Abstract
A major challenge in biomonitoring studies with members of the general public is ensuring their continued involvement throughout the necessary length of the research. The paper presents evidence on the use of community researchers, recruited from local study areas, as a mechanism for ensuring effective recruitment and retention of farmer and resident participants for a pesticides biomonitoring study. The evidence presented suggests that community researchers’ abilities to build and sustain trusting relationships with participants enhanced the rigour of the study as a result of their on-the-ground responsiveness and flexibility resulting in data collection beyond targets expected.
Highlights
The use of pesticides is a subject that gives rise to public concern
The aim of this paper is to explore the potential in the use of community researchers as an effective means of recruiting participants and ensuring their continued involvement in a biomonitoring study
The target numbers of residents for inclusion in the study was based on a range of conservative power calculations carried out for a number of pesticides identified as being most likely to be applied during the spray seasons in the target areas [34]
Summary
The use of pesticides is a subject that gives rise to public concern. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) published a report on bystander and resident exposure to pesticides and recognised that the epidemiological literature showing associations of chronic fatigue and multiple chemical sensitivity with pesticide exposure was plausible but equivocal [1]. Our overall study aimed to assess exposure to pesticides for adults and children living adjacent to agricultural land and investigate if exposures were elevated following relevant spray events. It sought to gauge whether the methods for assessing potential exposures in nearby residents that are used as part of regulatory risk assessment for agricultural pesticides in the UK are sufficiently conservative. We needed to recruit farmers who sprayed their crops with selected pesticides (captan, chlorpyrifos, chlormequat, cypermethrin, and penconazole) to provide their spray-event information, and to collect urine samples and activity data from residents (adults and children) living within 100m of these fields during, and for, a limited period, outwith the spray season
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