Pesticide Exposure in Horticultural and Floricultural Periurban Production Units in Argentina

GISELLE BERENSTEIN; . ENRIQUE A. HUGHES, ANITA ZALTS, JAVIER J. OJEDA, ANDREA P. FLORES, RICHARD C. GLASS Y JAVIER M. MONTSERRAT; GISELLE QUEREJETA; PEDRO FLORES; SOLEDAD NASELLO ; ERICA BEIGUEL; GUIDO DELUCHI; ENRIQUE HUGHES; ANITA ZALTS; JAVIER MONTSERRAT

Chemical Analysis and Environmental Safeguard

Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons

Lugar: Bruselas; Año: 2020; p. 40 - 53

This work is a summary of the results of the OPCW project entitled ?Persistent pesticide contamination in horticultural periurban production units?, carried out at Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, Argentina. The focus of the project was set on the impact of pesticide use on three different non-targets: workers, soil and horticultural plastics. Regarding the first topic, a horticultural and floricultural worker?s exposure study was done finding a correlation between the pesticide formulation and the exposure level. It was also determined that exposure produced during the mix and load stage for manual applications was at least as important as that due to the application step. In relation to horticultural soil exposure, degradation of selected pesticides was studied detecting that in horticultural soil it was much faster than in control soils, probably as a consequence of the alteration of the autochthonous microbial community. Finally, regarding the agricultural plastics (mulching and greenhouse polyethylene film) exposure, the relative pesticide amounts that reached these surfaces after pesticide application were determined. Chemical and photochemical degradation of deltamethrin absorbed on polyethylene film were studied.