scholarly journals O1A.1 Pesticide exposure of workers during treatment and re-entry tasks in apple-growing: results from the canepa study in france

2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. A2.2-A2
Author(s):  
Mathilde Bureau ◽  
Béatrix Béziat ◽  
Geoffroy Duporté ◽  
Yannick Lecluse ◽  
Xavier Schwall ◽  
...  

Few studies were performed to assess workers’ exposure to pesticides in orchards and even less during re-entry activities. However, nearly 40 pesticide treatments per year are carried out in apple-growing especially against fungal diseases, mainly scab. In order to characterize pesticide exposures of farmers in epidemiological studies, we performed a non-controlled field study in 3 regions of France (Normandy, South-West and Rhône-Alpes) in apple orchards during the 2016 and 2017 seasons. We observed the activity of the workers trying to disrupt it as little as possible. Workers’ external contamination and their determinants were assessed during 158 working days, corresponding to 31 treatment days (including mixing, spraying and equipment cleaning), 69 re-entry days (including apple hand-thinning, anti-hail net opening and closing tasks) and 58 harvesting days. We performed both detailed observations of work characteristics on the whole day (including an ergonomic approach) and pesticide measurements for dermal contamination during each task (following the OCDE guidelines). Potential dermal exposure was measured with cotton pads placed onto the skin (11 body areas), and cotton gloves or hand rinsing for each task. Captan and dithianon, fungicides representative of pesticide use in apple-growing, were used as markers for exposure. Relative contribution of the different body areas to total exposure was assessed. In addition, to investigate potential sources of contamination, we measured dislodgeable residues in the environment of the workers by analyzing leaf and fruit samples and surfaces of work equipment. Results indicated that workers’ dermal exposure was higher during re-entry tasks than treatments and harvests. The median dermal contamination during treatment was 4.03 mg of active ingredients per day, levels ranging from 0.95 mg to 64.19 mg. Most of the contamination was observed on the hands, especially during mixing. We will focus our presentation on levels and main determinants of pesticide exposure during treatment tasks.

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (Supplement_6) ◽  
pp. S466-S473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwafemi Popoola ◽  
Aderemi Kehinde ◽  
Veronica Ogunleye ◽  
Oluwafemi J Adewusi ◽  
Trevor Toy ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The relative contribution of bacterial infections to febrile disease is poorly understood in many African countries due to diagnostic limitations. This study screened pediatric and adult patients attending 4 healthcare facilities in Ibadan, Nigeria, for bacteremia and malaria parasitemia. Methods Febrile patients underwent clinical diagnosis, malaria parasite testing, and blood culture. Bacteria from positive blood cultures were isolated and speciated using biochemical and serological methods, and Salmonella subtyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by disk diffusion. Results A total of 682 patients were recruited between 16 June and 16 October 2017; 467 (68.5%) were <18 years of age. Bacterial pathogens were cultured from the blood of 117 (17.2%) patients, with Staphylococcus aureus (69 [59.0%]) and Salmonella enterica (34 [29.1%]) being the most common species recovered. Twenty-seven (79.4%) of the Salmonella isolates were serovar Typhi and the other 7 belonged to nontyphoidal Salmonella serovarieties. Thirty-four individuals were found to be coinfected with Plasmodium falciparum and bacteria. Five (14.7%) of these coinfections were with Salmonella, all in children aged <5 years. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing revealed that most of the Salmonella and Staphylococcus isolates were multidrug resistant. Conclusions The study demonstrates that bacteria were commonly recovered from febrile patients with or without malaria in this location. Focused and extended epidemiological studies are needed for the introduction of typhoid conjugate vaccines that have the potential to prevent a major cause of severe community-acquired febrile diseases in our locality.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Coughlan ◽  
Douglas I. Walker ◽  
Kelly M. Lohr ◽  
Jason R. Richardson ◽  
Laura M. Saba ◽  
...  

