Environmental sustainability of the use of pesticides. The Po River basin

The report presents a study of the contamination of the Po basin, the most important in Italy both for its size and for the intense human activity.

The considerable amount of data arising from an extensive monitoring network (developed as part of the national monitoring coordinated by ISPRA involving the Regions and ARPA/APPA) allows to study pesticide contamination and its evolution since 2003. The study focused on residual contamination of pesticides banned for several years (atrazine, simazine, alachlor). This allowed to investigate aspects related to chemical pollution sustainability and in particular to the capacity to respond to anthropogenic stresses, comparing the contamination data with the legal limits.

The report also addresses the problem of certain substances "of very high concern" as substances that are carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic to reproduction, persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, endocrine disruptors. As there is not a safe threshold for these types of substances, it is not possible to establish a level of acceptable risk, therefore also low exposure concentrations are relevant for living organisms. Finally, it is addressed the issue related to the mixture of substances detected in the basin monitoring sites, due to the gaps in knowledge of the cumulative effects.

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