Ranking system for national regulatory jurisdictions based on pesticide standard values in major exposures

Abstract

To control the risk of human exposure to pesticides, about 50 nations have promulgated pesticide soil regulatory guidance values (RGVs), and 104 nations have provided pesticide drinking water maximum concentration levels (MCLs). In addition, 90 nations have regulated pesticide agricultural commodity maximum residue limits (MRLs). Pesticide standard values (PSVs) for one single pesticide varied in a range of six, seven, or even eight orders of magnitude. Some PSVs are too large to prevent the impact of pesticides on human health. Many nations have not provided PSVs for some commonly used pesticides until now. This research has introduced several completeness values and numerical values methods to evaluate the national jurisdiction’s performance on PSVs on a nation base. The national jurisdiction ranking system developed by these methods will be beneficial to the environmental regulation makers in the management of PSVs. Results also indicate that European countries perform better in the regulation of pesticide soil RGVs, drinking water MCLs, and agricultural commodity MRLs.