Testing people on Hvar Island for pesticides via hair samples is an ongoing project, conducted by Eco Hvar. These are the preliminary results from the Kudzu laboratory which tested for 60 pesticides in 2021 and 100 as from 2022.
Note: the only person to test negative for the presence of pesticides routinely uses ozone to treat foodstuffs which are not produced organically.
Ozone treatment for chicken
Pesticides per person:
(Note: be aware there are many more pesticides in use on Hvar and in Croatia generally which were not included in the testing!)
Date of analysisIndividualPlace of residenceNumber of pesticides present
ISOPROTURON - phenylurea herbicide. EU: not approved; [ECHA application for approval for film preservatives (PT07) and construction material preservatives (PT10) in progress, August 2023]
1. analysis 17.07.2023 - (fem. 1988) Pitve
LINDANE (HCH-gamma) - organochlorine insecticide. EU / ECHA: not approved
For details of the pesticide substances identified, with their possible adverse effects, related pesticidal products and approval status, please see 'Pesticides and their adverse effects'.
Note: The list of pesticides tested did not include all the pesticides used on Hvar, so it is possible that more pesticides might be found in a wider range of tests. We did not test for the presence of glyphosate.
Lots of dogs have a tough time on Hvar and in other parts of Croatia. Helping dogs in need can be tricky. These are basic guidelines to help show you what can and can't be done.
Poisons, definitely not! Eco Hvar's campaign against the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides to kill off unwanted insects and other 'pests' began many years ago.
As July progresses, the grapes ripen on the vines, ready to reach their full luscious ripeness later on in August. However, foraging is not recommended.
Herbal medicine has a long tradition in Croatia and is still much in use today. A new detailed handbook aims to promote awareness of the natural resources which can benefit human health.
The trees which adorn Jelsa have marked significant changes in Jelsan culture and attitudes to the environment over time. Vito Gospodnetić is a dedicated protector of Jelsa's precious natural resources alongside its cultural and historical heritage.
The Scops Owl is a welcome visitor to Hvar Island every summer. Arriving between the middle of March or beginning of April its persistent single-note call is the hallmark of the warm season.
Reading Steve Jones' report earlier this year, keen birdwatcher Tomislav Sjekloća was inspired to check out the Dračevica pond and other parts of Hvar, and we are delighted he has shared his sightings with us.
In 2023 the honour of celebrating International Bat Night, which aims to raise people's awareness of the vital importance in our ecosystem, fell to the Krka National Park,which organised a superbly imaginative programme beside its exquisite Skradinski Buk Waterfall.
Highlighting Croatia's wild orchids and the need to treat them with love and respect, the highly active and successful BIOM ASSOCIATION published an article in the spring of 2024 with a plea to pay attention to these fascinating and invaluable plants.
In 2023 on Hvar there were two special orchid finds by visiting experts from Zagreb, who located the endemic Ophrys pharia and the Himantoglossum robertianum.
These delicate-looking, exquisite creatures play an important part in the natural chain. They are especially useful to humans because of their voracious appetite for mosquitoes and other biting insects such as midges.
Steve Jones of Dol recounts his observations during June and July 2019, a mixture of some disappointments balanced by unexpected joys, including a couple of bird rescues!
Well summer is over, birding-wise, and during the last three months, hopefully, birds have bred successfully on the island. I have certainly seen evidence of this, particularly recently, with good numbers of House Sparrows all around. Also frequently during the summer months I have seen birds carrying food to nests.
The summer months were intensely hot. By June 12th there was very little about. On a trip to the pond that morning I found that the biggest area was about to evaporate later that day– there was a tiny little pool with the remaining fish all gasping. Equally I saw a Cormorant, probably stocking up with an easy source of food.
Steve Jones from Dol continues his study of the island's birds. Anyone who is seeing or hearing anything of interest in the bird world is invited to contact him at: [email protected]
Hvar in May is a delight of wild flowers, with brilliant colours all around in the many parts of the island where nature is allowed to flourish unhindered.
This morning, May Day, I heard my first golden oriole of this year. Known in Croatian as 'vuga', the golden oriole is easier to hear than to catch a glimpse of.
Local dialects are spoken less and less, so every effort to retain their special charm is welcome. From Pitve on Hvar Island, poetess Ičica Barišić has been preserving the particular dialect of her village for many years.
