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This deliverable describes the results of the joint pesticide survey ’SPECIMEn’ in five partner countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Spain and the Netherlands. It also contains a report on the implementation of a study conducted in Switzerland, which has a different design, but data was harmonised as much as possible. In all participating partner countries, urine samples have been collected in two seasons, i.e., winter 2019/2020 and summer 2020. Per country at least 100 locations have been included, of which about half are located in so-called hotspot areas. On the collected urine samples, a harmonised suspect screening method was applied to detect multiple pesticide-related markers. The deliverable describes the results obtained with this analysis.

Humans are exposed to a mixture of pesticides through diet as well as through the environment. We conducted a suspect-screening based study to describe the probability of (concomitant) exposure to a set of pesticide profiles in five European countries (Latvia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Spain and the Netherlands). We explored whether living in an agricultural area (compared to living in a peri-urban area), being a a child (compared to being an adult), and the season in which the urine sample was collected had an impact on the probability of detection of pesticides (-metabolites). In total 2088 urine samples were collected from 1050 participants (525 parent-child pairs) and analyzed through harmonized suspect screening by five different laboratories. Fourty pesticide biomarkers (either pesticide metabolites or the parent pesticides as such) relating to 29 pesticides were identified at high levels of confidence in samples across all study sites. Most frequently detected were biomarkers related to the parent pesticides acetamiprid and chlorpropham. Other biomarkers with high detection rates in at least four countries related to the parent pesticides boscalid, fludioxonil, pirimiphos-methyl, pyrimethanil, clothianidin, fluazifop and propamocarb. In 84% of the samples at least two different pesticides were detected. The median number of detected pesticides in the urine samples was 3, and the maximum was 13 pesticides detected in a single sample. The most frequently co-occurring substances were acetamiprid with chlorpropham (in 62 urine samples), and acetamiprid with tebuconazole (30 samples). Some variation in the probability of detection of pesticides (-metabolites) was observed with living in an agricultural area or season of urine sampling, though no consistent patterns were observed. We did observe differences in the probability of detection of a pesticide (metabolite) among children compared to adults, suggesting a different exposure and/or elimination patterns between adults and children. This survey demonstrates the feasibility of conducting a harmonized pan-European sample collection, combined with suspect screening to provide insight in the presence of exposure to pesticide mixtures in the European population, including agricultural areas. Future improvements could come from improved (harmonized) quantification of pesticide levels. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 733032 HBM4EU, No 857560 and No 857340. P.C., O.M. & L.S. acknowledge the RECETOX research infrastructure supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (LM2018121) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/17_043/0009632). This publication reflects only the author’s view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. BG was supported by the Margarita Salas postdoctoral contract MGS/2021/25 (UP2021-021) financed by the European UnionNextGenerationEU. Sí

Nowadays one of the main focus of public and occupation health is maintaining good indoor air quality in office building and public spaces. The aim of this study was to identify indoor air quality, its influencing factors, sources of pollution and air quality enhancers. The results indicate that indoor air quality does not exceed the permissible levels for office buildings based on found chemical pollutants and CO2 readings. Identified sources of chemical pollutants were printers with tonner, personal cosmetic products of workers, hand disinfectant and office cleaning products. Measurements indicated well-ventilated rooms. However, the control floor showed lower air humidity levels. Results shows up to 21% air humidity boost from plant green walls on weekends and up to 9% boost on workdays. The green walls with living plants help maintain good humidity levels.

The report presents the research plan for a second occupational study which is focussed on diisocyanate and the e-waste exposures.Thediisocyanate exposure will be undertaken in the following settings: (a)the manufacturing and repair of large vehicles (non-booth spraying of e.g. boats/planes), (b) the use of diisocyanate based hot-melt glues in different sectors, and (c) construction sectorwhich includes different sources of diisocyanates exposure (floorings/screeds, insulation). The aim is to provide new data on exposures in the specified sector. The e-waste study will include an assessment of exposures to metals (lead, inorganic mercury, cadmium and chromium), phthalates and flame retardants. The main aim is to support sustainable processing of e-waste in Europe.