Manuel Hadad, chemical engineer, and Mariela Seehaus, INTA researcher in Paraná, with the AR-PUF pesticide detector Image courtesy (INTA)
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More than 20 years ago, Argentina introduced a comprehensive agricultural production model with a strong base in transgenes. The country became one of the top three soybean producers in the world, second only to its neighbor Brazil and the United States. And the activity is the most important source of foreign exchange for an economically troubled country.
The other side of this production model is the environmental impact of pesticides, which degrade ecosystems, cause biodiversity loss and multiply the cities “sprayed”. With the idea of making environmental measurements in protected areas, a team from the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) of Paraná (Entre Ríos) has developed the AR-PUF, an airborne pesticide detector, together with the Government of Paraná, the Province and the Ministry for science, technology and innovation of the nation.
“The equipment is a large volume air sampler that allows the capture of pesticides present in this matrix; It works for both those who are in the vapor and particle phases. The device takes air samples with a suction pump and this air is passed through special filters that allow the capture of pesticides. The filters are then taken to a laboratory for determination of the concentrations of the pesticides of interest. To date, these devices are not marketed in the country, so manufacturing them nationally allows for lower costs and greater accessibility for those who wish to purchase them,” said Mariela Seehaus, a researcher in INTA Paraná’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management. . .
A work by Seehaus in Entre Ríos found the presence of glyphosate in towns in the province. The need to continue taking measurements and diagnosing the problem prompted her to push ahead with the development of the device along with her team.
“Through my master’s thesis I was able to measure the air quality “indirectly”. At that time, the presence of glyphosate and its major degradation metabolite (AMPA) in atmospheric deposition was monitored; that is, in the particles that rise to the surface from the atmosphere and are deposited either by their weight or by the action of rain. Monitoring was carried out at 15 points in the city, distributed in urban areas, in suburban areas and near agricultural lands, at three times with different intensity of pesticide use in the area. The results showed the presence of one or both compounds at more than 60% of the points, with differences between the three measurement time points and in the three areas examined.”
The development can be useful for monitoring the air in protected areas. “We think it is important that this information can be used by other sectors, especially those in the healthcare sector, and that it has a role to play in conducting risk assessments. Also at the time of public and private assessment of various integrated crop protection strategies, new technologies and biosiunsumos developments,” says the researcher.
Seehaus works with the AR-PUF Courtesy (INTA)
Seehaus did not work alone to develop the device. He called in chemical engineer and fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), Manuel Hadad, who had worked on developing devices with these properties. “Basically, the device allows us to know information that wasn’t there before: the amount of glyphosate in the air. These dates were unknown. The harmful effect began to be seen in milk, in honey, in birds, in animals… The idea is to use measurement criteria to define the distance that glyphosate cannot reach. This distance could not be studied because the team did not exist.
The cost of an AR-PUF kit is similar to one from the United States. Either way, local manufacturing means savings on remittances and taxes. “Development costs the same. In a country like Argentina, it’s about bringing it in from the outside. The transportation costs and other expenses associated with international money transfers make it three times as expensive. It’s not state-of-the-art, but we’ve managed to make it more robust, precise, and market-ready. It has this added value,” explains the researcher.
A pesticide air monitoring kit is just a tool; a data post designed to sit down and discuss another big issue in Argentina: the misuse of agricultural chemical products that goes well beyond glyphosate. A recent technical-scientific report prepared by the nation’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and other official organizations warned about the use and effects of atrazine, a selective systemic herbicide licensed in Argentina to control weeds in corn crops., grain sorghum, Sugar cane, tea, soybeans, potatoes, cotton, wheat and sunflower, among others. And banned in 37 countries, many of them in the European Union.
“Atrazine has been found to be a common contaminant in all environmental compartments studied in different Argentine provinces, with frequencies between 50 and 100%. In addition, the concentrations often exceed the permissible limits set by national or international organizations. From this we can conclude that it is a pseudo-persistent pollutant in epicontinental waters because, given the persistence of the molecule, the abundance and the annual use levels, it exceeds the natural purification capacity of the environment,” the report states.
Then the work points out in its conclusions: “There is a lack of data and information on the concentrations of atrazine and its metabolites in food, biota, surface and ground water and air throughout the national territory, as well as on epidemiological usage statistics data on exposure, risks and health effects and lack of risk assessments”.
Seehaus believes the analyzes are important for addressing the country’s environmental problems. “There is a need to involve the community when thinking about possible solutions or creating diagrams. The information the team can provide will help us make decisions and move forward in defining better farming technologies, delineating protected zones, risk assessments and validating farming practices.”
Damián Marino, professor in the field of environment at the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the National University of La Plata and CONICET researcher, believes that the situation is urgent and that “concrete measures” are needed beyond measurements. “It is enough to go through the last 20 years of Argentine science to notice: there are many studies, evidence and data. What is missing is the translation of this scientific information into concrete measures, regulatory frameworks and bans. That is, active public land use policies. View the document on atrazine. The situation is ready to take action, which must come from different sectors. There is a lack of environmental regulations that solve problems related to public health and production systems,” said Marino, who has conducted numerous studies on the extent of contamination from indiscriminate use of herbicides.