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Biological monitoring of pesticide exposures in residents living near agricultural land

The DEFRA-funded (£749,163) project (PS2620) used a community-researcher approach to resolve a major problem of participant attrition in potentially-intrusive scientific research: the collection of urine samples over several months. The highly-successful approach, achieving a large number of samples (3,290) over the spraying seasons 2011-2012, produced approximately 5,400 separate laboratory analyses – where previous studies failed to engage participants effectively. Health Council Netherlands has consulted with the research team (lead partner: Institute of Occupational Medicine; Health and Safety Laboratories and GCU) about replicating the methodological approach in a new Dutch study. The innovative approach has been presented at several scientific forums (http://www.pesticidebiomonitoring.org/PublicationsConferences.aspx).