Monitoring Pesticides

also see wildlife/mammals, pesticide fact sheets/Polyfluorinated pesticides and PFAs / monitoring

Honey Bees as Bioindicators; Study Finds Residues of Pesticides and Rare Earth Elements Threaten Health  (Beyond Pesticides, July 30, 2026)   A study published in Environmental Pollution identifies honey bees as bioindicators for residues of pesticides, heavy metals, and rare earth elements (REEs) that can cause adverse health effects to pollinators and other organisms. Università della Calabria    In studying honey bees in Calabria, Italy, across two protected montane forests on the slopes of mountains in Sila National Park, as well as one suburban and one urban site, the researchers, in screening for 778 agrochemicals and 46 trace elements, identify site-specific accumulation patterns.    “Surprisingly, bees from the protected Natura 2000 site (S2) displayed the highest diversity of residues and concentrations of REEs, suggesting an interplay between lithogenic sources rocks, minerals, etc. and agricultural inputs,” the authors note. In finding pesticide, heavy metal, and REE residues in honey bees across the four sites, it highlights the anthropogenic pressures in terrestrial ecosystems and the complexities associated with exposure to mixtures, particularly for pollinators that provide crucial ecosystem services.    As the authors note, “Despite their historically presumed low bioavailability, emerging evidence indicates that REEs can accumulate in soils, plants, and invertebrates, raising concerns about their ecotoxicological impact and potential transfer along food chains.”  #pesticides #honeybees #bioindicators #ree #health #pollinators #italy #dailynews

Silicone wristbands track hundreds of unique chemical exposures (By Adeline Lopez, NIESH, August 2023)    Small, lightweight technology records pesticides, personal care products, flame retardants, and more on a global scale. ...The highly sensitive wristbands can be used to measure exposure to low levels of hundreds of chemicals, offering a unique tool to better understand the complex mixtures people may be exposed to throughout daily life.    Anderson and former SRP trainee and 2012 K.C. Donnelly award winner Steven O’Connell, Ph.D., developed an approach to extract and analyze more than 1,500 chemicals from silicone wristbands, including pesticides, volatile organic contaminants, personal care products, smoke and oil compounds, flame retardants, and more. The tool provides scientists with a simple way to characterize a person’s unique environmental exposures. Knowing this can help scientists better understand how exposure to chemicals in everyday life affects human health.  The team also co-founded MyExposome Inc., a small business dedicated to monitoring individual environmental exposures.   Silicone mimics the way that skin and other cells in the body absorb chemicals. When a person wears the silicone wristband, organic chemicals from the air, water, and even their skin are absorbed into the band.   “The methods used to extract and analyze chemical compounds from the wristbands is easy to learn and uses routinely available lab equipment,” said Anderson. “Coupled with ease of use in the field, these passive samplers are well suited for all different kinds of populations around the world.”  - ncludes a list of studies the wristbands were used in. updated NIESH page (August 07, 2025)

‘Sticky’ pine needles could provide clues about forever chemicals in Minnesota’s air (MPR News, 25 November 2025)      'It turns out that coniferous needles make surprisingly good natural air monitors. They have a waxy surface that contaminants easily stick to.    “That air pathway is really important for moving PFAS all around the environment — not just in Minnesota, but globally,” she said.     In the lab, scientists will test the needles for 75 different PFAS compounds, far more than they typically screen for in drinking water.      Kaylie Donelson, an environmental chemist, was the lead author of that study while she was a graduate student at NCSU. She said the pine needle testing provided a “fingerprint” showing the evolution of forever chemicals over decades.     “We could see PFAS pop up over time, and then, as they were phased out of use, we could watch them go back down,” Donelson said. “We could see the PFAS that were specific to the airport versus near the manufacturing plant, and kind of see how far those traveled.”     A North Carolina study, published in 2022, detected 70 PFA, including both traditionally monitored legacy perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) and their emerging replacements such as chlorinated derivatives, ultrashort chain PFAAs, perfluoroalkyl ether acids including hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO–DA, “GenX”) and Nafion byproduct 2, and a cyclic perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) analog.' The collections were done by volunteers.

Elevated Exposure to Wastewater Contaminants in Communities Near Ag Fields, Study Finds      (Beyond Pesticides, June 3, 2025) Netherlands study. Analyzing influent wastewater is already being done to assess covid risks and drug use in populations. Here, wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is used as a complementary approach to human biomonitoring “to assess the spatial differences in human exposure in areas with relatively high use of pesticides versus reference areas.”      The pesticides that correlate with the detected metabolites in the study are associated with toxicity to aquatic organisms, endocrine disruption, reproductive effects, developmental effects, epigenetic effects, organ damage, neurotoxicity, cardiotoxicity, oxidative stress, and potential cancer. 

