8287214 Assessment of pesticide exposure among French agricultural workers throughout the year: preliminary results

<h3>Objectives</h3> Despite growing concerns about pesticide-related health risks among agricultural workers, exposure assessment studies have largely focused on pesticide application tasks, overlooking a wide range of activities involving potential indirect exposure, such as contact with treated crops or contaminated equipment (e.g., sowers and tractors). To address these gaps, the Pestexpo-TALDA study aimed to characterize pesticide exposure during routine workdays over a full year among 40 agricultural workers, using multiple exposure matrices, and to identify exposure determinants by production system (open field, cattle, or viticulture), season, and tasks. This analysis focused on preliminary results obtained in Normandy. <h3>Material and Methods</h3> The field study was conducted between 2023 and 2025. Dermal exposure was assessed by handwashing performed at three time points (morning, midday, evening) on one workday per month for 12 months. Samples were analysed for 300 pesticides and metabolites using five analytical methods, with LOQ ranging from 0.001 to 0.05 µg/L. Participant and farm characteristics were collected at baseline, and tasks performed during each sampling period were reported. <h3>Results</h3> A total of 421 hand-wash samples were analysed from 19 agricultural workers, including 6 open-field, 9 mixed crop-livestock, and 4 organic dairy farms. The number of molecules quantified per participant over the year was 33 (range: 5–74), and 3 per sample (i.e., per half-day session; range: 0–42), with differences between production systems (p &lt; 0.001). Similarly, median quantity per sample was higher for open-field (11.7 µg) compared to mixed crop-livestock (2.3 µg) and organic dairy farms (0 µg) (p &lt; 0.001). Only 7% of samples were collected on days when pesticide application was reported, highlighting potential exposure during non-application tasks. <h3>Conclusion</h3> Analyses of task effects and seasonality are ongoing. Exposure assessment will be extended by integrating data from other exposure matrices (urine and silicone wristbands), and from the viticulture sector.