TEMPEST - A Task Exposure Matrix for Pesticides     iom-abdn-logo

TEMPEST Worked example 2

TEMPEST worked example showing trends in inhaled and dermal pesticide exposure intensities over time

The TEMPEST database shows trends in pesticide exposure over time. This is seen in the introduction of a growing number and types of pesticides from the 1970s onwards and also in terms of the assessed exposure intensity levels.

Figure 1 below shows the proportion of tasks assessed in each of the dermal exposure categories (zero, very low, low, medium, high). There is an increase in the number of pesticide application tasks that produced medium or high dermal exposures from the 1940’s through to the 1960’s with over 80% of tasks being rated as medium or high. From 1970 onwards, with increasing knowledge and regulation, this decreases until in the 2000 decade over 96% of tasks had dermal exposures rated as low, very low or zero.

Graph trends in pesticide dermal exposure

 

For inhaled exposure the picture is similar. Figure 2 shows that two-thirds of tasks were rated as medium or high in the 1960’s and 1970’s while this had reduced to 12% by the 1990’s and then only 2% by the 2000 decade.

Graph trends in pesticide inhalation exposure

These graphs are available in both the Access and Excel versions of the TEMPEST database.


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