Addressing environmental exposure to pesticides is a major public health challenge. In light of public expectations and in response to the government’s Ecophyto plans to reduce the use of plant protection products, scientific teams are employing a wide range of complex tools and methods to study this issue.

Santé publique France has developed extensive expertise in estimating pesticide exposure through several projects focused on monitoring exposure (the national biomonitoring program) and diseases potentially linked to the general or occupational environment (cancers, Parkinson’s disease, type 1 diabetes, etc.). Common avenues for research on the issue of pesticides and the link between the environment and public health have also been identified in recent years with a large number of the agency’s partners, raising new challenges regarding the geographic data used.

It is in this context that Santé publique France organized, on June 28, 2022, a scientific seminar on the geographic data and approaches used to estimate environmental and occupational exposure of populations to pesticides in France (metropolitan France and overseas territories). This event provided an opportunity to engage with a broad range of multidisciplinary stakeholders representing agencies, public institutions, and research organizations.

Mapping and Prospects for Pesticide Studies Using a Spatial Approach

The summary of this event, published today, was developed to provide everyone with an overview of the teams involved and the studies presented, as well as a summary of current discussions and scientific perspectives (methodological and technological) on geographic approaches in studies linking pesticide exposure and health.

This summary, which captures current methodological advances, more broadly outlines the issues and challenges involved in using geographic information to characterize the link between the environment and public health.

Focus on Key Trends in Recent Years

Two types of approaches are currently used to estimate pesticide exposure: detailed mapping of crops using land-use data and aerial imagery, and modeling of chemical use (measurements, sales data, etc.). To this end, methodological considerations in recent years have focused on:

• Characterizing relevant data: land use (mapping of cultivated plots), characterization of agricultural crops, substances used on these crops, etc.;

• Characterizing exposure in relation to the challenge of mapping crops at a fine scale and the difficulty of linking this to agricultural practices that evolve over time and for which data are limited;

• The scaling up from the local to the national level regarding the implementation of methods for detailed exposure characterization and the use of data such as imagery (aerial, satellite), topography, and meteorology. Indeed, the use of existing spatialized data at the national scale remains technically challenging, particularly due to the massive volume of fine-scale land-use data.

Thus, the development of geographic indicators of pesticide exposure, particularly using geographic information systems, represents a major methodological and technical challenge.