The authorization process for plant protection products (PPP) requires, among others, the assessment of surface water contamination deriving from the use of each product. In some cases, the application of PPP might present some critical features for the aquatic environment and the application of mitigation measures to reduce the exposure are mandatory to protect the aquatic life. In addition, on a larger scale, the adoption of mitigation measures could bring to an improvement of the quality conditions of natural resources, with valuable social and economic advantages for the agricultural sector. Surface water contamination by PPP occurs mainly from three different routes: runoff, spray drift or drainage. In Italy, due to the characteristics of the territory, runoff and spray drift are the two major routes of contamination. Different pesticide risk mitigation measures can be adopted to reduce the exposure coming from these two routes of contaminations: anti-drift nozzles, specific equipment, buffer strips (vegetated or not), hedgerows etc. The combination of different mitigation measurements can produce a high level of mitigation. These huge amount of combinations cannot be included into a label; therefore, a simplified solution was adopted in Italy. In the label, the mitigation coming from modelling, performed according EU criteria is indicated together with the percentage of reduction of dose necessary to obtain a safe use. On the other hand, a harmonized value of reduction has been assigned to each possible mitigation measure. These values are in line with those proposed by the MAgPIE project (Mitigating the Risk of Plant Protection Products in the Environment), with other research projects (i.e. STRIPE-Ireland) and with some national researches and expert judgement. The possible mitigation measures applicable in Italy have been listed in a guidance document and an easy-to-use tool has been developed. The tool is called Mit-Mesw (MITigation MEasures for Surface-Water). This tool, through a series of combo-menus and images, aims at helping farmers in choosing the best equipment and agronomic practices to mitigate the pesticide risk, and pesticide risk assessors in quantifying the percentage of risk reduction due to each singular/combined adopted mitigation measures.
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