Epidemiological studies indicate exposures to the herbicide paraquat (PQ) and fungicide maneb (MB) are associated with increased risk of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Oxidative stress appears to be a premier mechanism that underlies damage to the nigrostriatal dopamine system in PD and pesticide exposure. Enhanced oxidative stress leads to lipid peroxidation and production of reactive aldehydes; therefore, we conducted proteomic analyses to identify carbonylated proteins in the striatum and cortex of pesticide-treated mice in order to elucidate possible mechanisms of toxicity. Male C57BL/6J mice were treated biweekly for 6 weeks with saline, PQ (10 mg/kg), MB (30 mg/kg), or the combination of PQ and MB (PQMB). Treatments resulted in significant behavioral alterations in all treated mice and depleted striatal dopamine in PQMB mice. Distinct differences in 4-hydroxynonenal-modified proteins were observed in the striatum and cortex. Proteomic analyses identified carbonylated proteins and peptides from the cortex and striatum, and pathway analyses revealed significant enrichment in a variety of KEGG pathways. Further analysis showed enrichment in proteins of the actin cytoskeleton in treated samples, but not in saline controls. These data indicate that treatment-related effects on cytoskeletal proteins could alter proper synaptic function, thereby resulting in impaired neuronal function and even neurodegeneration.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 17-35
Author(s):  
H. Tawfik ◽  
R. Huang ◽  
M. Samy ◽  
A.K. Nagar

Research has shown that more young people lack good financial literacy and make poor financial decisions. Financial literacy is not only important for individuals, but also for families, financial institutions, and the entire economy. In this paper, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) are used as tools to model the financial literacy levels of young university students across Australia and three Western European countries. The goal was to ascertain the students’ level of financial knowledge in relation to the use of credit card and loan facilities based on a number of input parameters such as age, gender and educational level. Sensitivity analysis is applied to determine the relative contribution of each input parameter to the overall financial literacy model. The experiments show that ANNs and SVMs exhibit promising results and capabilities for effectively modeling financial literacy. Our findings indicate that the main determinants of young people’s level of financial literacy include educational level, length of employment, age, and credit card status – in terms of the use of credit card facilities, and gender, living status and credit card status – in terms of the use of loan facilities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
María del Pilar Navarrete-Meneses ◽  
Patricia Pérez-Vera

Abstract Pyrethroid insecticides are commonly used worldwide. The chronic effects of these compounds are of concern given that epidemiological studies have suggested an association with hematological cancer, particularly in children. However, the biological evidence at molecular and cellular levels is limited. A review on the molecular and cellular effects of pyrethroids is helpful to guide the study of the biological plausibility of the association of pyrethroids with hematological cancer. We reviewed studies suggesting that pyrethroids are genotoxic, induce genetic rearrangements, alter gene expression and modify DNA. All of these biological modifications could potentially contribute to the carcinogenic process in hematopoietic cells.


2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Fuhrimann ◽  
Philipp Staudacher ◽  
Christian Lindh ◽  
Berna van Wendel de Joode ◽  
Ana M Mora ◽  
...  

ObjectiveEstimates of pesticide exposure among applicators from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are scarce, and exposure assessment methods are sometimes costly or logistically unfeasible. We examined the variability in weeklong pesticide exposure among applicators in Costa Rica and its predictors.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey among 221 pesticide applicators from organic, sustainable and conventional farms in 2016. We administered structured questionnaires to assess pesticide application practices at two time points (4–6 weeks apart). We adapted an existing algorithm to fit the context of smallholders and derive weekly pesticide exposure scores. We used linear mixed-effect models to examine within-worker and between-worker score variability. We then identified sociodemographic and occupational predictors of weekly pesticide exposure scores.ResultsWe observed high within-worker and between-worker variability in weekly pesticide exposures (eg, up to 180-fold and 70-fold differences in average weekly exposures within and between workers, respectively; intraclass correlation coefficient=0.4). Applicators working on conventional and sustainable farms had exposure scores twofold and 1.5-fold higher than those working in organic farms, respectively. Farm workers who received training on pesticide use had weekly pesticide exposure scores of 33% (95% CI 1% to 55%) lower than those who did not receive any training.ConclusionsIn this study of applicators from smallholder farms in Costa Rica, we determined the importance of collecting questionnaire data on self-reported pesticide use repeatedly due to its high variability within workers and absence of application records. Our questionnaire-based exposure algorithm could allow the calculation of semiquantitative estimates of average pesticide exposure for applicators from other LMICs.


2020 ◽  
pp. oemed-2020-106818
Author(s):  
Srishti Shrestha ◽  
David M Umbach ◽  
Laura E Beane Freeman ◽  
Stella Koutros ◽  
Michael C R Alavanja ◽  
...  