Move to change how U.S. tracks pesticide use sparks protest
Scientists oppose U.S. Geological Survey plan to reduce scope and frequency of chemical database  (by Virginia Gewin, Science, 30 May 2023)    'The USGS data have played a role in more than 500 peer-reviewed studies, the letter notes, including highly cited works on the impact of pesticides on public health, water quality, and ecosystems. Instead of reducing the database’s scope and frequency, the critics say USGS should be expanding it in order better track the estimated 540 million kilograms of pesticides used annually in the United States.'       The USGS database, which dates to 1992, tracked the shifting use of more than 400 chemicals to control insects, fungi, weeds, and other pests. Now the only track 72 pesticides. Preliminary maps are released documenting pesticide use 2 years prior. Now they want to do it every 5 years.  'Some scientists also want USGS to restart efforts to track one of the fastest growing uses of pesticides: seed coatings that protect against, for example, plant diseases or nematodes.'   SNAP comment: As far as I know, we have no canadian maps. According to old stats, SK uses 33 to 36% of all pesticides sold in Canada and the PMRA annual reports don't disclose the amount and individual chemicals by province. This is apparently secret data. and that is only sales's data. As to use and location data, we are in total darkness. Is that any surprise that it's so hard to study correlations between pesticide use and illness or environmental harm in Canada?

PAN Drift Catcher has been developed to allow the public to monitor instances of pesticide drift. However, it only works for some types of pesticides. It is worth checking with PANNA to see if you could use it. 

Chemical Exposure Monitoring Documents Widespread Pesticide Exposure to People and Pets   (Beyond Pesticides, January 18, 2021) 'A study published in Environmental Science & Technology adds to the growing body of scientific research verifying the use of silicone devices as an effective tool for biomonitoring and disease prognosis, finding widespread exposure to people and pets... However, dogs develop comparable anthropomorphic (human-like) diseases (e.g., cancer, organ damage) from susceptibility to the same environmental contaminants, but at a much quicker pace. Therefore, this research highlights the significance of identifying chemicals associated with diseases that are common across multiple species over longer disease latency periods.  The results find over 70 percent of silicone samples detect the presence of multiple pesticides detectable, such as insecticides, including permethrin, fipronil, and N, N diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) (a highly toxic insect repellent and synergist). Both DEET and fipronil are detectable in 100 percent of human and dog silicone devices, with DEET concentrations in silicone device samples associated with chemical levels in urine. Due to the use of fipronil as flea and tick treatment, participants reporting recent flea/tick treatments have higher levels of fipronil in both silicone and urine samples.'    SNAP Comment: A PMRA label search shows fipronil is not and has not been sold in Canada. There are 250 DEET products registered and 353 products containing permethrin.

New Test Will Help Researchers Understand Pesticide Threats to Wild Bat Populations   (Beyond Pesticides, December 10, 2020) 'A new test developed by a team of Mexican and Canadian scientists will help field researchers detect early warning signs of pesticide exposure in wild bat populations.  The test in question is referred to as a micronucleus test. Although it does not measure the level of pesticide contaminating a bat’s body, it can assess genotoxicity (the effect of pesticides and other chemical agents that damage genetic information in a cell). This is done by taking blood samples of bats, and testing for the presence of micronuclei formation, which are materials in blood that contain damaged chromosomes not incorporated into a cell after cell division. What little research that has been conducted on the harm pesticides cause to bats shows significant cause for concern. Agricultural pesticide use results in a large proportion of a bat’s insect diet being contaminated with highly toxic chemicals. Bats are particularly sensitive to pesticides that bioconcentrate in fat (lipophilic pesticides); they develop large stores to use while migrating or hibernating, and high concentrations of toxic pesticides in this fat can result in significant poisoning as the body burns it off.  Despite the unique ways in which pesticides harm bats, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not evaluate a pesticide’s effect on bats prior to registration.   Because bats are unusually long-lived for animals their size — lifespans range from 20 to 40 years — their bodies can accumulate pesticide residues over a long period, exacerbating adverse effects associated with those pesticides that can accumulate in fatty tissue.' A bat's 'consumption of large volumes of pesticide-contaminated insects can mean that these compounds may reach toxic levels in their brains — making them more susceptible to White Nose Syndrome.'.

Researchers Developing New Methods to Detect Pesticide Contamination in Bee Hives   (Beyond Pesticides, July 28, 2020) . 'This new product, APIStrip (Adsorb Pesticide In-hive Strip), can be placed into bee hives and act as a passive sampler for pesticide pollution. Honey bees are sentinel species for environmental pollutants, and this new technology could provide a helpful way not only for beekeepers to pinpoint problems with their colonies, but also track ambient levels of pesticide pollution in a community.' plus review of other monitoring tools.