The Investigation and Surveillance of Agrichemical Drift Exposures: Guidelines for Public Health Officers

The guidelines were created to enable public health officers to consistently identify incidents, and collect environmental, exposure and health data to assess the health effects of any unintended short-term agrichemical exposures.

The guidelines provide guidance to public health officers who investigate complaints of adverse health impacts from agrichemical drift incidents. These guidelines should be used whenever a complaint of off-target agrichemical drift is made or referred to the National Public Health Service. Properly applied, the guidelines will assist with determining:

• the health impact of an agrichemical drift incident
• appropriate advice on managing the consequences of the incident, including risk communication.

2024 revisions

These guidelines are a revision of the Guidelines for the Assessment, Surveillance, and Management of Injuries from Spray Drift (Ministry of Health, 2007).  Major changes in this edition are to:

• extend the scope of the guidelines from agrichemical sprays to other agrichemicals including pesticides
• update information about surveillance of suspected cases
• update other information and the references provided.