What is a pesticide?

• A pesticide (from the Latin cida, meaning “to kill,” and the English word pest, meaning “harmful”) is a chemical substance used primarily in agriculture for the prevention, control, or elimination of organisms considered undesirable, such as plants, animals, fungi, or bacteria.

• A plant protection product is a chemical used to protect plant health. There are three main categories:

  • Herbicides to control weeds,

  • Fungicides to combat fungi

  • Insecticides to control insects

• Other products may target rodents (rodenticides) or snails and slugs (molluscicides).

How are we exposed to pesticides?

• Pesticides can be present in all environments: food and water, air, soil, and dust. The main factors contributing to human exposure are:

  • Working with pesticides and skin contact are the main routes of exposure for workers

  • Food, depending on its origin and packaging

  • Using pesticides at home,

  • Living near agricultural crops where pesticides may be applied.

What are the potential health consequences of pesticide exposure?

• In the general population, the available epidemiological studies—which are still few in number—do not currently allow us to answer the question of these chemicals’ health effects. The first challenge is to precisely identify the substances used, the doses, the frequencies, and the routes of exposure in order to define a health risk.

• Among workers, pesticides are suspected of playing a role in certain diseases due to high exposure levels over long periods. In this regard, the agricultural system recognizes Parkinson’s disease and malignant hematological disorders as occupational diseases caused by pesticides. Occupational exposure limits are set by the Ministry of Labor based on epidemiological studies and animal toxicology studies for certain pesticides, but few substances are covered. Pesticides may contribute to the development of certain malignant hematological diseases, brain tumors, prostate cancer, fertility and reproductive disorders, Parkinson’s disease, and asthma. However, all these diseases are multifactorial, and it is difficult—except in a few very specific cases—to determine the relative contribution of different risk factors (certain lifestyle habits, exposure to other pollutants, family history, etc.).

• For residents living near agricultural areas, the health consequences of actual pesticide exposure are currently unknown. Risk assessments for residents living near agricultural areas are conducted as part of marketing authorization applications. In addition to this procedure, Santé publique France, in collaboration with Inserm and ANSES, is working to better understand the actual exposure of populations living near agricultural areas and the potential health effects of these chemicals, particularly in children.

• For pregnant women, newborns, and young children, exposure to pesticides appears to pose a particular risk to the child’s development and health.

What are the applicable regulations?

• Food 

For food, there are regulations that set residue limits that must not be exceeded and provide for testing, with the goal of ensuring the lowest possible level of exposure for consumers. The “maximum residue limit” (MRL) is the highest concentration of a legally authorized pesticide residue permitted in or on food. These limits are calculated based on how the products are used, knowledge of consumption patterns for each food type, and safety margins to prevent adverse health effects.

• Water

Drinking water is subject to regular health inspections, both at the source and at the outlet of drinking water production facilities.

The frequency of these checks depends on the nature of the water source (surface, groundwater, raw, or treated), its flow rate, and the population served.

Pesticide quality limits in tap water serve as an indicator of the degradation of water resource quality. Their purpose is to reduce the presence of these compounds to the lowest possible concentration.

• Air

There are no regulatory limits regarding concentrations of plant protection products in outdoor air.

• Soil

To date, there is no regulated monitoring of pesticide contamination in soil.

• Work

Pesticides are chemicals subject to most of the chemical risk regulations contained in the Labor Code and specific rules derived from the Rural Code and the Public Health Code.