Pollutants threaten rivers and streams even in protected areas

Organic pollutants such as pesticides and industrial chemicals commonly pose risks to aquatic ecosystems, even in protected rivers and streams, according to a new study by RPTU University Kaiserslautern-Landau, based on the analysis of more than 180 million water measurements from the French long-term monitoring program "Naïades." The research shows that pollutants are detectable in nearly all of the water bodies examined and that groups of substances often overlooked in earlier studies contribute significantly to environmental risks.