TY - JOUR
T1 - One Health perspective
T2 - an integrated in-silico approach to assess the environmental fate of pesticides, the exposure of aquatic and soil organisms and the risks for human health
AU - Suciu, Nicoleta A.
AU - Trevisan, Marco
AU - Fragkoulis, Georgios
AU - Lamastra, Lucrezia
AU - Triachini, Sara
AU - Abrantes, Nelson
AU - Norgaard, Trine
AU - Harkes, Paula
AU - Nunes, Joao Pedro
AU - Silva, Vera
AU - Navarro, Irene
AU - de la Torre, Adrián
AU - Martínez, María Ángeles
AU - Scheepers, Paul
AU - Martins Figueiredo, Daniel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026
PY - 2026/3/1
Y1 - 2026/3/1
N2 - Within the One Health perspective, the health of humans, animals and ecosystems is highly interconnected. This study presents an in silico approach to assess the environmental fate of plant protection products (PPPs) in soil and water, as well organisms and humans exposure and associated risks. The methodology integrates scenarios, models, tools and approaches recognized and used by the European Food Safety Authority and the scientific community for PPP market authorization risk assessments. Three European Member States —Portugal (PT), Denmark (DK), and the Netherlands (NL) —were selected to demonstrate = model applicability, each representing a different EU Regulatory Zone. For each country, real PPP application data and site-specific meteorological and pedological information were collected, and environmental concentrations monitored. Results showed that the predicted environmental concentration in soil (PECsoil) was lower than the monitored concentrations in PT locations, whereas PECsoil was overestimated in both NL and DK. The toxicity to exposure ratio (TER) indicated low risk to earthworms in all simulations. For surface water (SW), PECSW was below the environmental quality standard (EQSSW) in PT, whereas significant exceedances occurred in NL and DK. However, in DK, PPP concentrations declined below EQSSW within one day post-application. Comparison with reference toxicological endpoints for fish and invertebrates suggested low risks. Estimated PPP concentrations in invertebrates and fish for human consumption indicated intake would not exceed the acceptable daily intake (ADI) in PT and NL. However, at the DK location, small consumption (>13 g) of a given invertebrate would exceed the ADI for prosulfocarb (5 μg kg−1). Despite limited experimental dataset and some constraints in field data collection that influenced models performance and verification, this in-silico approach can serve as a useful screening tool for assessing PPP fate and exposure in soil, aquatic organisms, and humans, supporting the integrative perspective of the One Health approach.
AB - Within the One Health perspective, the health of humans, animals and ecosystems is highly interconnected. This study presents an in silico approach to assess the environmental fate of plant protection products (PPPs) in soil and water, as well organisms and humans exposure and associated risks. The methodology integrates scenarios, models, tools and approaches recognized and used by the European Food Safety Authority and the scientific community for PPP market authorization risk assessments. Three European Member States —Portugal (PT), Denmark (DK), and the Netherlands (NL) —were selected to demonstrate = model applicability, each representing a different EU Regulatory Zone. For each country, real PPP application data and site-specific meteorological and pedological information were collected, and environmental concentrations monitored. Results showed that the predicted environmental concentration in soil (PECsoil) was lower than the monitored concentrations in PT locations, whereas PECsoil was overestimated in both NL and DK. The toxicity to exposure ratio (TER) indicated low risk to earthworms in all simulations. For surface water (SW), PECSW was below the environmental quality standard (EQSSW) in PT, whereas significant exceedances occurred in NL and DK. However, in DK, PPP concentrations declined below EQSSW within one day post-application. Comparison with reference toxicological endpoints for fish and invertebrates suggested low risks. Estimated PPP concentrations in invertebrates and fish for human consumption indicated intake would not exceed the acceptable daily intake (ADI) in PT and NL. However, at the DK location, small consumption (>13 g) of a given invertebrate would exceed the ADI for prosulfocarb (5 μg kg−1). Despite limited experimental dataset and some constraints in field data collection that influenced models performance and verification, this in-silico approach can serve as a useful screening tool for assessing PPP fate and exposure in soil, aquatic organisms, and humans, supporting the integrative perspective of the One Health approach.
KW - Human exposure
KW - In-silico modelling
KW - One health
KW - PPPs
KW - Risk assessment
KW - Soil and aquatic organisms
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105028361888
U2 - 10.1016/j.envres.2026.123805
DO - 10.1016/j.envres.2026.123805
M3 - Article
C2 - 41577111
AN - SCOPUS:105028361888
SN - 0013-9351
VL - 294
JO - Environmental Research
JF - Environmental Research
M1 - 123805
ER -
