Assessing the environmental impacts of pesticides used on processing tomato crops

The environmental impacts of pesticides used on processing tomato crops at 10 experimental sites of five Mediterranean countries and on the Reunion Island were assessed over 3 years using two different methods. The indicator obtained using the environmental impact quotients (EIQ) of pesticides method was highly correlated with the amount of active ingredients used, whereas the indicator based on the pesticide environmental impact (IPEST) method was highly correlated with the number of treatments applied. Both methods showed that fungicides were largely responsible for the estimated impacts. The EIQ method showed that the impact was greater on non-human biota than farmworkers and consumers. The indicators obtained using these two methods were only slightly correlated with each other but both methods used together provided a more complete analysis of the impacts of pesticides. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.