Human exposure and risk assessment of chromafenozide during treatment in rice fields

ABSTRACT

The potential dermal and respiratory exposure and risk assessments for an applicator were performed with chromafenozide in rice fields in Korea. Three experienced farmers of approximately the same height (168–170 cm) and weight (65–73 kg) were employed to perform the experiment. Dermal patches, gloves, socks, and masks were used to monitor the potential dermal exposure (PDE), and personal air samplers with XAD-2 resins were used to monitor the potential inhalation exposure. During the mixing/loading process of chromafenozide (2.5%, EC), the average hand exposure amount was 3.7 mg and the ratio to the applied amount was 1.85 ×10⁻²%. For spraying process, the potential dermal exposure amount was 98.3 (74.5–112.8) mg, corresponding to 0.492% of the total exposure amount. The major exposure parts were thigh (0.37%) and shin (0.10%), and the left body (55.0%) was more than that of the right body (45.0%). The inhalation exposure amount was only 39.9 mg. For risk assessment, the mean of PDE (384.0 mg/day) and the mean of absorbable quantity of exposure (3.99 mg/day) were calculated. The value of margin of safety (MOS) ranged from 1.12 to 1.69, all MOS were >1, indicating the exposure level of chromafenozide was safe during application in rice fields.

KeyWords:

• chromafenozide
• rice field
• exposure
• risk assessment

Acknowledgments

Mei-Ai Zhao and Aili Yu contributed equally to this work. The authors thank the technical staff and other laboratory members in Seoul National University in Korea for their assistance.

Funding

We are grateful for support from the Qingdao Public Domain Support Science and Technology Project (project 11-2-3-55-nsh) and Shandong National Science Foundation (project ZR2011BM020), People's Republic of China.