The need for appropriate use information to refine pesticide user exposureassessments

Risk assessment compares hazard information with an exposure assessment (Re port of the OECD workshop, 1995), To characterise the risk data on the leve l, duration and frequency of exposure are required. This paper illustrates how, in the absence of specific usage data, structural and other data may b e used to provide some estimates of daily work rates. The usefulness of det ailed pesticide usage data to refine the exposure assessment is also shown. Scientifically sound usage data are required, and to ensure a harmonised a pproach requires guidelines. The current OECD guidelines for the collection of usage statistics (Thomas for the Eurostat Pesticides Statistics Taskfor ce, 1999) are designed to collect usage data for environmental reasons, but are a good basis. The adaptation of the OECD guidelines to collect informa tion for user exposure assessments is discussed. Crown Copyright (C) 2001 P ublished by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of British Occupational Hygiene Society, All rights reserved.