Pesticide Exposure in Fruit-Growers: Comparing Levels and Determinants Assessed under Usual Conditions of Work (CANEPA Study) with Those Predicted by Registration Process (Agricultural Operator Exposure Model)

Morgane Bresson, Mathilde Bureau, Jérémie Le Goff, Yannick Lecluse, Elsa Robelot, Justine Delamare, Isabelle Baldi and Pierre Lebailly
Additional contact information
Morgane Bresson: ANTICIPE, INSERM U1086, Centre François Baclesse, University of Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France
Mathilde Bureau: EPICENE, INSERM U1219, Bordeaux Population Health Center, University of Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France
Jérémie Le Goff: ANTICIPE, INSERM U1086, Centre François Baclesse, University of Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France
Yannick Lecluse: ANTICIPE, INSERM U1086, Centre François Baclesse, University of Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France
Elsa Robelot: EPICENE, INSERM U1219, Bordeaux Population Health Center, University of Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France
Justine Delamare: ANTICIPE, INSERM U1086, Centre François Baclesse, University of Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France
Isabelle Baldi: EPICENE, INSERM U1219, Bordeaux Population Health Center, University of Bordeaux, 33076 Bordeaux, France
Pierre Lebailly: ANTICIPE, INSERM U1086, Centre François Baclesse, University of Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: Knowledge of pesticide exposure levels in farmers is necessary for epidemiological studies and regulatory purposes. In the European pesticide registration process, operators’ exposure is predicted using the Agricultural Operator Exposure Model (AOEM), created in 2014 by the European Food Safety Authority based on studies conducted by the pesticide industry. We compared operators’ exposures during treatment days in the apple-growing industry under non-controlled working conditions and AOEM-predicted values. The dermal exposure of thirty French apple-growers from the CANEPA study when applying two fungicides was measured using body patches and cotton gloves. For each observation, the corresponding exposure was calculated by means of the AOEM, using data recorded about the operator, spraying equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) used. A significant linear correlation was observed between calculated and measured daily exposures. The model overestimated the daily exposure approximately 4-fold and the exposure during application 10-fold. However, exposure was underestimated during mixing/loading for 70% of the observations when the operator wore PPE. The AOEM did not overestimate exposures in all circumstances, especially during mixing/loading, when operators handle concentrated products. The protection provided by PPE appeared to be overestimated. This could be due to the optimal working conditions under which the “industrial” studies are conducted, which may not be representative of real working conditions of operators in fruit-growing.

Keywords: pesticides; occupational exposure; exposure model; fruit-growing; pesticide registration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4611/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/8/4611/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:8:p:4611-:d:791556

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().