Environmental effects of ozone depletion, UV radiation and interactions with climate change : UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel, update 2017

Peer reviewe

Widespread pesticide distribution in the European atmosphere questions their degradability in air

Risk assessment of pesticide impacts on remote ecosystems makes use of model-estimated degradation in air. Recent studies suggest these degradation rates to be overestimated, questioning current pesticide regulation. Here, we investigated the concentrations of 76 pesticides in Europe at 29 rural, coastal, mountain, and polar sites during the agricultural application season. Overall, 58 pesticides were observed in the European atmosphere. Low spatial variation of 7 pesticides suggests continental-scale atmospheric dispersal. Based on concentrations in free tropospheric air and at Arctic sites, 22 pesticides were identified to be prone to long-range atmospheric transport, which included 15 substances approved for agricultural use in Europe and 7 banned ones. Comparison between concentrations at remote sites and those found at pesticide source areas suggests long atmospheric lifetimes of atrazine, cyprodinil, spiroxamine, tebuconazole, terbuthylazine, and thiacloprid. In general, our findings suggest that atmospheric transport and persistence of pesticides have been underestimated and that their risk assessment needs to be improved

Widespread pesticide distribution in the European atmosphere questions their degradability in air

Risk assessment of pesticide impacts on remote ecosystems makes use of model-estimated degradation in air. Recent studies suggest these degradation rates to be overestimated, questioning current pesticide regulation. Here, we investigated the concentrations of 76 pesticides in Europe at 29 rural, coastal, mountain, and polar sites during the agricultural application season. Overall, 58 pesticides were observed in the European atmosphere. Low spatial variation of 7 pesticides suggests continental-scale atmospheric dispersal. Based on concentrations in free tropospheric air and at Arctic sites, 22 pesticides were identified to be prone to long-range atmospheric transport, which included 15 substances approved for agricultural use in Europe and 7 banned ones. Comparison between concentrations at remote sites and those found at pesticide source areas suggests long atmospheric lifetimes of atrazine, cyprodinil, spiroxamine, tebuconazole, terbuthylazine, and thiacloprid. In general, our findings suggest that atmospheric transport and persistence of pesticides have been underestimated and that their risk assessment needs to be improved

Web Interface for Education of Mentally Disabled Persons for Work in Horticulture

This paper deals with the development of a suitable web interface for the education of persons with mental disabilities to work in horticulture. The research is based on the testing of several forms of web navigation by the group of mentally disabled persons. Testing was performed for seven weeks in a model course which acquainted the participants with working activities in horticulture. A partial research has also identified a suitable device and the form of control the web part of model course. Formulated results were retroactively applied to the model course and utilized for the purpose of a real support for education of mentally disabled persons for work in horticulture

Usability Analysis of Agricultural Portal eAGRI in Terms of the General Public

Nowadays simple usability is one of the key tasks of web portals, especially if these are main information portals of the government. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the usability of a web portal eAGRI (eagri.cz) in terms of unregistered users. This means in terms of general public in particular. The main purpose of the testing is to highlight the issues that users may encounter on this portal and determine the level of portal usability. Our usability testing was focused on a public part of the portal. The main idea of eAGRI portal is to create a central access point to information resources of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic and its subordinate organizations. Qualitative research methods were applied. Specifically, we used Heuristic evaluation as a usability inspection method and three methods of usability testing: 5 second test, 30 second test and Formalized think-aloud test

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and chlorinated pesticides in background air in central Europe - investigating parameters affecting wet scavenging of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and chlorinated pesticides (CPs) were measured in air and precipitation at a background site in central Europe. Sigma PAH concentrations in air and rainwater ranged from 0.7 to 327.9 ng m(-3) and below limit of quantification (< LOQ) to 2.1 x 10(3) ng L-1. The concentrations of PCBs and CPs in rainwater were < LOQ. Sigma PCB and Sigma CP concentrations in air ranged from < LOQ to 44.6 and < LOQ to 351.7 pg m(-3), respectively. The potential relationships between PAH wet scavenging and particulate matter and rainwater properties were investigated. The concentrations of ionic species in particulate matter and rainwater were significantly correlated, highlighting the importance of particle scavenging process. Overall, higher scavenging efficiencies were found for relatively less volatile PAHs, underlining the effect of analyte gas-particle partitioning on scavenging process. The particulate matter removal by rain, and consequently PAH wet scavenging, was more effective when the concentrations of ionic species were high. In addition, the elemental and organic carbon contents of the particulate matter were found to influence the PAH scavenging