Australia fails to adequately monitor effect of agricultural chemicals in humans, report finds

The federal government has no suitable data source for monitoring the effect of agricultural and veterinary chemicals on humans, a new report commissioned by the Department of Agriculture has found.

Agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemicals are used to protect crops, livestock and domestic animals; safeguard the environment from weeds and pests; and meet consumer needs for things such as insecticides and pool chemicals.

The report confirms that Australia lacks basic data to assess the effect of agricultural chemicals on the environment and human health. Only one study on human bio-monitoring was found, dating back to 2005.

There are also no national sources of data on pesticides in groundwater, urban stormwater, drinking water, soil, or in wildlife, the researchers found.

The only long-term monitoring of pesticides in the environment was as part of the protection of the Barrier Reef and it was limited to 22 pesticides.

Monitoring of pesticides in food is better, the researchers said, thanks to the long-running National Residue Survey for exported meat and some agricultural products and the Total Diet Survey, which last screened for pesticides in 2019.

But the researchers noted monitoring of domestically sold fruit and vegetables, conducted by fresh food markets and supermarket chains, was confidential.

Authorities have repeatedly pointed to these surveys as the safeguard for Australian consumers. But no results or methodology is available publicly.

The researchers said other countries including the Netherlands, the UK and the US had government-run national produce surveys which report publicly each year on pesticides in food.

Matt Landos, a member of consumer advocate group National Toxics Network and an associate researcher at the University of Sydney, said the report highlighted the lack of data on the impact of use of pesticides was disturbing.

He said that without data to perform risk assessments and reviews of agvet products, the pesticides regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority was engaging in guesswork when it approved products.

A large-scale human biomonitoring study conducted between 2014 and 2021 across five European countries found at least two pesticides present in the bodies of 84% of survey participants.

It is impossible to say whether Australia is worse or better than Europe because such data is simply not available in Australia.

However, as the Guardian reported last year, there are at least 70 chemicals that are either banned or no longer registered in Europe, which are still in use in Australia.

By contrast, other countries require farmers to keep records and in some cases report on their chemical usage.

The Department of Agriculture defended the current system.