Pesticide Exposure in Horticultural and Floricultural Periurban Production Units in Argentina

Abstract

This study summarizes the results of the OPCW project titled “Persistent pesticide contamination in horticultural periurban production units” performed at Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento, Argentina. This project highlighted the impact of pesticide use on three different nontargets: workers, soil, and horticultural plastics. Therefore, an exposure study among horticultural and floricultural workers was conducted, revealing the correlation between the pesticide formulation and the exposure level. Further, the exposure during the mixing and loading stage for manual applications was almost as important as that arising from the application step. The degradation of selected pesticides was faster in the horticultural soil than in the control soils, probably due to the modification of the autochthonous microbial community. Finally, the relative pesticide amounts that reached the agricultural plastics (mulching and greenhouse polyethylene films) after pesticide application were determined. The chemical and photochemical degradation of deltamethrin absorbed on the polyethylene film were studied.