 h. Annual mean OH concentration of 7.5 × 105 cm−3 used for calculation of half-life in air.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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