Coin Open Days → more info

Date of event: Thursday, March 6, 2025

Where: Online

Description: 

The Pesticide Load Index (PLI) is a composite indicator that quantifies potential environmental, biodiversity, and human health burdens from pesticide use, standardized to a baseline year (e.g., 2011) for consistent trend comparison across regions. Divided into three sub-indices - PLECO (ecotoxicology), PLFATE (environmental fate), and PLHH (human health) - the PLI captures multiple dimensions of pesticide impact. PLECO assesses toxicity to eight groups of non-target organisms, including mammals, birds, and pollinators. PLFATE evaluates pesticide persistence, bioaccumulation, and mobility in the environment, while PLHH examines human health risks based on hazard classifications from pesticide labels. Originally developed in Denmark (Kudsk et al., 2018), the PLI is now being adapted to align with EU data to support both national and EU-wide policy assessments.

Societal impact:

The PLI, once implemented, could play a crucial role in advancing EU policy objectives for public health, environmental sustainability, and biodiversity conservation. It enables policymakers, national authorities, and stakeholders to monitor pesticide effects over time and across regions, supporting targeted regulatory actions. By identifying high-risk substances and vulnerable non-target groups essential for agriculture and ecosystem services - as well as assessing exposure risks for farmers (operators) - the PLI serves as a valuable tool for evaluating mitigation efforts aimed at reducing pesticide impacts. This supports targeted regulatory actions to protect society from pesticide exposure, aligning with EU initiatives like the Green Deal and Pollinator Initiative.

In addition, the PLI addresses recommendations from the European Court of Auditors (ECA, 2020) to improve pesticide risk indicators and aligns with international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly supporting Target 7 on pollution reduction.

References:

ECA, 2020. Sustainable use of plant protection products: limited progress in measuring and reducing risks . 
Kudsk, P., Jørgensen, L.N., Ørum, J.E., 2018. Pesticide Load—A new Danish pesticide risk indicator with multiple applications . Land use policy 70, 384–393.