ObjectivesPesticide exposure may impair human olfaction, but empirical evidence is limited. We examined associations between occupational use of 50 specific pesticides and olfactory impairment, both self-reported, among 20 409 participants in the Agricultural Health Study, a prospective cohort of pesticide applicators (mostly farmers, 97% male).MethodsWe used logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations between pesticide use at enrolment (1993–1997) and olfactory impairment reported two decades later (2013–2016), adjusting for baseline covariates.ResultsAbout 10% of participants reported olfactory impairment. The overall cumulative days of any pesticide use at enrolment were associated with a higher odds of reporting olfactory impairment (OR (highest vs lowest quartile): 1.17 (95% CI: 1.02 to 1.34), p-trend = 0.003). In the analyses of 50 specific pesticides, ever-use of 20 pesticides showed modest associations with olfactory impairment, with ORs ranging from 1.11 to 1.33. Of these, higher lifetime days of use of 12 pesticides were associated with higher odds of olfactory impairment compared with never use (p-trend ≤ 0.05), including two organochlorine insecticides (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and lindane), two organophosphate insecticides (diazinon and malathion), permethrin, the fungicide captan and six herbicides (glyphosate, petroleum distillates, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid and metribuzin), although many of these did not exhibit clear, monotonic exposure-response patterns.ConclusionOverall, we found relatively broad associations between pesticides and olfactory impairment, involving many individual pesticides and covering several chemical classes, suggesting that pesticides could affect olfaction through multiple pathways. Future epidemiological studies with objective measurement of olfaction are required to confirm these findings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (OCE2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Rebouillat ◽  
Rodolphe Vidal ◽  
Jean-Pierre Cravedi ◽  
Bruno Taupier-Letage ◽  
Laurent Debrauwer ◽  
...  

AbstractPesticides are used in large quantities in current agriculture all over Europe. Some pesticides are suspected of having negative effects on human health. While the risk associated with occupational exposure is getting well-documented, evidence of dietary exposure to these molecules in the general population is lacking. The aim of this study is to describe dietary exposure to pesticides among NutriNet-Santé cohort participants’.NutriNet-Santé is a web-based cohort of French middle-aged adults launched in 2009. BioNutriNet is an ancillary study launched in 2014, aiming to measure organic and conventional food consumption and evaluate different dimensions of diet sustainability. Dietary intake of organic and conventional foods was assessed using a 264 items self-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Exposure to 25 commonly used pesticides was evaluated using contamination data from CVUA Stuttgart accounting for farming system. Dietary pesticide exposure profiles were identified using Non-Negative Matrix factorization (NMF), specially adapted for non-negative data with excess zeros. The NMF scores were then introduced in a hierarchical clustering process. Identified clusters were described in terms of sociodemographics, dietary patterns and exposure to pesticides.A total of 34,442 participants were selected. Four clusters were identified. All clusters seemed to be exposed to the same molecules, with gradual intensity. The first cluster was characterized by the lowest energy-intake, highest organic food consumption (26.9%) and lowest dietary pesticide exposure; participants had highest consumption levels of organic food groups, including fruits and vegetables. Proportion of male participants and of rural residents was higher than in other groups. Clusters 2 and 3 were characterized by intermediate energy intake, and low organic food consumption. High conventional fruits and vegetables intake and moderate pesticide exposure were observed in cluster 2, composed of a lower smokers’ proportion. Cluster 3 individuals were less exposed to pesticides than clusters 2 and 4, except for Spinosad and Pyrethrins. Cluster 4 was characterized by the highest energy intake, lowest organic food consumption (12.2%), and highest pesticide exposure ; high consumption levels of conventional fruits, vegetables and a higher proportion of vegetarians were observed. This cluster was composed of 85.6% female participants, mainly retired (47.5%), mostly living in cities of 200 000 inhabitants and more (48.2%), and physically active.Dietary pesticide exposures seem to vary across the clusters and depending on the proportion of organic food in the diet. High consumers of conventional fruits and vegetables consumers seem to be more exposed to our selection of pesticides.


Epidemiology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (Suppl) ◽  
pp. S367
Author(s):  
M Barrau ◽  
P Lebailly ◽  
P Fabbro-Peray ◽  
A Gruber ◽  
E Boutet ◽  
...  

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