Literature review: dermal monitoring data for pesticide exposure assessment of farm workers

ABSTRACT

Objective: To conduct a literature review to determine the types of information that existing dermal pesticide monitoring data could provide for future pesticide exposure assessment in occupational epidemiology.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed on eight online databases. Two screening phases with predetermined criteria identified the qualifying literature. Standard information and dermal pesticide monitoring data were recorded and summarized from each qualifying study to assess its usefulness for future pesticide exposure assessment.

Results: A total of 31 farm studies qualified for review; task information was used to standardize all farm job(s) evaluated into 5 job groups: operators, applicators, mixer-loaders, field workers, and flaggers. When attempting to compare dermal exposure levels between studies, two types of variation were identified: (1) variation in study focus and reporting and 2) variation in exposure levels. The former variation type prevented exposure level comparisons between studies. Within studies, exposure levels were compared across body parts to identify that which had the highest measured exposure and to determine if results were similar in other studies that evaluated the same farm job. Using studies that measured exposure for multiple farm jobs, within study comparisons of total body exposure were performed to evaluate work factors.

Conclusion: Future dermal pesticide exposure monitoring studies should standardize reporting procedures, as suggested in this review, to allow for more extensive dermal data comparisons. Body parts with highest measured levels of dermal exposure were identified by farm job, along with work factors to be further investigated as potential dermal pesticide exposure determinants for farm workers.

keywords:

• Epidemiology
• exposure assessment
• farm workers
• occupational health
• pesticides

Acknowledgments

None.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest relating to the material presented in this article. Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are solely those of the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The lead author was provided with funding as a Research Student of the Canadian Cancer Society Award (#700080) and  by the CIHR Strategic Training Program in Public Health and the Agricultural Rural Ecosystem (PHARE), the Canadian Centre for Health and Safety in Agriculture, and CIHR Partner Institutes including the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, Institute of Infection and Immunity, and the Institute of Population and Public Health.