Water Resource Collections and Archives

New Tools and Partnerships to Stop Pesticide Water Pollution

Organization: Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN)
2003 Grant Recipient – San Francisco Bay Area region

Purpose

PAN developed a specialized tool as part of the pesticideinfo.org online database (the largest non-industry public source of information on pesticide toxicity and regulatory status in the world) that integrated available water quality monitoring data, water quality criteria and aquatic ecotoxicity information from diverse sources with California pesticide use data to document pesticide contamination in Bay Area and California waterways.

With additional funding from Region 9 of the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2005 PAN launched an enhanced version of the database tool: the Water Pesticide Information Center, or WaterPIC. The tool allowed researchers and interested parties to identify points of special interest, displaying search results in water basin maps their results. The tool actually proved to be most useful to specialized researchers and regulators, and PAN has not updated it with pesticide use data after 2003.

2012 Update

However, experience with WaterPIC (and a similar tool, AirPIC, focusing on pesticide contamination of the air) led PAN to develop web tools that are more accessible and user-friendly for a wider audience. The most successful to date has been WhatsOnMyFood.org, a web resource (and iPhone app) that allows people to compare USDA data on pesticide contamination of food items—both conventional and organic — with hazards posed by those pesticides, and offers users ways to take action to advocate for reducing pesticide use.

Documents

• PAN Pesticide Database
  Data on 6500 pesticides, insecticides and herbicides including toxicity, water pollution, ecological toxicity, uses and regulatory status.
   
• What’s On My Food? Database and App
  What’s On My Food? is a searchable database designed to make the public problem of pesticide exposure visible and more understandable. What's On My Food? now tracks bee-toxic pesticide residues alongside the ones with human health implications — and has updated government toxicology data. Other updates include a widget and more intuitive graphics.

Primary Contact for this Project

Dr. Brian Hill
Consulting Analyst / Staff Scientist
Phone: (510) 289-4329
www.panna.org