English

This study aims to determine the degree of acetylcholinesterase inhibition and neurological symptoms for each of the psychiatric disorders diagnosed in the farm workers of a rural population in the state of Baja California, Mexico. We conducted a cross-sectional study on 140 agricultural workers (exposed participants). The study was run using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Diagnostic Test (MINI), a pre-established questionnaire to diagnose the mental state of each agricultural worker. Analysis of enzymatic activity was carried out using the modified Ellman method.

We examined the association between exposure to chlorpyrifos and ADHD symptoms among adolescents in Egypt. Adolescent pesticide applicators and non-applicators, 12-21 years old, participated in a 10-month longitudinal study examining health effects from pesticide exposure. Repeated urine and blood samples were collected at various time points during the 10-months to assess biomarkers of chlorpyrifos exposure (urinary trichloro-2-pyridinol or TCPy) and effect (blood acetyl cholinesterase activity and butyryl cholinesterase activity).

The ecological impacts of insecticides in aquatic areas around agricultural lands have long been ignored in the regulation scheme of pesticides in Japan. Upon the scheme, the predicted concentration of an insecticide in the main stream of a river is the only parameter considered, suggesting that the ecological impacts of insecticides on local biodiversity around agricultural fields is underestimated. To fill this knowledge gap, we measured insecticide concentrations in surface water and sediment in aquatic areas around paddy fields at 35 locations across Japan.

Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said. Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies – one national in scope and the other covering a large agricultural region in central France. “The situation is catastrophic,” said Benoit Fontaine, a conservation biologist at France’s National Museum of Natural History and co-author of one of the studies.

A new report paints a grim future for birds that rely on the Salton Sea habitat. Audubon California-released report uses bird-monitoring data from several different sources to show just how the destruction of the Salton Sea ecological habitat has decimated the populations of both pelicans and cormorants endemic to the area. As the Salton Sea recedes, the body of water's salinity increases, which kills off its tilapia population. Without tilapia, the birds starve.

Harmful pesticides such as glyphosate, atrazine and neonicotinoids were found in nearly all samples of water from the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries, with many samples containing levels higher than the guideline to protect aquatic life, according to new research. The St. Lawrence River is one of North America's major water systems—draining a 500,000 square mile watershed that contains the Great Lakes. "The freshwater inputs of the St. Lawrence provide a source of drinking water production for more than half of the population of the province of Quebec," the authors wrote.

Prairie chicken numbers in Grand Forks County are dwindling. From a peak of more than 300 males in the early 2000s, prairie chickens in the county have declined to about 25 males, which gather on mating grounds called leks and produce an eerie “booming” sound by inflating air sacs on their necks to attract a mate. The prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) that remain west of Grand Forks are remnants of an intensive translocation effort in the 1990s to re-establish the birds in Grand Forks County, where the grouse had all but disappeared.

The Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, organised by Tomás Murray at the Waterford-based National Biodiversity Data Centre, began in 2008 so the details of the scheme are now well established. The overall trend in Irish butterfly populations since 2008 shows a decline of 6%. The recently-published Newsletter No 11 reveals that last year, 110 volunteers walked 115 transects and recorded more than 46,000 butterflies. The Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) experienced the strongest decline.