Prioritisation of worker exposure scenarios Sample Clauses

Prioritisation of worker exposure scenarios. ‌ Before developing an improved modelling framework for worker exposure within the BROWSE project, it was necessary to define, identify, group and prioritise exposure scenarios for model development. The definition of “workers” was taken as a starting point for defining a worker exposure scenario. EFSA defines workers as ‘persons who, as part of their employment, enter an area that has previously been treated with a PPP or who handle a crop that has been treated with a PPP’ (EFSA, 2010). This definition implies that workers are exposed to PPPs during activities taking place in the treated crop after the application. Hence, a re-entry exposure scenario was defined as a combination of a worker activity and a crop group (e.g. harvesting of orchard fruit). Next, a preliminary inventory of possible worker exposure scenarios was made based on the knowledge and experience of the BROWSE consortium members. The identified scenarios were subdivided according to the crop group and the timing of the activity relative to the harvest: pre-harvest, harvest and post-harvest activities. Since a wide range of exposure scenarios was identified while the available data were limited and not all scenarios were of high concern for human exposure, a prioritisation of those which had to be addressed within the BROWSE project was absolutely necessary. As one of the objectives of the project was to include representatives of all relevant stakeholders and end-users, a stakeholder consultation workshop was organized to gather stakeholders’ opinions about the proposed crop grouping and to identify the scenarios that should be considered as a priority for worker exposure modelling. The results of this workshop have been described in deliverable 4.1. Using the feedback from the stakeholders and taking account of the anticipated frequency and extent of the exposure and the availability of data, the following scenarios were identified as priority scenarios for exposure modelling in work package 2: - Outdoor scenarios • Orchard fruit: harvesting (Figure 1) • Orchard fruit: pruning • Orchard fruit: thinning • Grapes: harvesting (Figure 2) • Grapes: pruning • Grapes: thinning • Soft fruit: harvesting • Sowing of treated seeds - Indoor scenarios • Ornamentals: harvesting (Figure 3) • Fruiting vegetables: harvesting (Figure 4) The scenarios indicated in bold were taken as a first set of priority scenarios. Even though the conceptual and mechanistic model were developed with these scenarios as a...