The scary truth of pesticide contamination in French vineyards
An in-depth study confirms that adults and children living in vineyard areas, are being doused in pesticide particles
On September 15th, the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (ANSES) and Santé publique France finally released the long-awaited PestiRiv study. The release had been delayed twice, probably because the contents do not paint a great picture of the French wine industry ‘s sustainability credentials. The aim of this 2022 study was to determine if a correlation exists between vine treatments and pesticides contamination in the local population.
Study coverage
A sample of around 2700 people, split between 1946 adults, aged between 18 and 79 and 742 children, between 3 and 7 years old, covered twenty-three test sides, divided in 265 zones, located in Alsace, Beaujolais, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Languedoc Roussillon, Rhone Valley and Provence. The test sites included locals -people living less than 1000 meters from a vineyard – and a control group, people living more than 5 km from a vineyard and more than 1000 meters from any farmland. 579 adults and 232 children participated in the test both in the growing season (between March and August), when treatments occur frequently, and before the growing season (between October and February), when treatments are more exceptional.
Potential exposure to fifty-six substances were tested, both as absorbed by the test population through hair and urine samples, as well as being present in the ambient air, interior air, dust and garden produce. All but four of these chemicals were authorized for vineyard use – the four unauthorized substances had been banned between 2018, when a pilot study was initiated, and 2022, the year the actual study was conducted. They include products used almost exclusively in viticulture (eg folpel, a fungicide aimed to combat powdery and downy mildew as well as botrytis), products with wider agriculture use (eg. the herbicide glyphosate) and products more widely sprayed to kill pests (eg pyrethroids). Pesticide usage in the test area and weather conditions (predominantly wind) were also considered when analyzing the results.
Results
Before delving in the results it is important to point out that 2022 is considered to be the hottest year on record in France at time of the PestiRiv reporting (2024). The year is also one of the driest (little rain and humidity) implying that disease pressure was significantly smaller than in other years. The study acknowledges this limitation by stating that the Indicateur de Fréquence de Traitement (IFT) in 2022 was lower than in the four previous years (2018-2021). The IFT measures how many doses of pesticides were sprayed, whereby the maximum authorized dosage per product per hectare equals to one dose.
The PestiRiv results confirm that people living among the vineyards have a higher pesticide contamination than those living further away. Moreover, the pesticide intake of locals increases during the growing season, especially for people living closest to the vineyards. However, it is important to note that agricultural practices (eg farming organic or excessive pesticide usage) has a strong correlation with the amount of pesticide contamination of locals. In other words, the more chemicals are sprayed, the more locals are submitted to pesticide pollution.
Overall, during the growing season, copper and sulfur were detected 100% of the time in the ambient air, glyphosate was detected 87.1% of the time, folpel 62.8% and fosetyl-aluminum, a fungicide often used in combination with folpel was found 57.5%. All other substances were detected less than 50% of the time. These substances were also found in the urine and hair samples, but quantities were influenced by personal habits. For instance spending more time outdoors, hanging out washing outside, eating homegrown fruit and vegetables without pealing them, eating eggs from chickens kept in the garden all increased the contamination rate.
Children show similar exposure as adults with the exception of pyrethroids insecticides, where they seem more vulnerable to contamination.
PestiRiv clearly states that since no questions were asked about the general health of the participants at any point in the study, no potential sanitary dangers of pesticide exposure to locals can be extrapolated from the data obtained. Nevertheless, seeing the exposure influence of pesticides for the local population, researchers urge that actions are taken to limit pesticide exposure for local populations.
Recommendations
In the light of the above, the study recommends a significant reduction of pesticide usage in vineyards. This can be achieved by only spraying systematic chemicals when it is strictly necessary. These products are by definition toxic to all living beings. Moreover, locals should be warned about upcoming treatments so that they can take the necessary precautions. Lastly, ANSES and Santé Publique France restate their demand for a database regrouping all pesticide usage and recommend that further studies into pesticide contamination are conducted. They also confirm that the results of PestiRiv can be extrapolated to all agriculture practices. In fact, vineyards were selected for this study because they are one of the biggest pesticide users both in terms of number of applications and pesticide purchased. Furthermore vines are perennial, and pesticides are generally applied higher off the ground thus increasing the exposure risk for local populations.
