USER GUIDE TO THE REVISED UK PREDICTIVE OPERATOR EXPOSURE MODEL (UK POEM)

1. Select the appropriate spreadsheet: ‘Liquid concentrate formulations’ (e.g. EC, EW, SC, SL etc.) or ‘Solid
concentrate formulations’ (e.g. WP, SP, WG, SG etc.) note a

2. Use the pull-down menus to select the appropriate options for ‘Application method’, ‘Formulation type’, ‘Container’
(for liquid concentrate formulations only), ‘PPE during mix/loading’ and ‘PPE during application’. Use the scroll bar
which appears in the ‘Container’ pull-down menu to view all options. note b

3. Type appropriate text in the green boxes for ‘Product’ (product name), ‘Active substance’ (active substance name),
‘a.s. concentration’ (nominal active content of the formulation in mg/ml for liquid concentrates or mg/g for solid
concentrates), ‘Dermal absorption from product’ (percentage dermal absorption of the active from the concentrate),
‘Dermal absorption from spray’ (percentage dermal absorption of the active from the spray solution), ‘Dose’ (dose of
product in litres/ha for liquid concentrate formulations or kg/ha for solid concentrate formulations) and ‘Application
volume’ (application volume in litres of spray solution/ha). note c

Notes

a) The data for dermal and inhalation exposure when mixing and loading solid formulations are 75th percentile
surrogate values (or maximum values for small data sets) taken from the German Model (BBA 1992) with the
exception of the inhalation values for WG and WP formulations for loading tractor-mounted/trailed sprayers which
are now based on EUROPOEM and PHED data, respectively. In the absence of data on dermal exposure when
mixing and loading a WP/SP formulation for hand-held equipment, the surrogate value for this parameter is based
on the maximum value for a WG/SG formulation (a warning to this effect will appear on the spreadsheet). In the
original version of the UK POEM, exposure values (dermal only) for the mixing and loading of solid formulations
were not based on data.

b) Description of pull-down menus.

i) ‘Application method’: a new option is provided for home garden uses.
ii) ‘Formulation type’: liquid concentrate formulations are described as ‘organic solvent-based’ or ‘water-based’ (the
former is likely to include EC formulations, the latter is likely to include SC/SL formulations, but other formulation
types (e.g. EW) could fall into either category and the composition of the product being considered must be taken
into account).
iii) ‘Container’ (liquid concentrate formulations only): new options are provided for different types of home garden
pesticide packaging based on new data. Although the type and size of packaging is not considered for solid
concentrate formulations (the German model data are based only on the amount of active substance handled),
dermal and inhalation exposure during mixing and loading is assumed to be negligible for solid concentrates packed
in water-soluble bags.
iv) ‘PPE during mix/loading’: options for solid concentrate formulations include gloves and/or RPE (EN149 FFP2 or
FFP3) whereas only gloves are considered for liquid concentrate formulations (for the latter, inhalation exposure
during mixing and loading operations is considered to be negligible). If the home garden sprayer option is selected
under ‘Application method’, the use of PPE during mixing and loading is not considered and an error message will
appear on the spreadsheet unless ‘None’ has been selected from the pull-down menu.

v) ‘PPE during application’: a new option of impermeable coveralls is available when the use of knapsack sprayers or
hand-held CDA lances is selected from ‘Application method’ (this PPE option will disappear from the pull-down menu
when other application methods are selected and an error message will appear on the spreadsheet if an invalid PPE
option has been selected). If the home garden sprayer option is selected for ‘Application method’, the use of PPE
during application is not considered and an error message will appear on the spreadsheet unless ‘None’ has been
selected. It is assumed that an amateur user wears a T-shirt (leaving 10% of the trunk/arm surface area exposed
and allowing 20% penetration in the covered area) and shorts (leaving 70% of the leg surface area exposed and
allowing 18% penetration in the covered area) when using a home garden sprayer.

c) Description of data entry cells.

i) ‘Dermal absorption ...’: by default the value entered into the cell ‘Dermal absorption from product’ will be copied into
the cell ‘Dermal absorption from spray’ (the latter can be overtyped if a different dermal absorption value is
appropriate).
ii) ‘Work rate/day’: the value displayed will be the default work rate for the application method selected (50 ha/day for
boom sprayers, 15 ha/day for orchard sprayers, 1 ha/day for knapsack sprayers (or an automatically adjusted area
based on a maximum work rate of 400 litres of spray solution/day), 1 ha/day for hand-held CDA lances and 0.01
ha/day for home garden sprayers). This cell can be overtyped if the worksheet is unprotected (‘Tools’, ‘Protection’,
‘Unprotect sheet’ - no password is required).
iii) ‘Duration of spraying’: the value displayed will be the default work rate for the application method selected (0.5 hour
for home garden sprayers and 6 hours for all other methods of application). This cell can be overtyped if the
worksheet is unprotected (‘Tools’, ‘Protection’, ‘Unprotect sheet’ - no password is required).
 Liquid concentrate formulations

