Interactive maps offer information about reported pesticide drift cases in Iowa, presented to illustrate hazards and to provide guidance to reduce future drift cases.
In recent years, Iowa farmers and rural residents have raised concerns about pesticide sprays drifting off of intended fields. Since 2016, farm organizations and rural citizens have contacted researchers in the Great Plains Center for Agricultural Health (GPCAH), a NIOSH-funded research and outreach center at the University of Iowa, for information on the scope of “pesticide drift” throughout the Midwest. While damage to farm crops and landscaping becomes easy to identify in some drift cases, Iowans have also questioned the effect to people and livestock from these pesticide drift events.
In response, GPCAH analyzed 450 drift case reports collected by the Iowa Department of Agricultural and Land Stewardship’s Pesticide Bureau from 2010-2015. Results from this analysis have been incorporated into an online Pesticide Drift Story Map. The goal was to identify and communicate important risk factors associated with pesticide drift events to both pesticide applicators and the general public. For example, the maps explain how both wind and relative humidity factor into ….
