Assessment of Postapplication Exposure to Pesticides in Agriculture

Occupational exposure to pesticides may occur not only during the actual application to crops and enclosed spaces, but also after the actual application when the crops are handled (e.g., harvesting) or when treated spaces are reentered. This postapplication (reentry) exposure may occur on a daily basis (e.g., for harvesting of ornamentals or vegetables in greenhouses) and may have the duration of a full work shift. An overview is given for the methodology that can be used for assessing the levels of exposure via skin and inhalation. Such data are used for the risk assessment of the use scenarios relevant for registration purposes throughout the world and form the basis for predictive exposure modeling. For Europe, such a predictive postapplication exposure model is developed in the EUROPOEM project funded by the European Union. Because exposure may have to be reduced with various techniques in cases of anticipated unacceptable health risks, the use of control measures comes into play, which are described for postapplication exposure. The assessment of internal exposure levels using biological monitoring methodology is also described.