Results of the inquiry carried out in EU MS aiming at (1) the definition of the most critical issues during the inspection according to existing EN 13790 series and (2) identifying PAE types/technical items not yet considered by EN ISO 16122 series.

Among SPISE WG Activities, the Technical Working Group 3 deals with the implementation of current standards EN 13790 part 1 and part 2, methodologies in use and new methods in perspective. Both field crop sprayers and bush and tree crop sprayers are concerned.A virtual questionnaire was sent to Member States delegates in order to identify differences in the interpretation of the requirements among Member States as well as differences in terms of practices. The measurement of the pump capacity that can be achieved either by a direct measurement or through nozzle size requirements, the use of horizontal or vertical patternators, the test mode for nozzles and related settings are implemented differently depending on the country or province. All answers were anonymous.A second part of the questionnaire concerns a prospective study on the implementation of future EN ISO 16122 series. It was asked whether MS delegates were aware of the future publication of EN ISO 16122 parts 1 to 4 and had the opportunity to read at least one the draft documents. Finally, the questionnaire focuses on the definition of sprayer inspection methods for new kind of machines

Introduction paper

Accordingly to EU Directive EC128, pesticide application equipment may satisfy minimum requirements listed in Annex II in order to achieve a high level of protection for human health and the environment. A second aspect refers to harmonized standards precised in article 20 (1) with a principle of presumption of conformity. Finally it is also possible to propose alternative methods as potential tools for sprayer inspection

Assessment of Airborne Transport of Potential Contaminants in a Wind Tunnel

The reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) for sprinkler irrigation could potentially diffuse pathogen-containing droplets off the application area. Wind and other unfavorable climatic factors enhance irrigation drift and bioaerosol dispersion, exposing humans to potentially severe health risks including the spread of diseases. Few studies have quantified bioaerosols during both spraying and airborne transport phases. Studies of effective sampling strategies to better qualify the dispersion process are also required. This paper presents experiments conducted in a wind tunnel for a deeper understanding of the effects of wind and temperature on pathogen or contaminant airborne dispersal and transport. It is the first time that passive collectors [polyvinyl chloride (PVC) lines] and active samplers (AGI-4 impinger) have been compared under analogous wind conditions using a fluorescent tracer. Droplet-size distribution was also investigated at 12 m from the boom with a NanoMoudi 122-NR cascade impactor in increasing wind conditions from 1 to 3 ms−1. PVC lines return a detailed evolution of the sprayed volume within a short range from the boom and for concentrated fluxes. Transport assessment of PVC lines indicates that transport and permanently airborne condition of the spray notably grow with increasing wind, resulting in a more compact and concentrated plume; mean transport increases from 0.13 to 1.18 Lh−1 m−2 at 7.7 m from the nozzle as the wind velocity increases from 1 to 3 ms−1. AGI-4 appears more suitable to assess finely aerosolized conditions because of its greater sensitivity compared to PVC lines as shown for sample values less than 1 Lh−1 m−2. The comparison between the AGI-4 and PVC lines shows higher values of recovery for the active samplers compared to the PVC lines. The total volume collected by the impingers was 2.93% of the sprayed volume, approximately twice that collected by PVC lines under analogous conditions, even though their sampling surface was only 1.54% that of PVC lines. Droplet-size distributions from the cascade impactor denote a median volume diameter from 1.1 to 2 μm, for the nozzle type used, and a relevant reduction in recovery at stronger wind velocities. An empirical relation time of flight is proposed as a first step in developing decision models that can be used to make sprinkler irrigation safe and to define standards for TWW reuse in agricultural practices (e.g., safe distance of application depending upon wind conditions and droplet-size distribution)

Assessment of spray drift potential reduction for hollow-cone nozzles: Part 1. Classification using indirect methods

Spray drift is one of the main pollution sources identified when pesticides are sprayed on crops. In this work, in order to simplify the evaluation of hollow-cone nozzles according to their drift potential reduction, several models commonly used were tested by three indirect methods: phase Doppler particle analyser (PDPA) and two different wind tunnels. The main aim of this study is then to classify for the first time these hollow-cone nozzle models all of them used in tree crop spraying (3D crops). A comparison between these indirect methods to assess their suitability and to provide guidelines for a spray drift classification of hollow-cone nozzles was carried out. The results show that, in general terms, all methods allow hollow-cone nozzle classifications according to their drift potential reduction (DPR) with a similar trend. Among all the parameters determined with the PDPA, the V100 parameter performed best in differentiating the tested nozzles among drift reduction classes. In the wind tunnel, similar values were obtained for both sedimenting and airborne drift depositions. The V100 parameter displayed a high correlation (up to R2 = 0.948) with the drift potential tested with the wind tunnel. It is concluded that in general, the evaluated indirect methods provide equivalent classification results. Additional studies with a greater variety of nozzle types are required to achieve a proposal of harmonized methodology for testing hollow-cone nozzles.This work was partly funded by the Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under Grants 2017 SGR 646, AGL2007-66093-C04-03, AGL2010-22304-04-C03-03, and AGL2013-48297-C2-2-R. The authors also wish to thank Mr. Antonio Checa (Randex Iberica, S.L.) for giving us free Albuz nozzles for the spray tests. Universitat de Lleida is also thanked for Mr. X. Torrent's pre-doctoral fellowship

Archaeological implications of the digestion of starches by soil bacteria: Interaction among starches leads to differential preservation

Soil bacteria damage and destroy starch granules in archaeological contexts, but most studies of this kind of damage report on pairings of a single bacterial species with starches from a single plant species. Here we report the results of experiments in which starch granules from multiple plants were digested by a community of soil bacteria. The damage patterns of this bacterial community generally match those for single bacterial strains, and vary among plant species. However, when the bacteria are exposed to a mixture of starches from different taxa, certain plants are digested in favor of others. This variation in digestion could lead to a bias in the starches represented in the archaeological record. The types of damage observed in this experiment are further compared against that observed on archaeological starches recovered from dental calculus and stone tools