Health burden of sugarcane burning on agricultural workers and nearby communities

Figures & data

Figure 1. FAOSTAT estimation of global sugarcane crop biomass b-urned each year measuredaskilo tons of dry matter.

Figure 2. Photograph of burnt cane harvesters in Nicaragua demonstrating the high potential for ash inhalation.

Figure 3. TEM Images of particles demonstrate the highly uniform nature of pristine manufactured SiNPs compared to the much more heterogeneous structure of environmentally relevant SiNPs derived from sugarcane ash.

Figure 4. Potential exposure routes of silica nanoparticles and observed health effects.

Figure 5. Hypothesized mechanism of SiNP-mediated kidney disease.

Table 1. Summary of primary literature investigating sugarcane fire emissions and key findings.

Topic	Findings	Studies
Sugarcane Burning and Respiratory Symptoms in Nearby Residents	Sugarcane burning was associated with increased acute respiratory illness, asthma and rhinitis symptoms, asthma hospital admissions, and premature mortality.	Long et al. 1998; Boopathy et al. 2002;Cançado et al. 2006; Arbex et al. 2007; Riguera et al. 2011; Mnatzaganian et al. 2015; Nowell et al. 2022
Sugarcane Burning and Cardiovascular Symptoms in Nearby Residents	Sugarcane burning was associated with increased NO2 and cardiovascular related hospital admissions.	Pestana et al. 2017
Sugarcane Bagasse Exposure and Pulmonary Function in Factory Workers	Sugarcane processing workers exposed to bagasse demonstrated reduced pulmonary function parameters withoutindications of allergy.	Gillison and Taylor 1942; Lemone et al. 1947; Sodeman 1967; Patil et al. 2008; Gascon et al. 2012; Debela et al. 2023
Sugarcane Harvesting and Mucociliary Clearance	Sugarcane harvesting was associated with impaired mucociliary clearance and altered mucus properties in workers and nearby residents.	Goto et al. 2011; Ferreira-Ceccato et al. 2011; Matsuda et al. 2020
Sugarcane Harvesting and Oxidative Stress in Field Workers and Nearby Residents	Sugarcane harvesting was associated with decreased antioxidant enzyme activity and increased lipid peroxidation products.	Prado et al. 2012; Paula Santos et al. 2015
Sugarcane Harvesting and Inflammatory Markers in Field Workers	Sugarcane harvesting was associated with reduced CC16 levels and increased inflammatory cell populations.	Paula Santos et al. 2015; Leite et al. 2015; Leite, Zanetta, Antonangelo, et al. 2018
Sugarcane Farmers and Lung Cancer	Sugarcane farmers were found to be at increased risk of developing lung cancer.	Amre et al. 1999
Sugarcane Harvesting and Cardiovascular Changes	Sugarcane workers demonstrated increased heart rates, blood pressure, and blood viscosity over the harvest season. Hematocrit was found to decrease.	Barbosa et al. 2012; Leite et al. 2015; Leite, Zanetta, Antonangelo, et al. 2018
Sugarcane Workers and Renal Function	Sugarcane workers were found to experience higher rates of chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology and demonstrate signs of impaired kidney function. Specific metrics includeddecreased estimated glomerular filtration rate, increased serum creatinine, increased neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin, increased blood urea nitrogen, increased IL-18, and higher rates of proteinuria.	Peraza et al. 2012; Laws et al. 2015; Paula Santos et al. 2015; Laws et al. 2016; Wesseling, Aragón, González, Weiss, Glaser, Bobadilla, et al. 2016; Wesseling, Aragón, González, Weiss, Glaser, Rivard, et al. 2016; Kupferman et al. 2018; López-Gálvez et al. 2021; Raines et al. 2023
Sugarcane Workers and Kidney Biopsy Histopathology	Sugarcane workers with chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology were found to have glomerulosclerosis, tubulointerstitial nephritis, fibrosis, and tubular atrophy.	López-Marín et al. 2014; Wijkström et al. 2017; Fischer et al. 2017
Sugarcane Workersand Silica Nanoparticles	Sugarcane workers with chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology were found to have higher levels of silica nanoparticles present in kidney biopsies.	Rogers et al. 2023
Sugarcane Ash Exposure In-Vivo	Sugarcane ash particles promoted alveolar collapse, injured lung parenchyma, reduced conjunctive tissue thickness in the trachea, interstitial edema, increased cell infiltration in the lung, and release of inflammatory cytokines in mice and rats.Accumulation of silica occurred in several organs. Sugarcane ash also induced liver toxicity in aquatic species.	Mazzoli-Rocha et al. 2008 Mazzoli-Rocha et al. 2014 Ferreira et al. 2014 Matos et al. 2017 Gonino et al. 2019 Roncal-Jimenez et al. 2024
Sugarcane Ash Exposure In-Vitro	Direct sugarcane ash exposure to cells induced reactive oxygen species generation, DNA damage, altered mitochondrial respiration, and resulted in some cytotoxicity. Purification of silica nanoparticles from this ash induced greater cytotoxicity and perturbation to cellular energy metabolism.	Le Blond et al. 2014; Verma et al. 2019; Stem et al. 2023

Table 2. Summary of silica characteristics and sources.

Silica Type		Source: Primary and Occupational	Size Distribution	Structure	Tissue Distribution	Organ Effects of Toxicity
Amorphous (Natural)	Uncalcined	Found in: Rock, Sand, and Stone Foundries Commercial and Residential Materials Job/Career Construction Demolition Glass workers Field/Agriculture workers Manufacturing	2nm—10µm	Disordered, randomly linked silicon and oxygen tetrahedral units, lacking any pattern	Tissue distribution is dependent on particle size and biological reactivity Lungs Kidneys Lymph Nodes Liver Spleen	Lung Granulomas, emphysema, interstitial lung disease, alveolitis, silicosis, cancer Kidney Kidney disease characterized by glomerular injury Cardiovascular System Cardiovascular disease—atherosclerosis, thrombosis, decreased heart contractility, coagulation
	Flux-calcined
	Calcined
	Vitreous
Amorphous (Synthetic)	Pyrogenic		Primary: 5–50nm Aggregate: 0.1–1µm Agglomerate: 1–250µm
	Precipitated		Primary: 5–100nm Aggregate: 0.1–40µm Agglomerate: 1–250µm
	Silica Gel		Primary: 5–100nm Aggregate: 0.1–25µm Agglomerate: N/A
	Colloidal Silica		Primary: 4–60nm Aggregate: 0.1–1µm Agglomerate: 1–250µm
Crystalline	Quartz		0.01–100µm diameter, ≤ 10µm length	Regular, repeating 3D structure with central oxygen atoms shared with 2 tetrahedral Silicon atoms		Lung silicosis, cancer, fibrosis, proteinosis, alveolitis Kidney chronic kidney disease Immune System Scleroderma, Rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, sarcoidosis
	Cristobalite
	Tridymite

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Data availability statement

There is no data associated with this manuscript.