Client/Funder: European Crop Protection Association

Brief summary of work: The Improving Exposure Assessment Methodologies for Epidemiological Studies on Pesticides (IMPRESS) project aims to further the understanding of the performance of pesticide Exposure Assessment Methods (EAM). The IMPRESS project used two approaches to assess EAM performance:

1. Existing and newly collected data was used, from five existing studies from three different countries (UK, Uganda and Malaysia), that members of the IMPRESS team were responsible for, these being:
   • Prospective Investigation of Pesticide Applicators’ Health (PIPAH), UK
   • Pesticide Users Health Study (PUHS), UK
   • Study of Health in Agricultural Work (SHAW), UK
   • Pesticide Use in Tropical Settings (PESTROP), Uganda
   • Malaysia farm workers, Malaysia
2. The use of published secondary data. Three meta-analyses were undertaken to investigate the influence of EAMs, and other parameters such as geographical area, study design, and time period, on the standardised risk ratio of prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Parkinson’s disease.

Collaborative partners: Health & Safety Laboratory, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (Utrecht University), The Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health (University of Manchester)

Project website: https://www.impress-project.org/

Published papers: 

• Mueller W, Jones K, Fuhrimann S, Sidek Ahmad ZNB, Sams C, Harding A-H, Povey A, Atuhaire A, Basinas I, van Tongeren M, Kromhout H, Galea KS. (2023) Factors influencing occupational exposure to pyrethroids and glyphosate: An analysis of urinary biomarkers in Malaysia, Uganda and the United Kingdom. Environmental Research, 117651
• Fuhrimann S, Mueller W, Atuhaire A, Ohlander J, Mubeezi R, Povey A, Basinas I, van Tongeren M, Jones K, Sams C, Galea KS, Kromhout H. (2023) Self-reported and urinary biomarker-based measures of exposure to glyphosate and mancozeb and sleep problems among smallholder farmers in Uganda, Environment International, 108277
• Ohlander J, Fuhrimann S, Basinas I, Cherrie JW, Galea KS, Povey AC, van Tongeren M, Harding A-H, Jones K, Vermeulen R, Huss A, Kromhout H. Impact of occupational pesticide exposure assessment method on risk estimates for prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Parkinson’s disease: results of three meta-analyses. OEM. Published Online First: 07 April 2022
• William Mueller, Kate Jones, Hani Mohamed, Neil Bennett, Anne-Helen Harding, Gillian Frost, Andrew Povey, Ioannis Basinas, Hans Kromhout, Martie van Tongeren, Samuel Fuhrimann, Karen S Galea, Recall of exposure in UK farmers and pesticide applicators: trends with follow-up time, Annals of Work Exposures and Health, 2022
• Mueller W, Atuhaire A, Mubeezi R, van den Brenk I, Kromhout H, Basinas I, Jones K, Povey A, van Tongeren M, Harding AH, Galea KS, Fuhrimann S (2022) Evaluation of two-year recall of self-reported pesticide exposure among Ugandan smallholder farmers. International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health; 240.
• Jones K, Basinas I, Kromhout H, van Tongeren M, Harding AH, Cherrie JW, Povey A, Sidek Ahmad ZN, Fuhrimann S, Ohlander J, Vermeulen R, Galea KS. Improving Exposure Assessment Methodologies for Epidemiological Studies on Pesticides: Study Protocol. JMIR
• Ohlander J, Fuhrimann S, Basinas I, et al Systematic review of methods used to assess exposure to pesticides in occupational epidemiology studies, 1993–2017. Occupational and Environmental Medicine Published Online First: 25 February 2020. 
• Galea, K.S., Basinas, I., Cherrie, J.W., Fuhrimann, S., Harding, A.H., Jones, K., Kromhout, H., Ohlander, J., Povey, A., Ahmad, Z.N.S. and van Tongeren, M., 2019. Impress: Improving Exposure Assessment Methodologies for Epidemiological Studies on Pesticides. Outlooks on Pest Management, 30(1), pp.18-19.