Preliminary assessment of nursery workers’ exposure to applied pesticides

Abstract

Nursery workers can be exposed to pesticides via skin contact and respiratory inhalation when they mixing/loading pesticide product(s) and applying pesticide solution on a single spraying day. This study investigates how pesticide usage and agricultural practices among nursery workers affect their exposure to and potential health risk of pesticides applied over a 2-month period. Ten workers from different nurseries were involved in both personal interview and questionnaire survey to collect data for exposure modelling purposes. On a single spraying day, individuals’ total daily exposure to single active substances ranged from 0.002 to 0.024 mg kg-bw-1 day-1, mainly constituted of pesticide exposure during application activities (57.3 – 99.9% of total daily exposure). The total daily exposures were assessed against the respective acceptable operator exposure levels (AOELs) for single active substances. Overall, four nursery workers had at least one active substance application that exceeded the AOEL, indicating health risk is possible. While respondents generally worn long sleeves and long pants as the basic protective measures, the exceedances were likely caused by the usage of hazardous active substance (i.e., cypermethrin) and wettable powder formulation, and improper use of gloves. Future studies can consider the influence of different nursery plants on workers’ exposure to pesticides handled.