Residential exposure to pesticides and health effects in the Netherlands

Abstract

S17: Residential exposure to pesticides and health effects; what we know and what we should know, Room 217, Floor 2, August 28, 2019, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM Approximately 5% of the Dutch population, living in less urbanized areas (<1500 addresses per km2), resides within 50 meters of agricultural fields. This number increases to about 25% of the population when considering 250 m to agricultural fields. Concerns have been raised about the exposures to pesticides of these residents and possible associated health effects. Due to the lack of information on exposure levels of the Dutch (rural) population in relation to pesticide use on agricultural fields, the OBO study was initiated. The OBO study aimed to assess the exposure to pesticides of residents living within 250 m from an agricultural field. To address this aim, a study design was applied that combines measurements of environmental concentrations (outdoor and indoor air, dust from the doormat, vacuumed floor dust and soil from the garden), personal exposure (urine and hand wipes) and exposure models. We successfully measured 14 application and 9 off-season periods at 9 bulb-growing locations covering a variety of applications with varying pesticides. In addition, we sampled from control households (n=16) that had no agricultural fields in the direct vicinity (>500m). We successfully measured 46 different pesticides in indoor dust concentrations of 58 residential and 16 control homes and repeated 24hr air concentrations at 71 residential and 16 control homes. In addition, urinary measurements of 5 selected pesticides (i.e. asulam, carbendazim, chlorpropham, prochloraz and tebuconazole) were performed among the 192 residents from the homes in the study. Results of both the environmental- and bio-monitoring were analyzed for patterns over the application season, between residents and controls, and with distance to the fields. Empirical results were corroborated with a novel model framework allowing the estimation of environmental concentrations and personal exposures out and inside the home. Detailed results of these comparisons, currently embargoed, will be presented.