Pesticide authorization in Europe today requires an overview and assessment of environmental monitoring data, typically compiled from publicly accessible online data repositories and reports. Such information provides valuable insight into the state of the environment, emerging issues, and possible impacts. However, caution is required in the collation and interpretation of such data. In order to determine whether remedial actions are necessary to ensure protection of human and environmental health, the underpinning basis for threshold limits should be considered in light of whether arbitrarily established, or science-based and data-derived. Environmental and human health endpoints to establish such levels for glyphosate (GLY) will be discussed and compared with current regulatory values in Europe and the United States. A GLY Annex I renewal dossier was recently submitted in Europe. Public monitoring data collection/analysis for all Member States (MS) across environmental compartments included: Surface Water (SW): comprehensive dataset (&gt;300K samples from &gt;15K sites) versus the regulatory acceptable concentration (RAC) of 400 µg/L, shows very high regulatory compliance (&gt;99.99%). No official environmental quality standard (EQS) threshold has been set at the European level. Groundwater: comprehensive dataset (&gt;251K samples from &gt;40K sites) versus the EU arbitrary regulatory threshold (0.1 µg/L) shows very high regulatory compliance rates (&gt;99.4%). Excluding a small number of high outlier concentrations indicated maximum concentrations well below the SW RAC (for groundwater fed ecosystems) and the lifetime health-based Acceptable Daily Intake (LTHBADI) concentration (1500 µg/L). Drinking Water: small dataset (&gt;9.5K samples from &gt;3.7K sites) versus the EU regulatory arbitrary threshold (0.1 µg/L) shows very high regulatory compliance (&gt;99.9%) and is in good agreement with a large number of aggregated data summaries in published reports. Where threshold exceedances occur, the maximum concentrations are low and well below the LTHBADI concentration. This is unsurprising as GLY is readily removed by conventional water treatment processes already in place to ensure microbiological safety. Analysis of a comprehensive database of GLY residue analyses within the public monitoring of national and regional environment agencies in Europe with robust science-based thresholds suggest no issues for the state of the environment, nor to human health via drinking water.

On the use of science-based thresholds for the interpretation of public environmental monitoring data: Demonstrating glyphosate residues in European surface, ground and drinking water pose no risk to biota, ecosystems or human health

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.