Pesticide use comparison between Latin America and European Union. Argentina and Chile as study case

DE GROOT, GRECIA STEFANÍA; BOGO, GHERARDO; SÁNCHEZ-ALDEA, PATRICIA

Congreso; Latin American Pesticide Residue Workshop; 2021

Bees, the main pollinators of wild and cultivated plants, are suffering for a huge decline in recent decades caused by several factors, including the increase of pesticide use. A wide range of this compounds are used in conventional agriculture to control pests and weeds though they could have numerous negative effects on bees, depending partly on their chemical group, concentration and route of exposure. In Latin America (LA) most countries are food producers but at the same time, pesticide regulation is absent or weak. Conversely, in the European Union (EU) regulation is very strong and they have also adopted a strategy of sustainable use of pesticides. In order to describe pesticide use regulation in developing countries, we explore differences in government authorization between two latin american countries. For that purpose, we selected five focal crops (i.e. wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflower and apple) and analyzed the active ingredients authorized in Argentina and Chile for each one of them. We considered the number of allowed pesticides, their identity, chemical classification, type, maximum residue levels (MRLs) in honey and honey bee LD50. Then we compared the regulation status of each of these products with the EU one. In the five crops, a total of 385 pesticides are approved in the two american countries (Argentina: 234; Chile: 269), with high differences in the number of pesticides admitted per crop for each country. Among these 385 pesticides, 125 (35.9%) are not approved in the EU, being 30.4% herbicides, 28.8% insecticides and 12.8% fungicides, among others. Regarding the toxicity to honey bees, we found 27 insecticides of high toxicity while herbicides and fungicides present generally slight or low toxicity. However, pesticides of high toxicity are authorized in all studied crops for both countries (range: Argentina 10-21; Chile 4-17). On the other hand, we found that both latin american countries partial or completely lack national regulations regarding the MRLs in honey for domestic consumption. The backward regulations on pesticide use shown by these two Latin American countries implies a much higher risk for bees and pollinators, and also for humans and improvements on this matter should be urgently taken.