We are delighted to report that the Recycling Yard for the Jelsa Municipality is now functioning, after a long period of 'teething problems'. This is good news for everyone who cares about the environment. We hope all residents and visitors will be encouraged to manage waste of all kinds responsibly.
An appeal from the heart for happy wagging tails! The Bestie Foundation is in urgent need of financial help, and here are twelve good reasons for supporting it.
In an event of huge significance to the Catholic population of the island, relics of St. John Paul II were brought to the parishes of Vrisnik and Pitve in September 2021, thanks to parish priest Don Robert Bartoszek.
"My connection to Croatia is unbreakable. I feel it as a cord of turquoise and rosemary and cicadas and curry plants, from my heart to that island. I feel blessed every single day to have Croatia in my heart."
Church bells are part of daily life all over Croatia. Splitska on Brač Island is one of the few places where the bells are rung by hand and not electronically controlled.
The exhibition of Croatia's cultural heritage as recognized on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List reflects Hvar's wealth of prized assets and traditions.
Jelsa's Elementary School is outstanding in promoting worthwhile extra-curricular activities. Photography is one which gives pupils a special experience of the world around them.
The replanting project to rejuvenate Hvar's woodlands with autochthonous black pines continued at the end of January, backed by a mobile exhibition highlighting the importance of trees for the island.
Dr.Radoslav Bužančić's London lecture entitled ‘Diocletian’s Palace in Split: New Discoveries’ aroused great interest among experts in archaeology, architecture, history of art, museology and the protection of cultural monuments and heritage.
In response to a request from Hvar's registered charity Dignitea, the EC has sent a full explanation of the regulations which should be applied to the proposed oil and gas drilling in the Adriatic.
IMPORTANT NOTICE! We have invested a large amount of care and money over several years in setting up our feeding stations. We have designed and financed the cat hutches and placed them in locations with permission from the property owners. This is how they work:
Eco Hvar is sometimes criticized for doing too little - or even nothing - to help the island's innumerable needy cats and kittens. In fact there are lots of residents around the island, locals and incomers, who consistently do their utmost to help.
Lucky Luki revels joyfully in his explorations of Hvar's boundless beauties. The Galešnik fortress in the hill to the south above Jelsa is one of his regular haunts.
There's nothing Luki likes better than exploring the lesser known areas of Hvar Island. The eastern region is largely overlooked and (mercifully) underdeveloped, so it is perfect territory for Luki and his friends.
This is the story of a pony who has captivated the hearts of all around him in the quiet inland village of Svirče on Hvar. He is a walking symbol of unconditional love!
From Skittish Stari Grad Street Dog to Alpha Canine Queen of Dol, Sveta Ana. Evening Lategano of the Suncrokret Body and Soul Retreat in Dol tells the story of Maza's rescue.
Despite the local authorities' attempts to control mosquitoes with pesticides, many have complained that the mosquitoes on the island are more virulent than ever.
Query: It was a pleasant surprise to come across your article regarding olive oil making in Dalmatia. Me and my husband have taken it up as a serious hobby to be involved in the olive oil process in m...
I am staying at the Hotel Berulia in Brela and have been feeding a mother,father and five kittens about (10 weeks old). Do they get rid of the kittens in the winter when there are no guests?
We are currently visiting your lovely island and are staying in the Amfora Hotel. Since our arrival we have fallen in love with a beautiful stray young cat.
Hello I was staying in Hvar Town for 5 days last week in June 14 and we tried our best to care for the kittens, cats we have seen as they were so very skinny. What is keeping me awake at night back in...
Each year during the winter hunting season, avoid walking in the woodlands, wilds and fields on Sundays and Wednesdays, also some Saturdays. Officially the hunts last from 07:00 to 14:00 on hunting days.
A harrowing incident the night before the major celebration in Honour of the Homeland provided an example of two opposite attitudes: irresponsible dog owners versus selfless saviours of a helpless kitten.
Emma is one of the many animals rescued over the years through Eco Hvar. We are very grateful to Bernie for sharing this happy seasonal photo with us. To see more of his splendid artistic photography visit his website: https://www.hvar-mania.photography/"
Resulting from the successful European Citizens' Initiative Petition, in which 1,1 million Europeans asked for an end to pesticide use, there will be a hearing in the EU Parliament on January 24th 2023.
