Potential dermal exposure to operators applying pesticide on greenhouse crops using low-cost equipment

Rincón, Víctor; Páez, Francisco; López, Julián Sánchez-Hermosilla

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.235

Cited by 25 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The higher exposure when walking forwards is mainly due to the greater contact of the operator's body with the sprayed plants, but also to the fact that the operator walks through the spray cloud rather than away from it. Rincón et al [51], testing a knapsack with a vertical spray boom, showed that if the operator stops at the turns for a few seconds, allowing the previously sprayed droplet cloud to dissipate, the level of exposure decreased significantly.…”

Section: Tests On Tomato Plants: Effects Of Walking Direction and Plamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sustainability 2017, 9, x FOR PEER REVIEW 11 of 21 et al [51], testing a knapsack with a vertical spray boom, showed that if the operator stops at the turns for a few seconds, allowing the previously sprayed droplet cloud to dissipate, the level of exposure decreased significantly. PDE expressed in milliliters per working hour is reported in Figure 5.…”

Section: Tests On Tomato Plants: Effects Of Walking Direction and Plamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Operator Dermal Exposure to Pesticides in Tomato and Strawberry Greenhouses from Hand-Held Sprayers

et al. 2018

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Protection of greenhouse crops in southern Italy usually requires 15-20 phytosanitary treatments per year, with volume rates in the range of 1000-2000 L ha −1 , depending on the plant growth stage. The most widespread sprayers are hand-held, high-pressure devices, which may expose operators to high levels of pesticides. This paper, also with the aim to lead toward a more sustainable use of greenhouses in agricultural productions, including some aspects of workers' safety, reports the results of experimental tests aimed at measuring the amount of the mixture deposited on the worker's body (potential dermal exposure, PDE) during pesticide applications to tomato and strawberry plants in a protected environment. Experimental tests on tomatoes were carried out taking into account two plant growth stages (flowering and senescence), two types of spray lance, two working pressures (1 and 2 MPa), and two walking directions (forwards and backwards). Those on the strawberries were carried out at the maturity of the fruit growth stage, comparing two hand-held sprayers (a standard spray gun and a short hand-held spray boom equipped with two nozzles) and working according to the common practice: forwards movement of the operator and high pressure (2 MPa). The results showed that with the tomato plants, the most important factor in reducing the deposit on the operator was the walking direction: on average, the PDE was 718 mL per 1000 L of the sprayed mixture (0.72 ) while walking forwards and 133 mL (0.13 ) while walking backwards. The reduction factor ranged from 3.0 at the flowering growth stage to 7.2 at the senescence growth stage. With respect to the strawberry plants, the PDE was significantly higher when the operator used the short hand-held spray boom (887 mL per 1000 L of the sprayed mixture, equivalent to 0.89 ), rather than the spray gun (344 mL, 0.34 ). In both cases, the most exposed body parts were the lower limbs, which accounted for 89-94% of the total PDE.

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Section: Tests On Tomato Plants: Effects Of Walking Direction and Plamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tests On Tomato Plants: Effects Of Walking Direction and Plamentioning

confidence: 99%

Operator Dermal Exposure to Pesticides in Tomato and Strawberry Greenhouses from Hand-Held Sprayers

et al. 2018

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“…In fact, it is generally accepted that the foliar application of a pesticide is an inefficient process, with only a fraction of the pesticide actually being retained on plants, and part of it being lost to the ground [11][12][13]. As has been widely demonstrated, in greenhouses, the uniformity of the distribution, the quantity of the pesticide retained by the canopy and the losses to the soil depend on many factors, such as the kind of equipment [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], the application volume, and the spray quality [12,17,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternative spraying techniques to hand-held sprayers have been developed and tested in the past few years. Several studies have already shown that the use of a vertical boom sprayers in greenhouses improves spray distribution [19,25] and reduces labour costs and operator exposure [13,15,22] compared to spray guns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Spray Application Technique on Spray Deposition and Losses in a Greenhouse Vegetable Nursery

Failla

Romano

2020

Sustainability

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The cultivation of vegetables in greenhouses requires seedlings produced in nurseries with high levels of practice specialisation. The nurseries are dedicated to the early stages of growth, from sowing to the first leaves. There, the seeding density and the hydro-climatic conditions favour diseases. Plant protection treatments are carried out with the use of low-cost machines, whose efficiencies and safety conditions depend on the workers’ ability. The irrigation system with a mechanised horizontal spray boom could be an alternative solution to the hand-held spray gun. This research aimed to investigate the use of a horizontal boom sprayer for the distribution of pesticides in different pressure conditions and forward speeds compared with a spray gun, in relation to tomato growth stages. The tests were carried out on tomato seedlings grown in polystyrene seeding boxes and arranged on hanging benches. Deposits on the seedlings (µL cm−2) and losses in the soil (µL cm−2) were assessed by means of standard colorimetric analysis. In order to reduce the environmental pollution and increase the sustainability of the treatments, the pressure at the horizontal spray boom should be reduced and the arrangement of the outermost nozzles may also be better set on the boom.

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“…Taking into account the application equipment and technique, Machera et al (2003) have pointed out that when pesticide application was done in greenhouses employing high pressure, the PDE was high, indicating that this variable deeply affects the workers' exposure. Rinc on et al (2018) stated that when using a pressurized spray gun walking backwards the PDE was ca. 100 mL h À1 , while when the equipment was changed to a pressurized hand-lance the PDE increased to ca.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human exposure and mass balance distribution during procymidone application in horticultural greenhouses

Friedrichs

Berenstein

Nasello

et al. 2020

Heliyon

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The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of procymidone application in periurban horticultural greenhouses, especially on workers (applicators and assistants) and soil and plastic mulching, when mechanically pressurized application systems were employed. The mean Potential Dermal Exposure (PDE) was measured using the Whole Body Dosimetry technique. The PDE for the applicators was 188 mL h À1 AE 103 mL h À1 , and 14.7 mL h À1 AE 6.3 mL h À1 for the assistants. In the first case, the most exposed body sections were the upper right and left (46.8 mL h À1 AE 23.4 mL h À1 ; 47.0 mL h À1 AE 23.5 mL h À1 ) and lower (20.8 mL h À1 AE 10.4 mL h À1 ; 17.3 mL h À1 AE 8.7 mL h À1 ) legs, while in the case of assistants, hands and legs were the most impacted limbs. Regarding the Margin of Safety (MOS) during the mix and load stage, two of three pesticide preparations resulted unsafe, while for the applicators, six of six spraying operations were unsafe. For the assistants, five of five operations were safe, but three of them were close to the safety limit.Procymidone distribution between drift (0.03% AE 0.07 %), applicator (0.20% AE 0.15 %), polyethylene mulching (8.5% AE 4.5 %) and soil (3.0% AE 1.1 %) was determined with respect to the total pesticide applied. Procymidone soil impact was also evaluated using Eisenia andrei behavioral tests, finding positive correlations between procymidone application and avoidance and reproduction tests.

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Potential dermal exposure to operators applying pesticide on greenhouse crops using low-cost equipment

Cited by 25 publications

References 30 publications

Operator Dermal Exposure to Pesticides in Tomato and Strawberry Greenhouses from Hand-Held Sprayers

Operator Dermal Exposure to Pesticides in Tomato and Strawberry Greenhouses from Hand-Held Sprayers

Effect of Spray Application Technique on Spray Deposition and Losses in a Greenhouse Vegetable Nursery

Human exposure and mass balance distribution during procymidone application in horticultural greenhouses

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