Pesticide Flow Analysis to Assess Human Exposure in Greenhouse Flower Production in Colombia

Abstract

Human exposure assessment tools represent a means for understanding human exposure to pesticides in agricultural activities and managing possible health risks. This paper presents a pesticide flow analysis modeling approach developed to assess human exposure to pesticide use in greenhouse flower crops in Colombia, focusing on dermal and inhalation exposure. This approach is based on the material flow analysis methodology. The transfer coefficients were obtained using the whole body dosimetry method for dermal exposure and the button personal inhalable aerosol sampler for inhalation exposure, using the tracer uranine as a pesticide surrogate. The case study was a greenhouse rose farm in the Bogota Plateau in Colombia. The approach was applied to estimate the exposure to pesticides such as mancozeb, carbendazim, propamocarb hydrochloride, fosetyl, carboxin, thiram, dimethomorph and mandipropamide. We found dermal absorption estimations close to the AOEL reference values for the pesticides carbendazim, mancozeb, thiram and mandipropamide during the study period. In addition, high values of dermal exposure were found on the forearms, hands, chest and legs of study participants, indicating weaknesses in the overlapping areas of the personal protective equipment parts. These results show how the material flow analysis methodology can be applied in the field of human exposure for early recognition of the dispersion of pesticides and support the development of measures to improve operational safety during pesticide management. Furthermore, the model makes it possible to identify the status quo of the health risk faced by workers in the study area.

Pesticide Use and Serum Acetylcholinesterase Levels among Flower Farm Workers in Ethiopia—A Cross-Sectional Study

“…This indicates that exposure to pesticides can occur among workers on greenhouse farms even though they are not directly involved in spraying. This could also happen due to the presence of pesticide residues on flowers while they are being cultivated, harvested and further processed for export [16,39]. In addition, although pesticide inhalation is a concern in greenhouse farms because pesticides could remain in the air and workers could inhale pesticide mists, the majority of occupational exposure is reported to occur through the dermal route.…”

6-Gingerol-rich fraction fromZingiber officinaleameliorates carbendazim-induced endocrine disruption and toxicity in testes and epididymis of rats

“…There is a growing public health concern about the frequent application of pesticides because epidemiological studies have related it with different diseases including cancers, endocrine dysfunction, neurological disorders, reproductive and developmental abnormalities (Garry, Holland, Erickson, & Burroughs, ; Garry et al., ; Hanke & Jurewicz, ; Lesmes‐Fabian & Binder, ). Organic and inorganic fungicides are frequently applied in agriculture to control a large number of fungal pathogens during crop production (Ivic, ; Zubrod, Baudy, Schulz, & Bundschuh, ).…”

Dissipation and Residues of Thiram in Potato and Soil

“…Thiram has a relatively low toxicity, but hand eczema and dermatitis to works [5], adverse reproductive [6][7][8], developmental effects [7] and neurotoxicity [9] to test animals, and genotoxic activity to cell system [10,11] has been reported. Regarding dithiocarbamate analytical methodology in vegetables, their stability have been reported, especially in acidic plant juices [12,13]. Dithiocarbamates easily decompose to carbon disulphide (CS 2 ) and the respective amine in acidic medium [14].…”