Examples of the biocides (chemical insecticides) used for fogging actions to control adult mosquitoes, citing their active ingredients and possible adverse effects.
After many years of observing the practice of the Croatian national insect suppression programme, we have come to the conclusion that the time has come for the Inspectors to investigate the situation and to institute (we hope) safer methods.
If someone filled a spray can with potentially deadly poisons and went round spraying people at random, everyone, including the police, would react to put a stop to it.
Letter sent to the Public Health authorities on 12th June 2024, following yet another scandalous example of irresponsible poison spraying against insects.
Towards the end of 2023, the European Parliament and the European Commission showed that they are not willing or able to protect European citizens from the ill-effects of chemical pesticides. So what needs to be done?
A listing of selected pesticides which are, or have been in common use in Croatia, with the official warnings of their side-effects and the known side-effects of their active constituents.
Testing people on Hvar Island for pesticides via hair samples is an ongoing project, conducted by Eco Hvar. These are the preliminary results from the Kudzu laboratory which tested for 60 pesticides in 2021 and 100 as from 2022.
This is a guide to the systems governing chemical pesticide regulation, registers and laws, with an overview of some of the many problems arising from pesticide use.
Chemical poison use is out of control in much of the modern world. Safeguards exist in theory, in practice they are inadequate. At each level of responsibility, practices need to be improved. These are our suggestions for achieving vital improvements.
For several years, the local councils of Jelsa, Stari Grad and Hvar have routinely sprayed the streets against mosquitoes, flies and other 'flying pests'. Is this a good thing?
Would I find myself driving home through a mist of toxic chemicals if I caught the 20:30 ferry back from Split? That was the question on 27th September 2017.
Because we at Eco Hvar are very concerned about the shortcomings of the mosquito liquidation programme on Hvar and around Croatia, we have petitioned the Minister for Health to re-consider the methods used.
Our request to Croatian local and national authorities to review the insect suppression programme has produced a lamentable response so far. It's hard getting the message across, but we will keep trying.
A bee sting can cause a severe allergic reaction in a vulnerable person. Under current Croatian law, insects which cause allergic reactions must be subjected to an annual programme of suppression.
The look of abject terror on the monkey's face is a haunting picture, the stuff of nightmares for anyone with an ounce of empathy for torture victims, whether human or animal. Animals are frontline victims of dangerous chemicals.
From October 1st 2016, the sale of Roundup (Croatian Cidokor) and 11 other similar glyphosate-based herbicides was banned in the European Union. The ban should serve as a wake-up call to all users, supporters and promoters of pesticides.
The manufacturers have claimed that the herbicide Roundup, whose active ingredient is glyphosate, is "safe enough to drink", and many people are naive enough to believe this.
When the World Health Organization defined Glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”, it should have put an immediate stop to the sale and use of Glyphosate-based herbicides.
Donations can be made in euros, pounds sterling, US and Australian dollars and Swiss francs. All donations, however small, are very welcome. We acknowledge donations by email if we have the donor's address. Please let us know if you require a formal paper receipt.
PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW BANK DETAILS:
ECO HVAR BANK DETAILS
OTP banka d.d. Split, Domovinskog rata 61, 21000 Split;
If the payment slip has a box for 'further details' or 'further information' you should enter the Charity's OIB: 14009858487, and state 'donation' or 'donacija'.
Exclusive: Backbenchers voice alarm over ‘intolerable position’ faced by Miatta Fahnbulleh over oilfield decision
Furious Labour MPs have been lobbying the prime minister and chancellor not to overrule the energy secretary should she decide to block the Rosebank oilfield.
MPs say they are alarmed at the cabinet splits that have emerged over the issue after sources told the Guardian that Miatta Fahnbulleh was minded to refuse environmental permission for the field.
This year thousands of the golden-coloured butterfly have arrived in Britain in what one expert calls ‘a bold attempt at colonisation’
The Queen of Spain has invaded. The enigmatic British visits of this gorgeous golden-coloured butterfly with distinctively shaped, squared-off hindwings have been recorded by lepidopterists for four centuries. Usually there are barely a handful of sightings each summer of a butterfly that is widespread across continental Europe.
This year, thousands have flown in, some from France and Spain that have reached the south coast, and others from the Netherlands, which have fluttered into East Anglia.
