TEMPEST - A Task Exposure Matrix for Pesticides

Construction of TEMPEST - Stage 3

Determine typical pesticides used for tasks over the 7 decades

Next, the “typical” pesticides used for a given task in a given decade in Scotland were determined. Again the Scottish GEOPARKINSON task descriptions were a starting point, but a more general analysis to identify historical changes in pesticide use was necessary due to limitations in the study data: In some cases descriptions were too limited or too general, e.g. “I sprayed fields”, and did not identify the crop treated, making it impossible to identify the likely pesticide used as this commonly varied by crop and decade.

To further establish which crops were likely to have been treated, data for 1950, 1960, 1970 and 1980 were obtained from the Analytical Services Statistics Branch, Scottish Executive’s Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD). (D. Rowley, personal communication, 2006). For 1990 and 2000 Central Science Laboratory pesticide usage reports (see http://www.csl.gov.uk/index.cfm) were used. Grasslands were excluded as pesticide applications to them are rare (average 0.10 kg.of active ingredient (AI) /ha).

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