Greenhouses are essentially microcosms aimed at providing physical environments suitable for the survival and growth of plants. Crops grown intensively in greenhouses in Great Britain include cut flowers, pot plants and edible crops such as tomato, lettuce cucumber and celery. The enclosed conditions mean that greenhouse workers are more likely to be exposed to higher levels of plant material, plant pests and plant protection products than general horticulture workers. The potential for ill-health in greenhouse workers is examined with particular reference to Great Britain. The principal potential effects expected include irritancy, asthma, allergic aleveolitis and dermatitis. Although biological control agents are widely used, there were no reports of their having caused ill-health in greenhouse workers. About two people per year are found to have suffered ill-health as a consequence of greenhouse exposure to chemical pesticides in reported pesticides incidents in Great Britain.

1. The thio-beta-d-glucosiduronic acids (thio-beta-glucuronides) of o-aminothiophenol, diethyldithiocarbamic acid, p-nitrothiophenol and thiophenol are formed biosynthetically in broken- and intact-cell preparations of mouse liver. 2. For this biosynthesis to occur in homogenates or microsomal fractions, UDP-glucuronic acid was required during incubation; glucose, glucuronic acid or UDP could not replace it. UDP was a product of the reaction. 3. The biosynthetic mechanism linking glucuronic acid to thiol and carbodithioic groups therefore requires UDP-glucuronyltransferase activity and resembles that forming the various types of O-glucuronides. 4. An analogous enzymic mechanism employing UDP-glucose synthesizes the thio-beta-d-glucosides of diethyldithiocarbamic acid and thiophenol in gut preparations of the mollusc Arion ater; this mechanism resembles that forming the O-glucosides. The thio-beta-d-glucosides are formed also in intact cells. 5. As expected from the distribution of O-glycosides, S-glucuronides of these aglycones were not detectable with the invertebrate, nor were the S-glucosides with the vertebrate. 6. Despite their similar biosyntheses, S- and O-beta-glycosides differ in susceptibility to hydrolysis by beta-glycosidases. Rat preputial-gland beta-glucuronidase hydrolysed thioglucuronides of o-aminothiophenol, diethyldithiocarbamic acid and p-nitrothiophenol, hydrolysis being inhibited by glucarolactone; the thioglucuronide of thiophenol was not hydrolysed by preputial-gland or liver beta-glucuronidase. The two S-glucosides resisted hydrolysis by beta-glucosidase from almond emulsin.

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