Potential exposure and risk assessment of agricultural workers to the insecticide chlorantraniliprole in rice paddies.

Abstract

Exposure of agricultural workers in rice paddies to the insecticide chlorantraniliprole and its subsequent potential health risks were investigated during two scenarios (mixing/loading and hand-held spraying). The exposure factors, such as the outer dosimeter, inner dosimeter, gauze, and nitrile gloves, were calculated using whole-body dosimetry to measure dermal exposure. The inhalation exposure was determined using a fiberglass filter which is set with an Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) sampler. A recovery test was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the analytical method. The exposure amounts of various matrices were calculated from extraction volume and concentration of the target compound. The dermal exposure to chlorantraniliprole was 0.6mg [0.001% of the total active ingredient (a.i.)] for mixing and loading, and 28.6mg (0.066% of the total a.i.) for application. The inhalation exposure to chlorantraniliprole was 7.2μg (1.3%, 1.2 × 10-5 % of the total applied a.i.) for mixing and loading, and 1.9μg (0.006%, 4.4 × 10-6 % of the total applied a.i.) for application. The most exposed part of the body was the hand (90.4%) during mixing and loading, whereas the primary sites during application were the thighs (32.8%) and shins (22.6%). For mixing and loading, the amount of actual dermal exposure was 5.5μg day-1 and that of actual inhalation exposure was 21.9μg day-1 . By contrast, in the application, the amounts of actual dermal and actual inhalation exposures were 34 178.7 and 5.9μg day-1 , respectively. The risk assessment results demonstrated that the risk of chlorantraniliprole exposure in rice paddies was low during application than during mixing and loading. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.