THE UK PREDICTIVE OPERATOR EXPOSURE MODEL (POEM)

Application method Tractor-mounted/trailed boom sprayer: hydraulic nozzles

Product Active substance
Formulation type water-based a.s. concentration mg/ml
Dermal absorption from product % Dermal absorption from spray %
Container 10 litres 63 mm closure
PPE during mix/loading None PPE during application None
Dose l/ha Work rate/day ha
Application volume l/ha Duration of spraying h

EXPOSURE DURING MIXING AND LOADING

Container size 10 litres
Hand contamination/operation 0.05 ml
Application dose 0 litres product/ha
Work rate 0 ha/day
Number of operations 0 /day
Hand contamination 0 ml/day
Protective clothing None
Transmission to skin 100 %
Dermal exposure to formulation 0 ml/day

DERMAL EXPOSURE DURING SPRAY APPLICATION

Application technique Tractor-mounted/trailed boom sprayer: hydraulic nozzles
Application volume 0 spray/ha
Volume of surface contamination 10 ml/h
Distribution Hands Trunk Legs
65% 10% 25%
Clothing None Permeable Permeable
Penetration 100% 5% 15%
Dermal exposure 6.5 0.05 0.375 ml/h
Duration of exposure 0 h
Total dermal exposure to spray 0 ml/day

ABSORBED DERMAL DOSE

Mix/load Application
Dermal exposure 0 ml/day 0 ml/day
Concen. of a.s. product or spray 0 mg/ml #DIV/0! mg/ml
Dermal exposure to a.s. 0 mg/day #DIV/0! mg/day
Percent absorbed 0 % 0 %
Absorbed dose 0 mg/day #DIV/0! mg/day

INHALATION EXPOSURE DURING SPRAYING

Inhalation exposure 0.01 ml/h
Duration of exposure 0 h
Concentration of a.s. in spray #DIV/0! mg/ml
Inhalation exposure to a.s. #DIV/0! mg/day
Percent absorbed 100 %
Absorbed dose #DIV/0! mg/day

PREDICTED EXPOSURE
Total absorbed dose #DIV/0! mg/day
Operator body weight 60 kg
Operator exposure #DIV/0! mg/kg bw/day

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 Solid concentrate formulations

THE UK PREDICTIVE OPERATOR EXPOSURE MODEL (POEM) WITH GERMAN MODEL MIX/LOAD DATA (75th PERCENTILE)

Application method Tractor-mounted/trailed broadcast air-assisted sprayer: 500 l/ha

Product Active substance
Formulation type WG or SG a.s. concentration
Dermal absorption from product % Dermal absorption from spray
PPE during mix/loading Gloves
None PPE during application None
Dose kg product/ha Work rate/day ha
Application volume l/ha Duration of spraying h

DERMAL EXPOSURE DURING MIXING AND LOADING

Hand contamination/kg a.s. 5.72 mg/kg a.s.
Hand contamination/day 0 mg/day
Protective clothing Gloves
Transmission to skin 1 %
Dermal exposure to a.s. 0 mg/day

INHALATION EXPOSURE DURING MIXING AND LOADING

Inhalation exposure/kg a.s. 0.0358 mg/kg a.s.
Inhalation exposure/day 0 mg/day
RPE None
Transmission through RPE 100 %
Inhalation exposure to a.s. 0 mg/day

DERMAL EXPOSURE DURING SPRAY APPLICATION

Application technique Tractor-mounted/trailed broadcast air-assisted sprayer: 500 l/ha
Application volume 0 spray/ha
Volume of surface contamination 400 ml/h
Distribution Hands Trunk Legs
10% 65% 25%
Clothing None Permeable Permeable
Penetration 100% 2% 5%
Dermal exposure 10 5.2 5 ml/h
Duration of exposure 0 h
Total dermal exposure to spray 0 ml/day
Concentration of a.s. in spray solut #DIV/0! mg/ml
Dermal exposure to a.s. #DIV/0! mg/day

INHALATION EXPOSURE DURING SPRAYING

Inhalation exposure to spray 0.05 ml/h
Duration of exposure 0 h
Concentration of a.s. in spray #DIV/0! mg/ml
Inhalation exposure to a.s. #DIV/0! mg/day
Percent absorbed 100 %
Absorbed dose #DIV/0! mg/day

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