Pesticide risk assessment in flower greenhouses in Argentina: The importance of manipulating concentrated products

An evaluation of the Potential Dermal Exposure of workers to endosulfan and procymidone at the mix/load and application stages was done in small floricultural production units in Argentina. Seven experiments were performed with different operators under typical greenhouse conditions, based on the whole body dosimetry methodology. These results indicate that the mean Potential Dermal Exposure of the application step was 45.0 +/- 55.0 mL h(-1) with the highest proportion on torso, head, arms and hands. When the mix/load and application stages were compared, the first was found to contribute the most to the total exposure. Also, the Margin of Safety for the different operations was calculated, and a pesticide surrogate was developed and used to make comparative evaluations of hand exposure for different groups of operators. These results emphasize the importance of the mix/load stage in the exposure process. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.