PestiRiv: A Study to Better Understand Pesticide Exposure Among People Living in Wine-Growing and Non-Wine-Growing Areas

Santé publique France and ANSES (the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety) are conducting the Pestiriv study to better understand pesticide exposure among people living near vineyards or far from any agricultural land.

Pesticides

thematic dossier

Pesticides are widely used in France, primarily in agriculture, and the population is heavily exposed to them. Their effects on the health of the general population are still poorly understood.

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In this article

In France, many people live near vineyards where pesticides may be applied. However, little data is available on pesticide exposure among residents of wine-growing regions, a crucial step in effectively assessing and strengthening measures to prevent pesticide exposure.

The PestiRiv study makes it possible, for the first time, to assess pesticide exposure among people living near vineyards and those living far from any agricultural land. The PestiRiv study is unprecedented in terms of the sources of exposure considered (air, food, occupational activity, and household uses), the diversity of samples collected (ambient air, indoor air, dust, urine, hair, and home-grown food), and its geographical coverage, with 265 sites spread across six wine-growing regions.

Objectives

  • Primary objective: To determine whether there is a difference in pesticide exposure between people living near vineyards and those living far from any agricultural land.

  • Secondary objectives:

    • to better understand the factors influencing this exposure (e.g., distance from vineyards, daily behaviors);

    • to describe how exposure varies throughout the year;

    • to study the links between pesticide levels found in different sample categories (urine, hair, dust, indoor air, and outdoor air).

Study Population

The PestiRiv study was conducted in six wine-growing regions: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Grand Est, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Occitanie, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

It involved 1,946 adults aged 18 to 79 and 742 children aged 3 to 17. Households were selected by random draw in municipalities:

  • wine-growing areas located within 500 meters of vineyards;

  • areas located more than 1 km from any crops (including vineyards).

Participation in the study was voluntary, and respondents provided written consent. Agricultural workers who might be occupationally exposed to pesticides were eligible to participate in the study.

Study Protocol

Preparatory phase

The first phase of the PestiRiv study took place between October 28 and December 21, 2019, in four municipalities in the Grand Est and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions. This first phase allowed us to test the study protocol with 72 households. It also helped us understand the reasons for refusal and the expectations of those asked to participate in this study.

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Survey periods

The large-scale PestiRiv study took place in 2021–2022 in two phases:

  • between October 2021 and February 2022, during the period when vineyard treatments are infrequent;

  • between March and August 2022, during the period when nearly all vineyard treatments take place.

Data collection

Each participant’s pesticide exposure was measured over a two-week period.

The various data collected, which complement one another, provide a detailed and comprehensive description of pesticide exposure. This approach helps to understand both exposure levels and their possible causes.

The description of pesticide exposure is based on:

  1. Testing for 56 pesticides in at least one of the biological and environmental matrices studied: urine, hair, dust, indoor air, outdoor (ambient) air, and fruits and vegetables from the garden.

  2. A questionnaire survey of participants regarding their diet, outdoor activities (such as walking or cycling), occupation, housing characteristics (such as ventilation), potential pesticide use at home, etc.

  3. Data on local agricultural practices, including the amounts of pesticides used on vineyard plots during the participants’ follow-up period and weather conditions.

What are the main findings of the study?

The study’s findings show that:

  • Residents living near vineyards are more exposed to pesticides applied to these crops than people living far from any crops. These exposures are also higher during the treatment period. Increased biological accumulation in vineyard areas is observed in both adults and children.

  • The amount of pesticides used and the proximity of homes to vineyards are the two main factors contributing to exposure.

These results are robust across the various samples analyzed (urine, hair, dust, ambient air, indoor air) and consistent with those of a few studies conducted on other crops in the United States (wheat, soybeans) and the Netherlands (flowers).

This higher exposure is due to the transfer into the environment of substances applied to the vineyards, which is observed for the majority of the measured substances. This exposure applies to both substances highly specific to vineyards (e.g., folpel or metiram) and those that are less so (e.g., glyphosate, fosetyl-aluminum, spiroxamine).

It should be noted that low rainfall and high temperatures in the spring and summer of 2022, the study period, may have limited the need for treatment. Exposure levels in wine-growing areas could therefore be higher in rainy weather.
For certain substances, no difference was observed between the two population groups or between the two periods. This may be explained by the fact that there are other sources of exposure besides agricultural treatments (as in the case of pyrethroids, which are insecticides used for various purposes, or copper) or that the use of the substance on vineyards was low during the study period (e.g., tebuconazole).

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What will the results be used for?

PestiRiv provides a robust dataset on the presence of pesticides in various types of environmental samples (air, dust, food) and in humans. These data help document the factors influencing levels of environmental contamination and biological accumulation, thereby identifying levers for action to reduce exposure.

Based on these results, Santé publique France and ANSES have issued a joint opinion drawing on the conclusions of Santé publique France’s “Health, Environment, and Work” Expert Committee (CE SET) and ANSES’s specialized “Airborne Risk Assessment” Expert Committee (CES Air).

In this opinion, Santé publique France and ANSES emphasize the need to address the source of emissions to limit exposure among people living closest to crops and recommend, as a priority, reducing pesticide use to the absolute minimum, drawing in particular on the national Ecophyto 2030 strategy. They also emphasize the need to inform nearby residents before treatments, as exposure is also influenced by individual behaviors. However, preventing residents’ exposure must not rely solely on individual measures.

PestiRiv’s recommendations can be extrapolated to other crops because the results also pertain to substances not exclusive to vine treatment and are consistent with studies conducted abroad on other types of crops (e.g., wheat and soybeans in the United States or flowers in the Netherlands).

Furthermore, Santé publique France and ANSES are requesting access to actual data on the use of plant protection products. Such data make it possible to clarify the links between actual applications and environmental transfer, and thus to better control residents’ exposure.

The results of PestiRiv’s measurements, which will be referenced in Green Data for Health (GD4H), will also be made available to the scientific community.

Data Privacy and Security

Specific measures have been taken to ensure the confidentiality and IT security of the data collected as part of PestiRiv. The collected data will remain strictly confidential and will be shared only with authorized representatives of Santé publique France and ANSES who are responsible for this study. Under no circumstances will results be disclosed that could directly or indirectly identify study participants.

An information letter detailing the data processing procedures and participants’ rights regarding their data is provided to those invited to participate prior to their involvement.

The protocol for this study has received approval from an Ethics Committee and has been filed with the CNIL.

Partnerships and Funding

Conducting the PestiRiv study involves coordinating multiple stakeholders in the field:

  • the DGFIP and INSEE for the random selection of households to be surveyed from the Fidéli housing database;

  • Ipsos for the participant survey (recruiting participants, administering questionnaires, collecting biological and environmental samples, etc.);

  • the CSTB (Scientific and Technical Center for Building) for the collection and analysis of dust and air samples inside participants’ homes;

  • the AASQAs (Accredited Air Quality Monitoring Associations) and their federation Atmo France for the collection of air samples in certain study areas;

  • the LCSQA (Central Laboratory for Air Quality Monitoring) and Ineris (National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks) for the analysis of air samples;

  • Météo France for access to data describing meteorological conditions (precipitation, wind direction and speed, temperature) at the time of the study.

The PestiRiv study is part of the Ecophyto 2+plan. It is primarily funded by Ecophyto grants and through self-financing by Santé publique France and ANSES.

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PestiRiv: Results of the national study on pesticide exposure among residents ...

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