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Title: Occupational paraquat exposure of agricultural workers in large Costa Rican farms.

Authors: Lee, Kiyoung; Park, Eun-Kee; Stoecklin-Marois, Maria; Koivunen, Marja E; Gee, Shirley J; Hammock, Bruce D; Beckett, Laurel A; Schenker, Marc B

Published In Int Arch Occup Environ Health, (2009 Mar)

Abstract: Paraquat is an herbicide widely used worldwide. This study determined the extent of occupational exposure to paraquat among farm workers in Costa Rica and identified determinants of occupational exposure.Twenty-four hour urine samples were collected from 119 paraquat handlers and 54 non-handlers from banana, coffee and palm oil farms. Information about herbicide handling operations was also collected. The urinary paraquat levels were determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 2 ng/mL. Inhalable dust and airborne paraquat levels were simultaneously measured for a subset of the participants.Urinary paraquat measurements were non-detectable or very low when workers did not handle paraquat. For handlers, 83.3, 47.1 and 63.9% of the samples were below the LOQ on before-, during- and after-paraquat spray days, respectively. The arithmetic mean (+/-SD) of urinary paraquat level on days when workers handled paraquat was 6.3 (+/-10.45) microg/24 h. Paraquat exposures among handlers on spray day were significantly associated with the type of crop.Non-handlers had negligible urinary paraquat, while detectable paraquat exposures were observed among handlers on spray day. Urinary paraquat levels were different by crop.

PubMed ID: 18762966 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Adult; Agriculture; Air Pollutants, Occupational/urine; Coffee; Costa Rica; Environmental Monitoring; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Herbicides/urine*; Humans; Inhalation; Male; Middle Aged; Occupational Exposure/analysis*; Paraquat/urine*; Protective Clothing; Regression Analysis; Surveys and Questionnaires

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