Ecological and human risk assessment of pesticide-use in multi-use aquatic systems in the tropics

Due to a shift from food crops to vegetables, the area planted with vegetables in Asia has grown rapidly. Since the amount and variety of pesticides used in vegetable production is much higher than in food crops this shift has serious consequences for natural resources and human health in the region. By applying baseline information on pesticide-use and -attitude from two study sites in Thailand and Sri Lanka, this project aims to develop a risk assessment methodology, that can be used to support policy guidelines for the management of agrochemical use in aquatic systems in Asian countries. The initial stage of the project involved a situation analysis which was followed by a preliminary risk assessment. The preliminary risk assessment indicated extremely high potential risks of pesticide use to aquatic ecosystems and human health due to dietary exposure. In order to verify the approach used in the preliminary risk assessment, a (bio)monitoring program and battery of bioassays will be executed in the field to monitor effects. The paper presented here will give an overview of the outline of the project together with the results of the preliminary risk assessment and experimental work performed to verify the results.