8287551 Pesticide exposure among greenspace workers in France

<h3>Objective</h3> The greenspace sector includes a broad range of branches (gardens, public facilities, communication network, flowers/ornamental plant production, etc.). Workers are exposed to many occupational hazards including pesticides. However, very few expology studies have been conducted and knowledge on their exposure is scarce. The EVISA project (funded by the National Research Agency) intends to better document pesticide exposure in this sector. One objective is to characterize exposure levels in real work conditions and to identify the determinants of exposure. <h3>Material and Methods</h3> Field studies have been conducted to measure the levels of contamination during treatment and reentry tasks. Dermal contamination was assessed using cotton patches place onto the skin and cotton gloves; and respiratory contamination was measured with portative pumps. Detailed information on the tasks were collected to identify the determinants of exposure. <h3>Results</h3> From 2022 to 2024, a total of 90 observations have been conducted: i) 30 during treatment tasks on ornamental plant nurseries and industrial facilities using various types of equipment (knapsack/handgun sprayers, mounted atomizer, etc.); ii) 50 in flowers and plant nurseries during reentry tasks such as flower harvesting, preparation of bouquets, stapling and training, manual weeding, etc.; and iii) 10 in golf courses during treatment. Contaminations from 18 fungicides, 8 insecticides and 4 herbicides have been investigated. Analyses of dosimeters are ongoing and will be linked with the detailed characteristics collected on workers, tasks, work conditions, equipment and practices. <h3>Conclusion</h3> This large-scale project is the first to our knowledge to document pesticide exposure among greenspace workers in various situations. The data generated will help to i) build better metrics usable in epidemiological studies; ii) propose prevention measured tailored to these workers and iii) improve models used for estimating operator exposure in the pesticide registration process.