Hygienic assessment of the population risk after consumption of agricultural products grown with the application of triazole class-based fungicides

Abstract

The problem of pesticide poisoning is particularly acute among countries whose primary source of income is agriculture (India, China, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina etc.). About 3 million cases of intentional and unintentional pesticide poisoning are reported in the world annually, resulting in the death of more than 250000 people. In Ukraine, by 2020, more than 250 pesticide preparations containing active substances of the triazole class. Aim of the work. Hygienic assessment of the population risk after consumption of agricultural products grown with the application of triazole class-based fungicides. Materials and methods. We analyzed the resistance parameters of triazole fungicides (difenoconazole, prothioconazole, cyproconazole, and metconazole) and strobilurin (azoxystrobin) in various crops. To determine the content of active substances in crops, we used modern methods of high-performance liquid and gas chromatography. For the integral assessment of the hazard indicators was used, the indicators of the allowable daily intake, the half-life periods in plants and the average daily consumption of the product were evaluated. Research results. The risk assessment for the population, calculated according to the methodology showed that the risk values of triazoles were 0.0002-0.2239, strobilurins – 0.0002-0.0016, which does not exceed the acceptable (less than 1). Calculations carried out according to the method show that all studied compounds of triazoles class belong to the moderately hazardous when consuming treated products of rapeseed, soybean, sunflower, sugar beet and hazardous when consuming cereals; strobilurin - low hazard when consumed the most of the studied cultures. Differences in hazard classes are primarily due to differences in the behaviour of pesticides in different crops and the length of the vegetative season.