Identifying Populations Potentially Exposed to Agricultural Pesticides Using Remote Sensing and a Geographic Information System

Abstract

Pesticides used in agriculture may cause adverse health effects among the population living near agricultural areas. However, identifring the populations most likely to be exposed is difficult.We conducted a feasibility study to determine whether satellite imagery could be used to reconstmct historical crop patterns. We used historical Fann Service Agency records as a source of ground reference data to classify a late summer 1984 satellite image into crop species in a threecounty area in south central Nebraska. Residences from a population-based epidemiologic study of non-Hodgkin lymphoma were located on the crop maps using a geographic information system (GIS). Corn, soybeans, sorghum, and alfilfa were the major crops grown in the study area. Eighty-five percent of residences could be located, and of these 22% had one of the four major crops within 500 m of the residence, an intermediate distance for the range of drift effects from pesticides applied in agriculture. We determined the proximity of residences to specific crop species and calculated crop-specific probabilities of pesticide use based on available data. This feasibility study demonstrated that remote sensing data and historical records on crop location can be used to create historical crop maps. The crop pesticides that were likely to have been applied can be estimated when information about crop-specific pesticide use is available. Using a GIS, zones of potential exposure to agricultural pesticides and proximity measures can be determined for residences in a study.

Living near agricultural pesticide applications and the risk of adverse reproductive outcomes: a review of the literature

“…The GIS have also been used to model pesticide exposures. 61,64,82,84 In most cases, pesticide use was indirectly estimated based on crop type. The resulting exposure estimates were limited by crop misclassification and the assumption that all fields were treated similarly for a given crop.…”

Using Landsat satellite data to support pesticide exposure assessment in California

“…Pesticide exposure assessment studies are typically done in retrospect [3,7,24,25] where historical crop maps are required. The ability to identify specific crop types grown near individual residences is a key element for improving the geographic scale of modeled pesticide exposure in California [26-28].…”

Studying the impact of early life exposures to pesticides on the risk of testicular germ cell tumors during adulthood (TESTIS project): study protocol

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