Prévention construite en agriculture : contribution de l’ergotoxicologie à partir de trois recherches‑actions

Abstract

This article proposes the development of a 'constructed prevention' approach as an alternative to the dominant safety models used in the agricultural environment. It is based on the theoretical frameworks of safety in psychology and ergonomics (industrial safety, patient safety and resilience), and in particular regulated and managed safety, in order to identify the conditions for the development of constructed prevention. We attempted to test this model of prevention by analysing pesticide exposure situations based on three agricultural case studies. These cases relate to prospects for contributions to the design of vineyard sprayers (Albert, 2022), to the real protection resources during sowing as part of a project in collaboration with the MSA (Fredj, 2021), and to the limits imposed on the use of pesticide containers in France and Quebec (Goutille, 2022; Jolly, 2022). It emerges that constructed prevention involves the development of individual and collective practices aimed at preserving health. The process is based on participatory methods for analysing and then transforming and designing the activity, which require action to be taken on determinants close to and distant from the work situation. The challenge of this approach is that of strengthening the development of prevention based on an understanding and on a construction founded on human work. We then propose the items to be taken into account in the diagnosis and development of activity-based prevention. This work is a contribution to the development of an operating model of safety.

Keywords

• agriculture
• prevention
• pesticides
• health at work
• occupational exposure