Search

The progress in chemical analytics and understanding of pesticide dynamics in surface waters allows establishing robust data on compounds with frequent exceedances of quality standards. The current chemical, temporal, and spatial coverage of the pesticide monitoring campaigns differs strongly between European countries. A questionnaire revealed differences in monitoring strategies in seven selected European countries; Nordic countries prioritize temporal coverage, while others focus on spatial coverage. Chemical coverage has increased, especially for non-polar classes like synthetic pyrethroids. Sweden combines monitoring data with agricultural practices for derived quantities, while the Netherlands emphasizes spatial coverage to trace contamination sources. None of the EU member states currently has established a process for linking chemical surface water monitoring data with regulatory risk assessment, while Switzerland has recently established a legally defined feedback loop. Due to their design and objectives, most strategies do not capture concentration peaks, especially 2-week composite samples, but also grab samples. Nevertheless, for substances that appear problematic in many data sets, the need for action is evident even without harmonization of monitoring programs. Harmonization would be beneficial, however, for cross-national assessment including risk reduction measures., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The majority of Swiss amphibians are threatened. There is a range of factors which have been discussed as possible causes for their decline, including plant protection products (PPPs)., Results: The influence of PPPs on amphibian populations has not yet been studied to any great extent, neither for active ingredients nor for the wetting agents, breakdown products or tank mixtures. A further topic of discussion was how to better protect amphibians by reducing their exposure to PPPs in agricultural fields., Conclusion: Experts at a workshop concluded that further research is needed.

This report provides a brief review of the 20th annual meeting of the German Language Branch of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC GLB) held from September 7th to 10th 2015 at ETH (Swiss Technical University) in Zurich, Switzerland. The event was chaired by Inge Werner, Director of the Swiss Centre for Applied Ecotoxicology (Ecotox Centre) Eawag-EPFL, and organized by a team from Ecotox Centre, Eawag, Federal Office of the Environment, Federal Office of Agriculture, and Mesocosm GmbH (Germany). Over 200 delegates from academia, public agencies and private industry of Germany, Switzerland and Austria attended and discussed the current state of science and its application presented in 75 talks and 83 posters. In addition, three invited keynote speakers provided new insights into scientific knowledge 'brokering', and-as it was the International Year of Soil-the important role of healthy soil ecosystems. Awards were presented to young scientists for best oral and poster presentations, and for best 2014 master and doctoral theses. Program and abstracts of the meeting (mostly in German) are provided as Additional file 1.