Journal für Kulturpflanzen (Sep 2022)

Survey about the dissemination of different cabin categories in plant protection of German practice

  • Jens Karl Wegener,
  • Katrin Ahrens,
  • Gabor Molnar,
  • Sabine Martin,
  • Markus Röver,
  • Sebastian Dittmar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5073/JfK.2022.09-10.01
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 74, no. 09-10

Abstract

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The Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) specified that certain driver cabs are suitable to replace personal protective equipment prescribed with the approval of plant protection products during application. This protective effect has been accepted since 2017 for category 3 or 4 driver's cabs (EN 15695-1/2017) and since 2020 for enclosed cabs equipped with air conditioning including an air filtration system (BVL category 2*). The protection level of cat. 2* cabins is currently being investigated in a research project. In this context, a survey of farmers was conducted to obtain more information about the distribution and equipment of tractor cabins in agricultural practice in Germany. The questionnaire is divided into two sections. The first part collects personal demographic data and data on the structure and location of the farms. The second part deals with the technical equipment and use of the vehicles. A total of 4,199 valid questionnaires were evaluated. The results from Part 1 of the survey on the percentage distribution of participating farms across the German Federal States and the sizes of farms represented are close to the statistical data from Destatis. Larger farms are slightly overrepresented in this survey. Nevertheless, the results provide profound information on the prevalence of different cab categories in agricultural practice in plant protection in Germany. The survey provided further results, regardless of the cab category. It showed that the replacement interval for cabin air filters is less than 2 years in most cases, that 40% of the participants indicated that they clean their cab after applying plant protection products, and that almost 90% of the users feel well protected against plant protection products in their cab. The results are plausible and in line with earlier assumptions. With the publication of the results, valid information on this topic is now available.

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