It is an investigation of an unprecedented scale that should help ease tensions.

Relations are indeed sometimes strained between wine growers and their neighborhood around the use of pesticides.

To establish an "objective photograph" of the risks of exposure, public agencies are therefore launching a study on Tuesday.

With “PestiRiv”, the national health security agency (ANSES) and Public Health France (SpF) will monitor some 3,350 voluntary participants until August 2022 to assess whether the inhabitants of wine-growing areas are more particularly exposed to pesticides.

Participants from 3 to 79 years old

The participants, aged 3 to 79, were drawn from INSEE databases in six regions with some of the main vineyards: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Grand-Est, Nouvelle -Aquitaine, Occitanie, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

They are spread over 250 study areas reflecting the various local situations, and reside in wine-growing areas (less than 500 meters from vines and more than 1,000 meters from other crops) or more than 1,000 meters from any crop, in order to to facilitate comparisons.

All will be subject to biological monitoring (urine or hair samples, etc.) and environmental monitoring (ambient air sensors, samples of water or vegetables from the kitchen garden, etc.).

Professional exposure, eating habits or domestic uses will also be scrutinized, as well as the methods of cultivation of nearby vineyards.

It will thus be a question of "integrating all the possible exposure routes", over a period of time including periods of frequent treatment and others less, explains Sébastien Denys, CEO of SpF's health and environment at work.

Results in 2024

An experimental phase was carried out in 2019 in Grand-Est and New Aquitaine in order to finalize the protocol, validated by a scientific council. The multidisciplinary study will also have a monitoring body, with the participation of professional organizations or NGOs. In total, several million samples will have to be analyzed, for results expected in 2024 and which should allow "to objectify if there is an overexposure" of neighboring populations and to "understand why and how, in order to give all the information. levers for action ”, underlines Ohri Yamada, head of phytopharmacovigilance at ANSES.

This "scientific rigor" in the implementation of the study aims to guard against criticism while this sensitive subject has already led to trials, even physical tensions, in some regions, explain the organizers.

In addition, as emphasized by Jean-Luc Volatier, from the risk assessment department of ANSES, viticulture is particularly concerned because it consists of "perennial crops with relatively high treatment frequencies and a strong interweaving between habitat and vines ”.

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