2020 will remain a sadly surprising year in terms of pesticide use! Monitoring of many suburban and rural sites via BeeOmonitoring, in several European countries, has enabled us to detect a sharp increase in the number and concentrations of phytosanitary products. The concentrations used have in some cases greatly exceeded the maximum residue levels (MRL) authorised by the European Commission to protect human and animal health.

What happened in 2020?.

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The most serious case is that of captan, a fungicide used on fruit trees, vegetables and ornamental plants against mildew and scab. This substance was found at alarming levels, to such an extent that at the end of spring its concentration at one site exceeded the MRL 428 times. Two other fungicides, doguadine and tebuconazole, used on the same targets and for the same purpose as captan, were also present on several sites at doses well above the MRLs. Some substances were detected on many sites but at generally more reasonable doses, such as the fungicides prothioconazole and fluopyram and the herbicides prosulfocarb and aclonifen. In total, more than 100 substances were found during the  BeeOmonitoring analyses of 2020, including even banned pesticides such as anthraquinone, a bird repellent, and chlorpyrifos-methyl, an insecticide, found on several sites.

But while the European Union has strict laws on its territory, a report published by Greenpeace UK and Public Eye reveals that every year pesticides banned by the EU continue to be produced and exported abroad. These pesticides, such as the herbicide acetochlor and the fungicide carbendazim are banned in Europe due to their high toxicity, yet more than 80,000 tonnes, in the form of 41 different pesticides, were exported legally in 2018.