Agroscope, Swiss Federal Agricultural Research Station in Changins, 1260 Nyon, Switzerland.
Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO), Risk Assessment Division, 3003 Bern, Switzerland.
Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jul 10;881:163371. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163371. Epub 2023 Apr 10.
Unmanned aerial spraying systems (UASS), i.e., unmanned aerial vehicles designed for pesticide applications, are widely used in East Asia and increasingly prevalent in other regions of the world, including North America and Europe. However, according to a recent report of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, spray drift and exposure caused by these systems are not yet fully understood. In particular, there are at present no peer-reviewed reports on direct exposure of residents and bystanders to spray drift following UASS applications. This lack of data results in regulatory concerns with respect to the environment and human safety. The objective of this study was to quantify environmental, resident and bystander exposure following the application of a plant protection product to an orchard using a commercial UASS under field conditions. Using a fluorescent tracer, horizontal and vertical downwind drift data were collected and direct exposure of residents and bystanders located downwind the sprayed area to spray drift was quantified using display mannequins equipped with personal air sampling pumps. Spray drift and exposure inversely correlated with sampling height and downwind distance. Furthermore, drift and exposure were strongly influenced by wind speed and direction, albeit hardly affected by the growth stage of the trees. In addition, substantially less tracer was extracted from the filters of the air sampling pumps than from the coveralls worn by mannequins, suggesting that direct resident/bystander exposure to spray drift may predominantly occur via the dermal route. This report provides essential data on UASS spray drift potential that are relevant for environmental and health risk assessments related to these systems. The results are compared to predicted values of current regulatory models and previously reported field data on drift and exposure caused by different spraying equipment.
无人航空喷洒系统（UASS），即设计用于农药喷洒的无人机，在东亚被广泛应用，在北美和欧洲等世界其他地区也越来越普遍。然而，根据经济合作与发展组织（OECD）的一份最新报告，这些系统造成的喷雾漂移和接触暴露问题尚未得到充分了解。特别是，目前还没有关于居民和旁观者在 UASS 喷洒后直接接触喷雾漂移的同行评审报告。这种数据的缺乏导致了对环境和人类安全的监管担忧。本研究的目的是量化在田间条件下使用商业 UASS 对果园施药后环境、居民和旁观者的暴露情况。使用荧光示踪剂收集水平和垂直下风漂移数据，并使用配备个人空气采样泵的展示人体模型来量化下风区居民和旁观者直接暴露于喷雾漂移的情况。喷雾漂移和暴露与采样高度和下风距离成反比。此外，漂移和暴露受风速和风向的强烈影响，尽管几乎不受树木生长阶段的影响。此外，从空气采样泵的过滤器中提取的示踪剂明显少于人体模型所穿防护服中的示踪剂，这表明居民/旁观者直接接触喷雾漂移可能主要通过皮肤途径发生。本报告提供了与这些系统相关的环境和健康风险评估有关的 UASS 喷雾漂移潜力的重要数据。将结果与当前监管模型的预测值和以前报道的不同喷洒设备造成的漂移和暴露的田间数据进行了比较。
