Publications

The new 20-year FOCUS surface water drainage scenarios

Sensitivity analysis of pesticide application timing on exposure estimates
Sensitivity analysis of pesticide application timing on exposure estimates of the new 20-year FOCUS surface water drainage scenarios

Prakash Srinivasan1, Nils Kehrein1, Gerald Reinken2 and Michael Stemmer3

1 knoell Germany GmbH, Crop Protection, Germany
2 Bayer AG, Crop Science Division, Germany
3 Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Austria

The EFSA draft scientific report on FOCUS multiyear surface water simulations questioned the use of a pesticide application timer (PAT) in the European risk assessment on surface water exposure.
Currently, a PAT is used to determine actual application dates from a window of intended dates in order to prevent conditions which disagree with agronomical practice.
Ignoring PAT rules could result in unrealistic predicted environmental concentrations (PECsw), for example by considering pesticide applications on rainy days.
In addition, disregarding precipitation patterns might increase the overall variability of simulation results.

Event: SETAC Europe, Dublin 2020