Long-term monitoring programs have shown that mixtures pesticides are a common occurrence in U.S. water bodies. As a result, there have been calls for the regulatory process to consider the risks of pesticide mixtures rather than focus on single pesticides. In recent years, evaluations have been undertaken to estimate the effects of pesticide mixtures in agricultural, forestry and urban settings in the Central Valley of California, the Pacific Northwest and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The purpose of the evaluations was to determine the risks of real-world mixtures to aquatic biota. The results indicate that pesticide mixtures in the environment only occasionally pose transient risks to aquatic biota. In nearly all cases, the risks were due to 1-2 pesticides. The evidence to date suggests that the current regulatory focus on single pesticides is sufficiently protective to guard against the ecological effects of pesticide mixtures to aquatic biota.

Are mixtures of pesticides in the aquatic environment as serious an issue as implied by monitoring studies?

248th National Meeting (2014)

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