Tebay, Cumbria: Historically it’s been a tricky thing for hill farms to do, but we’ve always run ours on organic principles, and now we’re fully converting
From 1 November we have change happening on our farm. We have decided to become an organic farm and have started the two-year conversion process with the Soil Association. We’ve always run the farm on organic principles, but now, with our small shop selling our beef, lamb and pork, we’ve decided that we will convert, prioritising soil health and biodiversity without the use of chemicals.
It has historically been tricky for hill farms to go organic because many are on commons with shared grazing and no physical boundaries between “hefts”, and with shared routes to and from the fell. Now the certifiers are keen to be flexible and adapt, so we have decided to give it a go. The process is funded by the government’s sustainable farming incentive scheme, which we were lucky to get into this year as so many farmers missed out.
Emissions from exported oil would not count against carbon budget, insiders say – reasoning likely to draw dismay from climate campaigners
The giant Rosebank oilfield can be approved without breaching the UK’s emission targets, according to government insiders, in a boost to those in the cabinet who are pushing for it to be given the go-ahead.
Scientists uncover ancient hills and swamps that disappeared as sea levels rose across northern Adriatic
Venice is famed for being a floating city, but research shows the land it sits on once lay many miles inland. Dramatic changes in sea level over 10,000 years have reshaped the northern Adriatic coastline, with much of the land that our ancestors roamed now lying beneath the waves.
Samuele Ongaro, at the University of Southampton, and colleagues combined seismic data with sedimentary cores from the coastal basins of northern Italy, Slovenia and northern Croatia to model changes in sea level across the region and reconstruct past landscapes over the past 10,000 years.
The radical Stern report showed that a low-carbon future is also good economics. But it seems that capitalism needs a reminder
Saving the only planet we have makes good economic sense. There is, after all, no money to be made on a dead Earth. There may be costs involved now, but they are worth paying to protect our children from certain destruction.
These propositions seem self-evident now. But two decades ago, mainstream economists had very different ideas. They had proved that the climate crisis would be a mere economic blip, easily absorbed by growing economies and therefore not worth spending money on. In their accounting, they considered ice caps and glaciers functionally worthless, that trees only add to GDP when they are cut down, and that a livable climate shouldn’t even merit a line on a spreadsheet.
Fiona Harvey is an environment editor at the Guardian
Extreme heat accelerated disappearance of Triglav glacier from mountain revered as a symbol of Slovenian identity
The final ice patch has vanished from Slovenia’s Triglav glacier, the latest Alpine casualty of Europe’s scorching summer.
The once mighty ice mass lost 93% of its surface area between 1983 and 2003, shrinking to cover less than a hectare of overheated rock, but went on to surprise researchers who feared its imminent demise, clinging on to the mountain for two more decades.
Welcome to Filter finds, a series where Filter contributors share the things they love most – and think you might, too.
When the weather starts to take a turn for the brisk, the impulse to stay inside and hibernate is nothing new – but there are ways to optimize your time spent inside for maximum coziness and pleasure.
My mother was a keen swimmer, and she lived with depression. I wonder if she found the same respite in the water that has helped heal me since she passed away
It was early morning in late September, off the coast of Kaş in Turkey. Watching the slightly choppy sea from a boat, the last thing I felt like doing was embarking on another 5km (3-mile) swim. Mind fog had sapped my energy, and my mood was decidedly Eeyore-like. But as I pulled on my cap and flippers, adjusted my goggles and took the plunge, something shifted.
Head in the water, the knotted feeling in my throat began to loosen. Breathing came properly. There was respite.
Deep in the mountains of Palawan, Conservation International scientists are capturing what few people ever see: the secret lives of the Philippines’ rarest species.
At Maido — the Lima restaurant recently crowned the best in the world — one of the star dishes is paiche, a giant prehistoric river fish.Its journey to the table begins on a small family farm deep in Peru’s Amazon.
“Jane Goodall forever changed how people think about, interact with and care for the natural world,” said Daniela Raik, interim CEO of Conservation International.
After decades of negotiation, the high seas treaty is finally reality. The historic agreement will pave the way to protect international waters which face numerous threats.
The ocean is engine of all life on Earth, but human-driven climate change is pushing it past its limits. Here are five ways the ocean keeps our climate in check — and what can be done to help.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures might be worth even more. An initiative featuring the work of some of the world’s best nature photographers raises money for environmental conservation.
