How pesticide exposure and effects match with the intention of European pesticide regulation – a mini review

Ralf B. Schäfer, Juliane Filser, Matthias Liess, Martin Scheringer, Andreas Schäffer

Pesticides are widely used in European agriculture, requiring robust prospective risk assessment of their environmental exposure and effects on non-target species to safeguard biodiversity. We conducted a high-level evaluation to test whether: 1) measured environmental exposure concentrations remain below those established by risk assessment and 2) these concentrations prevent population- or community-level effects in non-target organisms. We systematically analysed meta-analyses, quantitative reviews and syntheses that compared predicted and measured concentrations or assessed the effects of pesticides on non-target organisms. For exposure, studies show that in both aquatic and soil ecosystems the predicted concentrations of exposure models or regulatory thresholds are frequently exceeded. For effects, the data demonstrate frequent occurrence of negative, i.e. detrimental effects on non-target organisms. Impacts on aquatic species appear more pronounced than on terrestrial communities. Overall, the evidence from synthetic scientific studies suggests that current environmental risk assessment in the European Union recurrently underestimates both environmental exposure to pesticides and their ecological effects.