Abstract
Objective
Paraquat is an herbicide widely used worldwide. This study determined the extent of occupational exposure to paraquat among farm workers in Costa Rica and identified determinants of occupational exposure.
Methods
Twenty-four hour urine samples were collected from 119 paraquat handlers and 54 non-handlers from banana, coffee and palm oil farms. Information about herbicide handling operations was also collected. The urinary paraquat levels were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 2 ng/mL. Inhalable dust and airborne paraquat levels were simultaneously measured for a subset of the participants.
Results
Urinary paraquat measurements were non-detectable or very low when workers did not handle paraquat. For handlers, 83.3, 47.1 and 63.9% of the samples were below the LOQ on before-, during- and after-paraquat spray days, respectively. The arithmetic mean (±SD) of urinary paraquat level on days when workers handled paraquat was 6.3 (±10.45) μg/24 h. Paraquat exposures among handlers on spray day were significantly associated with the type of crop.
Conclusion
Non-handlers had negligible urinary paraquat, while detectable paraquat exposures were observed among handlers on spray day. Urinary paraquat levels were different by crop.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all workers whose cooperative participation enabled us to complete the study. We appreciate the efforts of Mr. Hector Duarte Tagles and Ms. Tamara Hennessy-Burt for their assistance with the project. We wish to acknowledge and thank the members of the science advisory panel, Drs. David Christiani (chair), Richard Fenske, Bertold Hock, Rogelio Perez-Padilla, and Mark Segal, for their careful and critical review of the scientific aspects of the study. This research was supported by Syngenta Research Agreement 002994, the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, funded by a grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cooperative Agreement # U07/CCU9061202, NIEHS Center for Environmental Health Sciences P30 ES05707 and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 5 P42 ES04699 and R37 ES02710. However, it has not been subjected to funding agency review and does not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.
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Lee, K., Park, EK., Stoecklin-Marois, M. et al. Occupational paraquat exposure of agricultural workers in large Costa Rican farms. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 82, 455–462 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0356-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0356-7