Milk production in France represents a major agro-economic sector. Dairy farms provide an environment conducive to the formation and dispersion of fungal bioaerosols originating from various environmental reservoirs present on farms (manure, straw, hay, bedding, silage, etc.), to which both farmers and cattle are potentially exposed. In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report identifying certain fungal species as priority pathogens. Among these pathogens are molds commonly detected in aerosols. It is therefore necessary to characterize fungal communities present in dairy farms, including bioaerosols and different matrices. To characterize the mycobiota of air and the different matrices (feed, bedding, manure, water), 12 dairy farms were selected in Normandy and monitored during the winter season when cows remain indoors. Air samples were collected during various farming tasks (feeding, bedding, milking), and the different matrices were also studied. Molds were isolated and identified using microscopic and molecular methods. Physical data (temperature, relative humidity, particles number) were also collected during sampling. Species belonging to the genus Aspergillus (A. fumigatus in bioaerosols; A. tubingensis in feed and bedding), the genus Penicillium and its related species (Talaromyces piceae in bioaerosols; Penicillium series Roquefortorum in feed) and those of the Mucorales order (Mucor in bioaerosols, bedding and manure; Lichtheimia in feed) were the most recurrent species in dairy farms included in our study. Mulching is the activity that generates higher level of particles (p = .025), resulting in exposure mainly to Aspergillus (A. tubingensis: 417.5 CFU/m3) and Mucorales (Lichtheimia: 668.2 CFU/m3, Rhizopus: 131.8 CFU/m3 and Absidia: 127.3 CFU/m3). This study highlighted significant fungal diversity in bioaerosols, feed, bedding, and manure from dairy farms. The issue of fungal aerosolization was also addressed by observing transfer of strains from feed, bedding, and manure into the air during handling.

Southwestern Paraná, Brazil, is characterized by intensive family farming, in which chronic occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides is a major public health concern. This community-based, uncontrolled, pre-post mixed-methods intervention study implemented a toxicovigilance and health education program and evaluated changes in pesticide exposure among rural women. Discussion circles and educational activities were conducted with 492 women farmers from seven community groups in five municipalities with high pesticide use. Human biomonitoring was performed in a subset: 42 women provided pre-intervention urine samples, and 19 of these participants returned post-intervention samples, constituting the paired follow-up subgroup. The 23 participants without a second sample were considered lost to biomonitoring follow-up. Urinary glyphosate was quantified by nano-UPLC-MS/MS and normalized to urinary creatinine. Mean creatinine-adjusted glyphosate concentrations were 11.6 ± 2.15 ppb/mg/dL creatinine at baseline (n = 42) and 3.0 ± 0.98 ppb/mg/dL creatinine after the intervention (n = 19). All 19 women with complete paired follow-up showed lower post-intervention concentrations (95% CI 82.4-100%, p < .001). The intervention focused particularly on safe handling and laundering of pesticide-contaminated clothing and the use of rubber gloves. These findings indicate that urinary glyphosate concentrations were lower after the educational intervention.

The widespread reliance on synthetic pesticides remains a defining feature of modern agriculture, particularly in tropical and export-oriented farming systems. While these chemicals have contributed to yield stability and pest suppression, their long-term consequences for farmer health, environmental integrity, and food system sustainability remain insufficiently integrated within existing agricultural decision frameworks. In Malaysia and similar middle-income agricultural economies, synthetic pesticide adoption rooted in colonial-era agrochemical trials and intensified through the expansion of herbicides such as glyphosate, has fostered structurally chemical-dependent farming practices. These practices disproportionately transfer occupational and environmental health risks to farmers and rural communities. Current approaches to pesticide management, including Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and regulatory risk assessment, provide important but fragmented solutions. IPM primarily prioritizes pest control and crop protection outcomes, while regulatory frameworks focus on product-level hazard and safety thresholds that may not fully capture cumulative, route-specific exposures in real-world farming conditions. Consequently, no unified framework explicitly positions human health protection as the central organizing principle of pesticide decision-making. This paper proposes a Health-based Hierarchy of Control for Sustainable Agriculture, adapted from occupational safety and health principles and informed by environmental health and chemical risk assessment logic. The framework prioritizes system-level ecological design and non-chemical controls, positioning chemical intervention as a least-preferred, last resort option. By reframing pesticide use through hazard elimination and exposure prevention, the model offers a structured decision logic for agricultural health, policy development, and future empirical validation.