Measured and modelled environmental exposure of residents to pesticides

Most people, if not all, will be exposed at least once in their life-time to a certain level of pesticide(s). For non-occupationally exposed groups, a great portion of this exposure can be attributed to dietary intake and the remaining to environmental exposure. In the Netherlands, the application of pesticides on agricultural fields has raised concerns from residents living close to these. In order to understand if a certain disease is related to an exposure to any given chemical, we first need to identify the exposed vs non-exposed population and also understand the levels, duration and frequency of exposure. The aim of my thesis is on investigating residents’ environmental exposure to pesticides by studying drivers of this exposure as well as temporal and spatial variability in different pesticides concentration. Chapter 2 details the methodology used to study residential exposure to pesticides and a list of (practical) lessons learned. Chapter 3 described the spatial and temporal variation of 46 different pesticide concentrations in air outside and inside homes. Here, we saw that most pesticide concentrations were 5–10 times higher in outdoor air during the spraying period when comparing with the non-spraying period. Concentrations were overall higher closer to the fields (