Determination of dimethoate and omethoate in human serum samples. Risk assessment for the operator

Abstract

A simple and effective analytical procedure has been developed for the determination of dimethoate (DIM) residues and its metabolite, omethoate, in serum samples of pesticide operators. For the selection of the most appropriate method for sample treatment, techniques such as headspace solid phase micro extraction and solid phase extraction and liquid–liquid extraction were applied. The applied method was based on toluene (2 mL) extraction of a 0.5 mL serum sample. In this report, it was observed that DIM concentration level affected the ratio of the area response of DIM and one of its oxygenated metabolite, omethoate. In this context, higher concentrations favoured the predominance of DIM while lower concentrations lead to the formation of omethoate. The method was validated using human serum samples spiked with DIM. Good linearity was obtained in the range of 1–10 ng/mL co-calculating DIM and omethoate. Various concentrations of DIM were mixed with serum and stored up to five days at −20°C. Recoveries ranged from 72% to 88% at two spiking levels for six replicates. The detection and quantification limit were calculated at 0.12 and 0.36 ng/mL of serum, respectively. Finally the comparison with the Acceptable Operator Exposure Level (AOEL) of DIM revealed that the maximum exposure of the operators reached the 30% of the AOEL for only two cases.

Keywords:

• organophosphorous
• insecticides
• dimethoate
• metabolite
• human serum
• GC/MS
• AOEL