Pesticides in France: Ten years of combined exposure to active substances in land, air and surface water
Data files
Feb 27, 2025 version files 2.27 GB
Nov 18, 2025 version files 2.27 GB
Abstract
Spatial and temporal fine-scale data of exposure to pesticide in the environment are of great need to environmental and health research. The omnipresence of pesticides in the environment is attested to by numerous analyses, but the availability of data remains inadequate, preventing temporal analyses on large spatial scales such as the national level, where agricultural policies are implemented or adapted. We have compiled data on the purchase of more than a hundred active substances with measurements of pollution of these substances in the air and surface water to propose a map of exposure to the most dangerous active substances between 2013 and 2022 in metropolitan France. We provide a technical validation of the exposure index using a dataset constructed from infield surveys. The combined exposure index is designed to be updated annually, and we anticipate that this dataset will provide first-rate information for conservation and health research.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.g4f4qrg0p
Description of the data and file structure
We combined data between 2013 and 2022 from 1) sold pesticide per postal code retrieve from the French national bank of plant protection products spatialised at the scale of municipalities for 183 active substances, 2) air measurements from the Phytatmo database interpolated to cover the French metropolitan territory for 101 active substances and 3) surface water measurements of 156 active substances.
Among those data, we used active substances classified as toxic or carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic (CMR) to produce an combine exposure index based on the standardised average of pesticde use, iar concentration and surface water concentration.
The dataset is divided in three sub dataset: 1) “Active substances in use, quantity, air and water”, 2) “Yearly exposure to active substance in use, air and water”, 3) “Combined exposure to active substance in use, air and water”. The “Active substances in use, quantity, air and water” is composed of four gpkg files built on the same structure and the “Active substance to report” csv file providing the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number of each active substance mandatory to report between 2013 and 2022. The “Yearly exposure to active substance in use, air and water” and “Combined exposure to active substance in use, air and water” dataset are composed of one gpkg file each.
Files and variables
File: Active_substances_in_use__quantity__air_and_water.zip
Description: These files are composed of four gpkg files and one csv file.
Active_substances_in_use.gpkghas 367,420 rows and the following columns:
geo_id: Polygon ID, i.e. Municipality code (INSEE)
active substance name: Quantity of each active substance mandatory to report in the pesticide sale in extended Treatment Intensity Index (183 different active substances)
year: Year of the monitoring (2013 to 2022)
geom: Polygon geographic information (coordinate reference system RGF93 / Lambert-93)
Active_substances_in_quantity.gpkghas 367,420 rows and the following columns:
geo_id: Polygon ID: Municipality code (INSEE)
active substance name: Quantity of each active substance mandatory to report in the pesticide sale in kg (183 different active substances)
year: Year of the monitoring (2013 to 2022)
geom: Polygon geographic information (coordinate reference system RGF93 / Lambert-93)
Active_substances_in_air.gpkghas 5,484,720 rows and the following columns:
geo_id: Polygon ID: 1x1km polygon ID
active substance name: Interpolated concentration of each active substance mandatory to report in the pesticide sale in ng.m-3 (101 different active substances)
year: Year of the monitoring (2013 to 2022)
geom: Polygon geographic information (coordinate reference system RGF93 / Lambert-93)
Active_substances_in_water.gpkghas 61,900 rows and the following columns:
geo_id: Polygon ID: catchement area
active substance name: Concentration of each active substance mandatory to report in the pesticide sale in ng.m-3 (156 different active substances)
year: Year of the monitoring (2013 to 2022)
geom: Polygon geographic information (coordinate reference system RGF93 / Lambert-93)
Active substance to report.csvprovides the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number of each active substance mandatory to report between 2013 and 2022. It has 252 rows and the following columns:
active_substance: Active substance name
CAS_number: Chemical Abstracts Service number
File: Yearly_exposure_to_active_substance_in_use__air_and_water.zip
Description: This file corresponds to the average exposure to 175 toxic or carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substance for pesticide use, 99 for air pollution and 145 for water pollution for each year between 2013 and 2022. It has 5,484,720 rows and the following columns:
id: Polygon ID: 1x1km polygon ID
year: Year of the monitoring (2013 to 2022)
