Identification, quantification, and management of human health risks from long-distance pesticide transport.

BACKGROUND

Human health risks associated with long-distance pesticide transport are increasingly recognized but remain insufficiently assessed. Traditional assessments have focused on local applications, whereas growing evidence shows that pesticides can travel across large regions through air, water systems, and trade networks, leading to human exposure far from the original pesticide sources. In response, this study aims to propose an integrated conceptual framework that can identify key transport pathways, clarify long-distance risk, and explore methods for quantifying exposure across interconnected systems.

RESULTS

We identify four major groups of pathways through which long-distance pesticide exposure can occur, including environmental transport, water distribution systems, food trade, and non-food commodity trade. Based on these pathways, we propose a modular source-to-receptor assessment framework that links three main components: pesticide sources, transport, redistribution, and transformation processes, and receptor-level exposure and risk. The framework can integrate pathway-specific environmental fate and distribution, hydrological, infrastructure, crop, trade, and exposure models. We further propose a three-tier implementation strategy: screening-level prioritization, spatiotemporal modeling, and integrated receptor-level assessment. Key considerations include source attribution, transformation products, uncertainty, and aggregate (across sources per pesticide) and cumulative (across pesticides) exposure.

CONCLUSION

Long-distance pesticide transport should be considered as a system-level exposure problem rather than as a series of isolated pathways. The proposed framework provides an initial basis for linking pesticide use with geographically displaced human exposure and may support future development of more integrated monitoring, assessment, and risk management approaches. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.