Risk of old pesticides in former Soviet countries

Question

To what extent do remaining hazardous pesticides (POPs like DDT, etc.) in the soil, groundwater, rivers etc. pose a current health risk in the food (products from supermarkets, food in restaurants cooked with water, etc.) and water in former Soviet countries?

Answer 1

Hazardous pesticides in food and water that you might eat and drink are not a concern in any former Soviet countries that I know of. More specifically:

Water - prefer bottled water, water from coolers, filtered water or, failing that, boiled water. Locals do not usually drink tap water, even though it may be OK. Washing hands and vegetables with tap water, brushing teeth with tap water is completely normal.

Food - apply common sense. It should be not super shabby, not super exotic and something that locals may also buy and eat.

With regards to toxic pesticides:

• It's been more than 30 years since the Soviet Union for any chemicals to cycle out and not be an immediate danger.
• More affluent countries usually took some effort to regulate the toxicity of stuff they use, less affluent countries had periods of subsistence farming with not much chemicals used in agriculture at all.
• In general, Soviet countries has mostly moved to whatever practices the rest of the world does, since it is often both cheaper and more efficient. So the chemical makeup will be no different than in any other country of comparable HDI.

It is perhaps possible that you can walk into an unguarded toxic chemicals dump here and there, but it would still usually require doing some un-touristy things (like deviating from the common paths and delving into a forsaken industrial area, for example). Everywhere where locals walk, should be OK, especially on tourist time frame.

Answer 2

Use of pesticides seems to be less in post-Soviet countries than in many Western countries:

• Russia, Azerbaijan 0.2 kg/hectare
• Tajikistan 0.3
• Kyrgyzstan 0.4
• Kazakhstan 0.5
• Armenia, Belarus 0.6
• Estonia 1.0
• Latvia 1.1
• Lithuania 1.4
• Moldova 1.8
• Ukraine 2.3
• Turkmenistan 4.9

(Uzbekistan and Georgia are not listed)

Compare to major Western European agricultural-producing countries:

• France, Spain 3.6
• Germany 4.0
• Italy 6.1
• Netherlands 7.9

USA is 2.5, Canada is 2.4, UK is 3.2,