area: Polygon size in m²
mean_concentration_air: Summed concentration of the 99 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the air (ng.m-³)
mean_concentration_scale_air: Summed concentration of the 99 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the air (ng.m-³), scale to the double of the maximum observed value
mean_tii: Summed treatment intensity index of of the 175 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances used
mean_tii_scale: Summed treatment intensity index of of the 175 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances used, scale to the double of the maximum observed value
mean_concentration_water: Summed concentration of the 145 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the surface water (ng.m-³)
mean_concentration_scale_water: Summed concentration of the 145 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the surface water (ng.m-³), scale to the double of the maximum observed value
all_pesticide_exposure: Combined exposure in toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances from the scaled concentrations in air and water and treatment intensity index, designed to vary between 0 and 3 (historical data between 0 and 1.5)
geom: Polygon geographic information (coordinate reference system RGF93 / Lambert-93)
File: Combined_exposure_to_active_substance_in_use__air_and_water.zip
Description: This file corresponds to the average exposure to 175 toxic or carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substance for pesticide use, 99 for air pollution and 145 for water pollution. It has 548,472 rows and the following columns:
id: Polygon ID: 1x1km polygon ID
area: Polygon size in m²
mean_concentration_air: Summed concentration of the 99 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the air (ng.m-³)
mean_concentration_scale_air: Summed concentration of the 99 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the air (ng.m-³), scale to the double of the maximum observed value
mean_tii: Summed treatment intensity index of of the 175 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances used
mean_tii_scale: Summed treatment intensity index of of the 175 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances used, scale to the double of the maximum observed value
mean_concentration_water: Summed concentration of the 145 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the surface water (ng.m-³)
mean_concentration_scale_water: Summed concentration of the 145 toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances in the surface water (ng.m-³), scale to the double of the maximum observed value
all_pesticide_exposure: Combined exposure in toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic active substances from the scaled concentrations in air and water and treatment intensity index, designed to vary between 0 and 3 (historical data between 0 and 1.5)
geom: Polygon geographic information (coordinate reference system RGF93 / Lambert-93)
Code/software
The code for production the active substance datasets was processed using the R software (version 4.3.1) and is available on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14198724).
Access information
The data can be reproduced using the following:
- SIE. Achats de pesticides par code postal. Available at https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/achats-de-pesticides-par-code-postal/ (accessed on 15/07/2024).
Open Licence version 2.0 - ANSES. Données ouvertes du catalogue E-Phy des produits phytopharmaceutiques, matières fertilisantes et supports de culture, adjuvants, produits mixtes et mélanges. Available at https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/donnees-ouvertes-du-catalogue-e-phy-des-produits-phytopharmaceutiques-matieres-fertilisantes-et-supports-de-culture-adjuvants-produits-mixtes-et-melanges/ (accessed on 15/07/2024).
Open Licence - Atmo France. Base de donnée de surveillance de pesticides dans l’air par les Associations agréées de surveillance de la qualité de l’air (AASQA) à partir de 2002. Available at https://www.data.gouv.fr/fr/datasets/base-de-donnee-de-surveillance-de-pesticides-dans-l-air-par-les-aasqa-a-partir-de-2002/ (accessed on 15/07/2024).
Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) - OFB. NAIADES, France entière, données physicochimiques. Available at https://naiades.eaufrance.fr/france-entiere#/ (accessed on 15/07/2024).
Open Licence - SANDRE. Stations de mesure de la qualité des eaux superficielles continentales (STQ) - Métropole. Available at https://www.sandre.eaufrance.fr/atlas/srv/fre/catalog.search#/metadata/71767e88-a021-4e88-8787-5feed04958d6 (accessed on 15/07/2024).
Open Licence - SANDRE. Bassins versant topographiques - Métropole 2024 - BD Topage. Available at https://www.sandre.eaufrance.fr/atlas/srv/fre/catalog.search#/metadata/9002f47d-62d2-4bff-b95c-b1dc1b0bd319 (accessed on 15/07/2024).
Open Licence version 2.0
Changes after Feb 27, 2025: Water concentration scaling has been corrected (between 0 and 0.5) to ensure the combined exposure index ranges from 0 to 1.5 on historical data.