According to the PestiRiv study published by Santé publique France (the French national public health agency) and the French Agency for Food, Environmental, and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), living close to vineyards is associated with significantly high pesticide exposure, with young children having the highest exposure levels. Researchers plan to conduct follow-up studies to assess the potential health impacts of such exposure.

Study

The study included 1946 adults and 742 children (age, 3-17 years) across 266 sites in six French regions, ie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Grand Est, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

Sites were categorised by proximity to vineyards: 164 were within 500 m of a vineyard and more than 1 km from other agricultural lands, whereas 102 were more than 5 km away.

“Studying all agricultural crops in one study was not feasible for scientific and logistical reasons,” said Clémence Fillol, PhD, head of the Exposure Monitoring Unit, Division of Occupational and Environmental Health, Santé publique France.

“We had to prioritise one type of cultivation, namely viticulture. Given that 4% of the French population lives less than 200 m from vineyards and that grape growing involves extensive use of pesticides, questions about the exposure of nearby residents are a significant public health concern.”

Findings

Researchers collected urine, hair, dust, indoor and outdoor air samples, and a few garden vegetables for exploratory analysis, both during pesticide application periods and during periods without pesticide exposure. They analysed the samples for 56 priority pesticides identified since 2017.

“The fieldwork took place between 2021 and 2022, during which regulatory changes occurred and some substances were no longer in use,” added Ohri Yamada, head of the Phytopharmacovigilance Unit at ANSES.

Certain pesticide concentrations in dust were up to 1000% higher near vineyards than near nonagricultural sites.

Twelve pesticides were detected in nearly all urine samples, with exposure levels 15%-45% higher among residents near agricultural zones.

“For the youngest children, 3-6 years of age, absorption levels were higher than in the rest of the population,” Fillol said. Copper and sulphur (fungicides used in Bordeaux mixture), glyphosate (herbicide), folpel (fungicide), and fosetyl-aluminum (fungicide) were found in more than half of the dust samples near vineyards during pesticide application periods.

Household Measures

“Agricultural practices are the strongest determinant of exposure in vineyard areas: Exposure rises with pesticide use and as housing nears vineyards,” Yamada said. Simple precautions — taking off shoes before entering the home, drying laundry indoors, using mechanical ventilation, peeling garden produce, and limiting the consumption of home-raised poultry — were associated with modest reductions in pesticide exposure. 

Conversely, increased home ventilation and spending more time spent outdoors were associated with higher exposure levels.

Future Research

“This study provides us with reliable, robust data on real-life exposure of populations to pesticides and allows us to cross-reference with environmental data. It opens new avenues but is not an end in itself,” said Caroline Semaille, Director General at Santé publique France.

Future studies will address the challenges of health risk assessment and the impact of these exposures on human health and the environment. In PestiRiv, scientists could not access real-world pesticide exposure data and relied on complex and time-consuming estimation methods. Access to additional information recorded by individual farms is essential for these investigations.

This story was translated from Medscape’s French edition.