Potential exposure to flubendiamide and risk assessment in Kimchi cabbage field, Gangneung, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea: the protective role of PPE (personal protective equipment)

Abstract

In the present study, dermal and inhalation exposure of agricultural workers to insecticide, flubendiamide were determined during pesticide mixing/loading, and hand-held sprayer application in Kimchi cabbage fields, and the potential health risk was assessed. Dermal exposure amount during mixing/loading was 0.8 mg, whereas there was no inhalation exposure (0.0 µg) during similar procedures. Among several different body parts, the hands were the most prominent exposure area (84.5%), followed by the chest and stomach (10.1%). The protective role of PPE (personal protective equipment) during application was determined by comparative experiments with- and without-PPE. The dermal and inhalation exposure with PPE was 3.7 mg and 12.0 µg, respectively. The Forearms (29.6%) and pelvis (18.7%) showed the highest pesticide exposure, followed by the chest and stomach (18.4%). However, the exposure amount of without-PPE was 47.7 mg, and 22.9 µg, respectively, where shins were the most prominent exposure area (83.0%). For the risk assessment of the mixing/loading and application, the AOEL (acceptable operator exposure level) of flubendiamide was used as the reference dose to calculate that the RI (risk index) was much lower than 1 (mixing/loading:0.0, application with PPE:0.2), indicating that agricultural workers are at low risk of exposure to flubendiamide. On the other hand, in the case of an application without PPE, RI is higher than 1 (9.8), suggesting that it can be at risk.

Keywords:

• exposure
• pesticides
• whole-body dosimetry
• Kimchi cabbage
• PPE
• risk assessment

Author contributions

Jiho Lee, JiWoo Kim and Jeong-Han Kim initiated and designed the study. Yongho Shin, Eunyoung Park, Minwoo Jung, Seohyun Kim collected samples. jiho Lee carried out chemical analysis. JiWoo Kim, Jiho Lee compiled the data and prepared the graphs and maps. Jiho Lee initially drafted the manuscript. Young-Soo Keum and Jeong-Han Kim have jointly interpreted the data, revised and completed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent to publish

The authors affirm that human research participants provided informed consent for publication.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethics approval (research involving human participants, their data or biological material)

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Seoul National University, Republic of Korea. (IRB No. 1604/002-007).

Research data policy and data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was carried out with the support of the Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ009948), National Academy of Agricultural Science, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.