ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Assessment of pesticide residues in blood samples of agricultural workers in Egypt
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Pests and Plant Protection Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
A - Research concept and design; B - Collection and/or assembly of data; C - Data analysis and interpretation; D - Writing the article; E - Critical revision of the article; F - Final approval of article
Submission date: 2020-06-26
Acceptance date: 2020-08-10
Online publication date: 2020-11-13
Corresponding author
Shehata Shalaby
Pests and Plant Protection Department, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
Journal of Plant Protection Research 2020;60(4):369-376
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to monitor pesticide residues in the blood of agricultural
workers (farmers, pesticide dealers, and spraying workers) living in the Dakahlia Governorate,
Egypt. Residue analysis revealed that 48, 76, and 84% of the farmers, pesticide
dealers, and spraying workers had pesticide residues in their bloods, respectively. Eleven
compounds were detected in the blood of examined individuals. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO) classification, most of these pesticides (nine pesticides) were
in moderately hazardous compounds. Carbofuran, a highlyhazardous compound was the
most toxic. The compound with the lowest toxicity was hexytiazox, which is unlikely to
pose an acute hazard in normal use. Chlorpyrifos was found in the blood of 38.3% of
the study subjects, followed by acetamiprid (11.7%) and profenofos (10.7%), while fenvalerate
was the lowest occurring compound (1.3%). Of the collected samples 41.3% was
free of pesticide residues, while 58.7% of the samples was contaminated. Furthermore,
the amounts of all detected pesticides were below the no observable adverse effect levels
(NOAEL). Also, 38.7% of the samples had only one pesticide, while 8% of them contained
residues of two pesticides, and 5.3% contained more than two compounds. The worker’s
age did not affect the accumulations of pesticide residues in their bodies. However, there
was a strong correlation between pesticide residues accumulation and an individual’s exposure
time. Therefore, from these results it can be seen that encouraging greater awareness
among pesticide users of the need to improve safe usage and handling of pesticides by
education, advice, and warning them of the risks involved in the misuse of these poisonous
materials is highly recommended.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank to the Academy of Scientific Research
and Technology, Egypt, for funding this project.
FUNDING
This research was a part of a project titled “Prevention
Practices for Occupational Workers from Adverse
Effects of Pesticides and the Safe Disposal of Expired
Compounds” funded by Academy of Scientific Research
and Technology, Egypt during 2016–2018.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors have declared that no conflict of interests exist.
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