French CCMSA (Caisse Centrale de la Mutualité Sociale Agricole) is organizing on 23^rd March 2009 in Paris a conference on Prevention in the field of pesticides and health. Taking place in a European perspective, this event aims, on the one hand, at discussing national best practices and, on the other hand, at opening possible paths for future European cooperation.

Among all the activities it develops, MSA (Mutualité Sociale Agricole) which manages the social protection for French agricultural population (farmers, agricultural employees, and their families), i.e. more than 6 million of people, deals with occupational medicine and runs occupational hazard prevention initiatives. This is the reason why it organises this event in the framework of the “Phyt’attitude” project’s tenth anniversary.

Phyt’attitude is a specific observatory of risks related to the use of phytopharmeceuticals. Its main goals are to define more clearly acute and subacute adverse effects of crop protection products, to develop individual prevention through user guidelines taking into account real working conditions and to improve prevention giving a feedback of information to manufacturers and authorities.

French and EU high level speakers will be invited to this event. Starting with the results observed over ten years by Phyt’attitude, the conference will highlight other good practices. The morning session will deal with “Products, equipment, organization: what prospects for health and prevention?” The afternoon session will highlight “the importance of a collective awareness about exposure to pesticides” and a final exchange regarding a potential cross border cooperation towards a European observatory of phytosanitarian poisoning will close the event.

Access to the conference will be free and a French/English translation will be available. More detailed information on the program, the speakers and the registration procedure will be available very soon.

For further information, you can contact CCMSA at :

cazeuneuve.jeremie@ccmsa.msa.fr