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Risk assessment of persistent pesticide pollution: Development of an indicator integrating site-specific characteristics.

Authors :
Mohasin P
Chakraborty P
Anand N
Ray S
Source :
The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2023 Feb 25; Vol. 861, pp. 160555. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Nov 29.
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

Detection of high pesticide concentrations in sediments and water often leads to prioritizing a site as being 'at risk'. However, the risk does not depend on pesticide concentration alone, but on other site-specific characteristics also. We developed an indicator that identifies the 'Level of Concern' by integrating five such characteristics: (i) pesticide concentrations in surface and groundwater causing risks to ecological health (ii) impacts on human health, (iii) water scarcity, (iv) agricultural production, and (v) biodiversity richness. We applied this framework in an agricultural region of the Lower Ganges Basin in West Bengal, India. We measured concentrations of selected organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in surface and groundwater within an 8 km <superscript>2</superscript> area in 2019. Of 20 banned and restricted OCPs, 11 were detected as causing high risk to ecological health and 10 at concentrations above the Accepted Carcinogenic Risk Limit (ACRL) for humans. In the pre-monsoon, the mean concentrations of ΣOCPs in groundwater and surface water were 126.9 ng/L and 104 ng/L, in the monsoon they were 144.7 ng/L and 138 ng/L, and in the post-monsoon 122.1 ng/L and 147 ng/L respectively. In groundwater, no significant seasonal difference was observed in most pesticides. In the surface water, 7 pesticides were significantly higher in the monsoon and post-monsoon, which may be attributed to increased runoff as well as post monsoon application of OCPs. In September 2022 we again measured OCP concentrations in surface water and sediment. The mean concentration of 14 of the 20 measured OCPs were found to be significantly lower in the post-pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic time. These lower pesticide concentrations may indicate a reduced use of OCPs in agricultural practices during the pandemic. This area was identified as being at the highest Level of Concern, even though the OCP concentrations alone conformed to general guidelines.<br />Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.<br /> (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1879-1026
Volume :
861
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
The Science of the total environment
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
36460110
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160555