Pesticide use on strawberries during harvest seasons increases their exposure risks to harvesters. However, harvester activities in strawberry fields have not been well described. Traditional methods use work hours to calculate harvester pesticide exposure and do not account for different field conditions and harvesters with different picking efficiencies. We recruited 33 full-time harvesters, tracked their field activities, and recorded videos to calculate their contact with plants while picking. The results showed that with the same working hours, harvesters worked at different rates and their plant contact depended on field conditions, work proficiency and activities other than picking (e.g., transferring flats). Compared to work hours, weight of strawberries picked is a better indicator of harvester plant contact, especially for different fields, different strawberry growth stages, different plant varieties, and different workers. Based on strawberry amount collected by a harvester, we can estimate his/her plant contact and better predict harvester pesticide exposure.

New method to track strawberry harvester working activity and predict their pesticide exposure

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.