Report from the Sub-comittee on the environment and health

O<strong>the</strong>r factors
When combating weeds in special crops, such as onions, carrots and
leeks, mechanical inter-row cultivation can be used. As things are today,
this has to be followed by manual weeding in <strong>the</strong> rows. This means
workers down on <strong>the</strong>ir knees removing weeds. In some places an attempt
has been made to solve this problem by using instead a slanting trolley
drawn by a tractor. Up to 10-15 people lie side by side on <strong>the</strong> trolley,
removing weeds as <strong>the</strong> tractor moves along at 500-600 metres per hour.
At small production units, weeds could be removed in <strong>the</strong> "old" way,
using hoe and hands. This form of weed control requires a lot of people.
It has been calculated that 75,000 persons are needed in a 4-week period
for weeding in beets with <strong>the</strong> present beet acreage. An organic farmer
who has tried both manual weeding, using workers lying on a special
trolley, and "old-style" weeding estimates that use of <strong>the</strong> trolley saves a
lot of manpower in <strong>the</strong> 3-5 week period in which weed has to be
removed in special crops. The arrangement of <strong>the</strong> workplace in
connection with weed control in special crops has not o<strong>the</strong>rwise been
assessed in practice.
Manual weeding with a hoe can be done standing or kneeling or lying on
a trolley. All <strong>the</strong>se work postures strain <strong>the</strong> body, even when <strong>the</strong> work
takes place over a relatively short period. The work can be regarded as
MRW (monotonous, repetitive work). Persons working on <strong>the</strong>ir knees or
squatting are at risk of increased damage to <strong>the</strong>ir knees, back and
neck/shoulders. The longer <strong>the</strong> time spent on <strong>the</strong> work, <strong>the</strong> greater <strong>the</strong>
risk. However, <strong>the</strong>re are technical and o<strong>the</strong>r ways of establishing
satisfactory working conditions by changing <strong>the</strong> planning of <strong>the</strong> work and
its performance.
The risk of accidents is deemed to be <strong>the</strong> same in <strong>the</strong> different scenarios.
There would perhaps be an increased risk associated with more repair
and maintenance work because more tools are used in mechanical weed
control in <strong>the</strong> scenarios with reduced use of pesticides.
The 0-scenario and <strong>the</strong> intermediate scenarios are not in <strong>the</strong>mselves
deemed to cause more cases of hearing damage. Since <strong>the</strong>re is an
unknown number of old tractors still in use in agriculture, <strong>the</strong>re will
continue to be situations in which noise and vibrations can have injurious
effects. For farmers who do not feel safe using pesticides, <strong>the</strong> scenarios
with significantly reduced use of pesticides could provide a better mental
working environment.
10.4.2 Scenarios for <strong>the</strong> population's intake of pesticides
The occurrence and intake of pesticide residues in food products are
described in section 6.2. Roughly 60% of this intake occurs through
imported food products. The predominant sources of exposure are
vegetables and, particularly, berries and fruits. The sources of
information on this are <strong>the</strong> annual reports <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> Veterinary & Food
Administration, which has carried out countrywide random sampling and
monitoring of pesticide residues in both vegetable and animal food
products on <strong>the</strong> Danish market for many years. In 1996, <strong>the</strong> most
frequently detected pesticides were (in alphabetical order): captan,
carbendazim, chlorothalonil, dithiocarbamates, endosulfan (sum),
iprodione, quintozene, tolylfluanide and vinclozolin. None of <strong>the</strong> finds
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