title: Stakeholder attitudes towards cumulative and aggregate exposure assessment of pesticides.
abstract: This study evaluates the attitudes and perspectives of different stakeholder groups (agricultural producers, pesticide manufacturers, trading companies, retailers, regulators, food safety authorities, scientists and NGOs) towards the concepts of cumulative and aggregate exposure assessment of pesticides by means of qualitative in-depth interviews (n = 15) and a quantitative stakeholder survey (n = 65). The stakeholders involved generally agreed that the use of chemical pesticides is needed, primarily for meeting the need of feeding the growing world population, while clearly acknowledging the problematic nature of human exposure to pesticide residues. Current monitoring was generally perceived to be adequate, but the timeliness and consistency of monitoring practices across countries were questioned. The concept of cumulative exposure assessment was better understood by stakeholders than the concept of aggregate exposure assessment. Identified pitfalls were data availability, data limitations, sources and ways of dealing with uncertainties, as well as information and training needs. Regulators and food safety authorities were perceived as the stakeholder groups for whom cumulative and aggregate pesticide exposure assessment methods and tools would be most useful and acceptable. Insights obtained from this exploratory study have been integrated in the development of targeted and stakeholder-tailored dissemination and training programmes that were implemented within the EU-FP7 project ACROPOLIS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, Gent B-9000, Belgium. Electronic address: wim.verbeke@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Verbeke
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, Gent B-9000, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ellen J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Van Loo
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, Gent B-9000, Belgium.
authors.forename: Filiep
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vanhonacker
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Protection, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, Gent B-9000, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ilse
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Delcour
authors.affiliation: Department of Crop Protection, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, Gent B-9000, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Spanoghe
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM, Bilthoven NL-3720 BA, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jacob D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: van Klaveren
mesh_terms: D002617:Chemical Industry / Q000193:education; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects*; D054750:Ecotoxicology / Q000193:education; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005062:European Union; D000067565:Farmers / Q000193:education; D005506:Food Contamination; D019649:Food Industry / Q000193:education; D059022:Food Safety; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010573:Pesticide Residues / Q000633:toxicity*; D010575:Pesticides / Q000633:toxicity*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D035501:Uncertainty; D000078329:Workforce
chemical_list: D010573:Pesticide Residues; D010575:Pesticides
keywords: ACROPOLIS EU-FP7; Attitudes; Communication; Exposure assessment; Pesticides; Stakeholder involvement