In my opinion, this study is important because of its breadth and depth. For the first time ever a direct correlation between pesticide usage and pesticide pollution has been established in France. The results are in line with similar studies on pesticide contamination, for instance the 2015 OBO study in the Netherlands, thus giving even more weight to the real danger of pesticide exposure for people living in an agriculture or viticulture area.
The study was conducted in 2022, a very easy growing season, yet ambient air contamination shows excessive preventative spraying of the vines. It is very likely that pesticides IFT’s have increased in 2023, 2024 and probably this year as well, thus they are expanding (rather than decreasing) local pesticide contamination risks.
Moreover it pays to point out that European data on the sales of pesticides illustrates that while overall EU pesticide consumption decreased between 2011 and 2023, the French pesticide consumption rate increased by 7% over the same period of time. Moreover, while French herbicide sales remained level (+0.02%), fungicides increased by 6.2% and insecticides more than doubled in volume (+62%). In fact, with sales exceeding 64 tons. France took pole position in the EU pesticide consumption in 2023; it kept its first position on herbicide usage and defeated Italy and Spain (respectively first and second in 2011) to claim the fungicide crown as well. These figures illustrate once again the likelihood of an increased viticultural pesticide IFT after the study.
And while all of the above reveals that pesticide contamination of its citizens is a reality, it seems that the French government has been more focused on watering down pesticide restrictions to appease its farmers wrath, than to care for the wider population. In fact, earlier this year the so called Loi Duplomb, proposed to facilitate the pesticide derogation process for farmers, includes for instance the possibility to spray fungicides and insecticides by drone in steep vineyards, thus further increasing their contamination reach. On September 16, in light of the recommendations of the PestiRiv study, a demand for the abrogation of this law has been proposed by the Green party. Furthermore, a petition signed by 2.1 million citizens this summer clearly shows the population’s objections to a relaxation of pesticide restrictions.
Lastly, in light of the French wine crisis, which has resulted in several distillation and vine grubbing campaigns, it appears difficult, at least in my opinion, to continue to justify excessive vineyard pesticide usage. With wine sales dwindling, there is no need to chemically push production, especially if this leads to stock surplus that later will need to be distilled. Moreover, Millennials and Gen-Zers have long expressed a preference for greener products in their purchases.
Champagne
While Champagne has been spared (so far) from government assisted distillation to readjust its stock levels, there is no denying demand is in a downward spiral. Initial August sales figures show yet another monthly decline of 6.7% compared to last year and the moving annual target (MAT) decreased to 269.2 million bottles (-1.8%). Considering the complicated current geo-political and economic climate, the changing wine consumption patterns and increasing competition, one could safely deduce that sales are not likely to surge in the short to medium term. Therefore, the commercial appellation figure -that is based on recent sales, stocks and forecasts – is likely to remain below 10,000 kg/ha. Lower yield expectations infer the possibility of – at least in theory – significant pesticide reductions, but there is no denying this will remain a hard sell.
PestiRiv collected data in two Champagne villages – Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Champillon and neither came out exemplary. In fact, pesticide usage was generally higher than most other test sites, both for herbicides and fungicides. For instance glyphosate was found in all tests 100% of the time during the growing season – this is 12.9% above the general study average of 87.1% . Pendimethalin and propyzamide, two pre-emergent herbicides, were also overrepresented compared to the other test sites, this time outside the growing season, seeing they are applied in winter. Interestingly folpel and fosetyl-aluminum were also detected outside the growing season, showing a preponderance for preemptive fungicide spraying at the very beginning of the growing season.
Yet it pays to point out that Champagne has been bucking the pesticide increase current. Comité Champagne (CIVC) data shows that both the 2022 fungicide and herbicide IFTs were the lowest in the period between 2006 and 2024.
In fact, when analyzing Champagne’s pesticide consumption, it is obvious that the IFT’s of synthetic fungicides and insecticides have reduced dramatically between 2006 and 2024 (-38.5%), despite the extremely difficult 2024 growing season. Some of these
