Ambient air concentrations of plant protection products: Data collection for the combined air concentration database and associated risk assessment

CropLife Europe collected literature values from monitoring studies measuring air concentrations of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) that may be inhaled by humans located in rural areas but not immediately adjacent to PPP applications. The resulting “Combined Air Concentration Database” (CACD) was used to determine whether air concentrations of PPPs reported by the French “Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety” (ANSES) are consistent with those measured by others to increase confidence in values of exposure to humans. The results were put into risk assessment context. Results show that 25–90% of samples do not contain measurable PPP concentrations. Measured respirable fractions were below EU default air concentrations used for risk assessment for resident exposure by the European Food Safety Authority. All measured exposures in the CACD were also below established toxicological endpoints, even when considering the highest maximum average reported concentrations and very conservative inhalation rates. The highest recorded air concentration was for prosulfocarb (0.696 μg/m³ measured over 48 h) which is below the EFSA default limit of 1 μg/m³ for low volatility substances. In conclusion, based on the CACD, measured air concentrations of PPPs are significantly lower than EFSA default limits and relevant toxicological reference values.