Exposure of Agriculture Workers to Pesticides: The Effect of Heat on Protective Glove Performance and Skin Exposure to Dichlorvos.

Leigh Thredgold,Dino Pisaniello,Sharyn Gaskin,Chloe Quy

doi:10.3390/ijerph16234798

Abstract

Dichlorvos is a toxic organophosphate insecticide that is used in agriculture and other insecticide applications. Dermal uptake is a known exposure route for dichlorvos and chemical protective gloves are commonly utilized. Chemical handling and application may occur in a variety of thermal environments, and the rates of both chemical permeation through gloves and transdermal penetration may vary significantly with temperature. There has been no published research on the temperature-dependent kinetics of these processes for dichlorvos and thus, this study reports on the effects of hot conditions for the concentrated and application strength chemical. Dichlorvos breakthrough times for non-disposable polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gloves at 60 °C were approximately halved compared to 25 °C for the concentrate (2 vs. 4 h) and more than halved at application strength (3 vs. >8 h). From permeation experiments covering 15–60 °C, there was a 460-fold increase in cumulative permeation over 8 h for the concentrated dichlorvos and the estimated activation energy halved. Elevated temperature was also shown to be a significant factor for human skin penetration increasing the cumulative penetration of concentrate dichlorvos from 179 ± 37 to 1315 ± 362 µg/cm2 (p = 0.0032) and application strength from 29.8 ± 5.7 to 115 ± 19 µg/cm2 (p = 0.0131). This work illustrates the important role temperature plays in glove performance and health risk via dermal exposure. As such, it is important to consider in-use conditions of temperature when implementing chemical hygiene programs.

Highlights

Dichlorvos (2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate) is an organophosphate pesticide used in the agriculture industry to control a wide variety of insects in greenhouses and outdoor fruit and vegetable crops
Cumulative permeation through polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gloves resulting from exposure to concentrate dichlorvos was
As the temperature was increased, a substantial increase in maximum permeation rate through PVC gloves was observed for both concentrate and application strength dichlorvos

Summary

Introduction

Dichlorvos (2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate) is an organophosphate pesticide used in the agriculture industry to control a wide variety of insects in greenhouses and outdoor fruit and vegetable crops. The use of dichlorvos has been heavily regulated due its high toxicity and worker exposure potential. In Australia and the USA its use is heavily regulated and restricted to licensed users for the professional agricultural, pest control, or veterinary sectors as a disinfectant fumigant whereas in many European Union countries dichlorvos products are completely banned [2,3]. Dichlorvos along with other organophosphate pesticides (OPs) are largely unregulated and are still widely available and utilized

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