Computation of standard error for half-life estimation using various dissipation models for regulatory purposes

Ecosystem including food chain may be modified over time because of the continued use of pesticides, piscicides including the use of veterinary antibiotics (VA) in agricultural, aquaculture and animal production. Regulatory authorities including government agencies have implemented various standard regulations across different parts of the world on the use of these products and monitoring the levels of these compounds in aquatic and soil environment has become an important aspect. Estimation of the half-life and reporting these values for regulatory authorities are paramount to safeguard human health and the environment. This was often determined based on the choice of best mathematical models, which is mainly dependent on the data quality. However, reporting the uncertainties associated with the estimation of standard errors is hitherto neglected. In this paper, we introduce a method how to compute the standard error of the half-life algebraically. Later, we provided some examples how to determine the standard error of the half-life numerically using previously published data and new data set, where appropriated mathematical models for the data have been also developed. The findings obtained in this study would allow one to gain information on the range of confidence interval for the half-life of compounds in soil or other media.