New Challenges in the Monitoring, Risk Assessment and Management of Pesticides and Biocides in the “One Health Era”—2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Following the success of the first edition of this Special Issue, we are pleased to launch a second edition dedicated to the challenges associated with the monitoring, risk assessment, and management of pesticides and biocides in the One Health era. These intentionally added chemicals continue to play a pivotal role in agriculture, public health, and industrial applications. At the same time, increasing evidence regarding their occurrence in food, feed, environmental compartments, wildlife, and human populations has intensified concerns about their potential impacts on human, animal, and ecosystem health.

Recent years have witnessed significant developments in both science and policy. New analytical technologies are improving the monitoring of chemical residues across diverse matrices, while advances in exposure science, computational toxicology, artificial intelligence, and new approach methodologies are transforming the way chemical hazards and risks are assessed. Simultaneously, there has been an increased focus on sustainable and low-risk alternatives, including biocontrol substances and innovative plant protection strategies.

At the regulatory level, ambitious initiatives such as the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy, the Biodiversity Strategy, the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, and the recently proposed Food and Feed Safety Omnibus package (i.e., Omnibus X) are leading to significant changes in pesticide and biocide governance.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Innovative analytical methods and monitoring strategies for pesticides, biocides, and their metabolites in food, feed, environmental matrices, wildlife, indicator species, and human biomonitoring studies;
• Occurrence, fate, and exposure assessment of emerging contaminants, including per- and polyfluoroalkylated pesticides and metabolites;
• Human, animal, and environmental risk assessment, including studies on endocrine disruption, carcinogenicity, developmental toxicity, immunotoxicity, ecotoxicity, and impacts on biodiversity and pollinators;
• Mixture toxicity, cumulative risk assessment, and real-world exposure scenarios;
• New approach methodologies (NAMs), including in vitro, in silico, omics-based, and mechanistic approaches supporting next-generation risk assessment (NGRA);
• Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computational approaches for chemical monitoring, hazard prediction, exposure assessment, and regulatory decision-making;
• Sustainable and low-risk alternatives to conventional pesticides and biocides, including biopesticides and integrated pest management strategies;
• Advances in regulatory science, policy development, and implementation frameworks governing pesticides and biocides;
• One Health approaches integrating human, animal, plant, and environmental data to support evidence-based chemical management.

Dr. Teresa D’Amore
Dr. Ivan Pecorelli
Guest Editors

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