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Chemicals in European waters
This report’s aim is to improve understanding of which chemicals continue to pose significant risks to the environment, especially when they are present in water. It also looks at how better knowledge and understanding can help to improve controls to minimise harm. The report gives an overview of information about pollutants used in the assessment of water quality under the Water Framework Directive, and describes some of the newer techniques available for the assessment of water quality.
Environment and health
EEA Report 2/2006 - Integration of environment into EU agriculture policy - the IRENA indicator-based assessment report
This report aims to provide a fair reflection of the progress, the achievements and obstacles in the integration of environmental concerns into EU agriculture policy, based on indicators developed in the IRENA operation (see Section 1.3). It also tackles limitations to successful policy implementation at Member State level, and challenges ahead.
The threat of metal and pesticide contamination in drinking water
The threat of metal and pesticide contamination in drinking water
Total pesticide consumption per hectare of agricultural land
The baseline for calculating the consumption of pesticides per hectare was total agricultural land area (even though pesticides are not applied on all farmland)
Trend in pesticide use in non-agricultural areas in France
Use of fungicides across Europe
Use of herbicides across Europe
Use of insecticides across Europe
How pesticides impact human health and ecosystems in Europe
Food production systems in Europe rely on chemical pesticides to maintain crop yields. However, widespread pesticide use is a major source of pollution — contaminating water, soil and air, driving biodiversity loss, and leading to pest resistance. Human exposure to chemical pesticides is linked to chronic illnesses such as cancer, and heart, respiratory and neurological diseases. This briefing summarises the latest knowledge on how chemical pesticides impact human health and the environment, and presents good practices to reduce their use and risk across Europe.
Percentage of samples from the most commonly consumed food groups in Europe complying with legislation on pesticide residue levels
The diagram presents the percentage of samples from the most commonly-consumed food groups in Europe that were compliant with pesticide residues below or equal to the legal limit, higher than the legal limit or non-compliant.
Percentage of reported monitoring sites with pesticides exceeding thresholds in a) surface waters and b) groundwater in Europe weighted by country area
For each European country, which reported pesticide data under WISE 6 in time period 2013 to 2020, information on numbers of reported pesticides for both surface waters and groundwater is listed.
Percentage of reported monitoring sites with pesticides exceeding thresholds in a) surface waters and b) groundwater in Europe, weighted by country area
Percentage of reported monitoring sites with pesticides exceeding thresholds in a) surface waters and b) groundwater in Europe, weighted by country area
The figures show the percentage of monitoring sites with exceedance of effect thresholds or quality standards, set by European or national regulatory standards, and weighted by country area to reduce the impact of uneven data reporting. For surface waters, EU environmental quality standards and (in the absence of those) national regulatory standards were used, reflecting the lowest ecotoxicologically-based effect threshold. Effect thresholds were identified for 116 out of 237 pesticides (49%). The exceedances included here refer to those 116 pesticides. For groundwater, the Groundwater Directive quality standard of 0.1µg/l was used to identify exceedance. Twelve non-relevant metabolites (nrM) were excluded from the assessment.
Percentage of reported monitoring sites with pesticides exceeding thresholds in surface waters, different sized rivers, lakes and groundwater in European countries, 2016-2021
The figure shows the percentage of monitoring sites with threshold exceedances of pesticides in surface waters, different sized rivers, lakes and groundwater in European countries. This was used to examine threshold exceedances according to Surface Waters; Rivers, small; Rivers, medium; Rivers, large; Lakes, and Groundwater.
Pesticide sales by categorisation of active substances
Exceedances of (left) effect thresholds in Europe’s surface waters for the pesticide imidacloprid in 2020; and (right) quality standards in Europe’s groundwater for the pesticide atrazine in 2020
Average total concentration of pesticides in surface water in the Vemmenhög catchment area vs applied amounts analysed (1992-2018)
Concentrations of pesticide metabolites and oxidative stress/inflammatory biomarkers during the conventional and organic periods of the "Organic diet and children's health" study
Country surface area in km², numbers of monitoring sites and pesticides reported by each country in surface waters and groundwaters, 2016-21
Net change in pesticide use
Bar graph showing net change in pesticide use per country (percentage change in tonnes of active ingredients)
Total EU pesticides sales
Hazardous substances in Europe's fresh and marine waters — An overview
Chemicals are an essential part of our daily lives and are used to produce consumer goods, to protect or restore our health and to boost food production, to name but a few examples. Some chemicals, however, are hazardous, raising concerns for the environment and human health. Hazardous substances are emitted to fresh and marine waters via a number of pathways and can have detrimental effects on aquatic biota. Humans can be exposed to hazardous substances in water through the ingestion of contaminated drinking water and the consumption of contaminated freshwater fish and seafood. A wide range of legislation now exists in Europe to address the release of hazardous substances to the environment, including water. New challenges exist, however, including the issues of chemical mixtures and emerging pollutants.
Pesticides in rivers, lakes and groundwater in Europe
Pesticides were assessed against effect or quality thresholds between 2013 and 2023. Following an update to the methodology, one or more pesticides were detected above their effect threshold at 19% to 27% of river water bodies. Exceedances were often caused by MCPA , terbuthylazine , imidacloprid and metolachlor . Exceedances of one or more pesticides were detected at between 11% and 18% of groundwater bodies, mainly by atrazine and its metabolites, glyphosate and bentazone . Differences in weather, crop type and reporting mean that changes between years may not be significant.