Pesticides more harmful globally, study finds

The toxicity of pesticides increased worldwide between 2013 to 2019, with Brazil among the countries leading the way. The conclusion can be found in a study published this month in the journal Science and contradicts the goal of reducing pesticide risks by 2030, established at the 15th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP15). German scientists from the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau examined 625 pesticides across 201 nations. They used the total applied toxicity (TAT) indicator, which considers the volume used and the toxicity level of each substance. Six out of eight species groups are most vulnerable to increasing levels of toxicity – terrestrial arthropods (such as insects, arachnids, and centipedes), whose toxicity has surged by 6.4 percent per year; soil organisms (4.6%), fish (4.4%), aquatic invertebrates (2.9%), pollinators (2.3%), and terrestrial plants (1.9%). Global TAT sank only for aquatic plants (−1.7%) and terrestrial vertebrates (−0.5% per year). Humans ar