Escaping from the city and accepting new risks
Résumé
High productivity agriculture induces the spread of fertilizers and phytosanitary treatments, which creates health risks for people living in villages and small towns, surrounded by open fields. The aim of the PEPPAZU project (“Perception and Assessment of Phytosanitary Products in the Air in Peri-urban Sector”) is to study both objective measures of pollutants in the air and the population's perception of the nuisances and dangers of these pollutants. This paper shows some results from the perception survey, conducted in two municipalities of the urban area of Dunkirk. These two situations show that, despite an objectively similar situation in terms of pollution from agricultural sources, perceptions of populations are different.