The effect of spray application technique on operator exposure in Southern European greenhouses

CropLife International and the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO-T&V-AT) joined forces in a project to stimulate the safe use of pesticides in Southern Europe. ILVO-T&V-AT optimised a method using mineral chelates as tracers on collectors. This quantitative method to evaluate spray deposits was used to compare operator exposure from several greenhouse spraying techniques.
Six application methods were investigated and compared i.e. a standard spray gun with an operator walking forwards, a spray lance walking forwards and backwards, a trolley, the Fumimatic and the Fumicar. The latter are novel spray application techniques with (vertical) spray booms. The exposure was measured at 15 different places on a coverall with patches and on gloves, using mineral chelates as tracer elements.
The difference in exposure of the patches between the different techniques was very high. Walking backwards reduced exposure by a factor 7. The total exposure on the collectors with the trolley, Fumicar and Fumimatic, was respectively 25, 7 and 100 times lower compared with the standard spray gun. Operator exposure walking forward with the spray lance was about two times higher than with the spray gun. Besides a very large difference in exposure between the five techniques, there was also a large difference in exposure between the various parts of the body. All of this is important in consideration of operator safety and for the parts of the body that need to be protected best.