Cancer risk due to pesticide use in Europe

摘要

Background Application of pesticides on crops has important and wide-ranging impacts on health. The major factors influencing emissions from pesticides are pesticide dosages, crop typology, areas cultivated by crops and trees and agricultural/forestry practices (e.g. pest control regime, fertilizer practices). Aims This work aims at developing an integrated methodology for assessing the health effects due to inhalation of pesticides, transported over relatively short distances in the EU - 27. The effect of carcinogenic Active Substances (AS) is assessed for a business-as-usual and a accounting for climate change and introduction of energy crops from 2010 to 2050. Methods Based on the AS emission inventory and mechanistic description of short-range transport in the air, intake rates per AS and related crop are calculated, using data on body weight and inhalation rate (stratified by age and gender). These intake rates are used to determine the rural population's cancer risk at a spatial resolution of 50×50km, by appropriate use of exposure response functions and the spatially resolved human exposure to AS from a particular crop. Considering that pesticide inhalation occurs near its application, incidence rates are computed at a finer spatial resolution (100×100m) and then results are aggregated at country level. Results Atmospheric emission of pesticides varies significantly across Europe. Different pesticide families are emitted from different parts of Europe as a function of the main crop(s) cultivated, agro-climatic conditions and production intensity. The European countries that face the biggest problem from pesticides are Spain, Romania and Hungary, Germany and Italy. Conclusions Near-field exposure is more important than most other routes with the exception of dietary intake in heavily contaminated areas. Climate change adaptation/mitigation policies are expected to modify the spatial patter of exposure and associated cancer risk resulting in an overall slightly higher attributable risk.