Insecticide Classification Calculator U.S. (ICC-US)

The ICC-US is an online tool for classifying U.S. surface water concentrations of 32 insecticides and their degradates based on exposure data published in the peer-reviewed literature (1962 – 2017).

The ICC-US accompanies the publication "Meta-analysis of Insecticides in U.S. Surface Waters: Status and Future Implications" submitted to Environmental Science & Technology. In the top interactive plot, the user can specify the risk expressed as MIC to RTL-ratio¹ for freshwater, estuarine and sediment insecticide concentrations for the observation period of interest. Substance specific plots are also provided, which display the risks as well as annual use estimates for individual compounds. See also below for detailed information on the ICC-US.

¹ MIC to RTL ratio represents the ratio of a measured insecticide concentration (MIC) to its respective regulatory threshold level (RTL). Ratios greater than one indicate risks for aquatic organisms at a given sampling site.

The insecticide exposure dataset for the United States was derived by a comprehensive literature search of measured insecticide concentrations (MICs) in surface waters originating from agricultural insecticide use. In total, the dataset contains 5817 MICs (4038 in surface waters and 1779 in their sediments) from 259 peer-reviewed articles published between 1962 and 2017, with MICs sampled between 1960 and 2015. The entirety of MICs covers at least 644 surface waters across the U.S. The initial search covered 40 important insecticides (of which 32 were found) and 40 environmentally relevant degradates (of which six were found).

Additional water or sediment concentrations can be entered into the according mask ("Calculator") to compare their magnitude with those of the entirety of MICs reported for the U.S., classifying them according to the position in the respective distribution. Hovering over violin plots provides additional information and summary statistics of respective distributions. To contextualize substance-specific MIC distributions, insecticide use estimates of a given substance (1992-2014)¹ are displayed and in case of significant temporal use trends, trend lines (blue) derived by GLM are added with their 95%-confidence bands (grey). A time slider allows specifying a time period of interest.

Please note that no MICs were found for eight out of the 40 substances considered here, which are consequently not selectable in the drop-down menu below and also applies to 34 degradates with no published MICs.

The study was published on November 26, 2018 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology and can be accessed via the following link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b04651.

All 259 Studies which were used in this meta-analysis can be viewed here.

¹ Baker, N. T., Agricultural Pesticide Use Estimates for the USGS National Water Quality Network, 1992-2014. U.S. Geological Survey data release 2016.

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