[en] Flowers are susceptible to many pests and diseases. Therefore, they can be sprayed several times during their growth considering that no MRL are set for flow-ers. High levels of pesticide residues potentially expose daily the florists who han-dle cut flowers and possibly could endanger their health. A study was carried out to evaluate the risk for florists exposed to fungicide residues during normal profes-sional tasks. Cotton gloves were distributed to 20 florists (two pairs to each florist) and worn during two consecutive half days during normal professional tasks (from min 2 hours to max 3 hours/day) to measure their potential dermal exposure (PDE). Samples were analyzed with a multi-residue (QuEChERS) method validated by a laboratory accredited for pesticide residues and with a combination of gas and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. It appears from the results that a total of 54 fungicides with different toxicity classes were detected on cotton gloves. An average of 15.53 mg/kg fungicide residues per glove sample was meas-ured. Six of 54 are suspected of causing cancer after prolonged or repeated expo-sure. Boscalid was both the active substance for which the highest maximum and average concentrations (26.21 and 3.47 mg/kg, respectively). Famoxadone had the most critical PDE (156% AOEL for the maximum concentration). As a consequence, this study leads to conclude that Belgian florists, who worked for several years and handled a large number of flowers contaminated by high concentrations of pesti-cide residues, are exposed daily with a potential effect on their health. This sug-gests that safety standards should be set for residue levels on cut flowers.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology Life sciences: Multidisciplinary, general & others Public health, health care sciences & services
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