Acephate exposure and decontamination on tobacco harvesters' hands

Abstract

Agricultural workers manually harvesting tobacco have the potential for high dermal fexposure to pesticides, particularly on the hands. Often gloves are not worn as it hinders the harvesters' ability to harvest the tobacco leaves. To enable harvesters to remove pesticide residue on the hands and decrease absorbed doses, the EPA Worker Protection Standard requires growers to have hand-wash stations available in the field. The purpose of this study was to measure the concentration of acephate residue on the hands of tobacco harvesters, and the effectiveness of hand washing in reducing the acephate residue. Hand-wipes from the hands of 12 tobacco harvesters were collected at the end of the morning and at the end of the afternoon over 2 consecutive days. Each harvester had one hand-wiped prior to washing his hands, and the other hand-wiped after washing his hands with soap and water. In addition to the hand-wipe samples, leaf-wipe samples were collected from 15 tobacco plants to determine the amount of acephate residue on the plants. The average acephate level in leaf-wipe samples was 1.4 ng/cm 2 . The geometric mean prewash and postwash acephate levels on the hands were 10.5 and 0.4 ng/cm 2 , respectively. Both prewash (P-value ¼ 0.0009) and postwash hand (P-value ¼ 0.01) samples were positively correlated with leaf-wipe concentrations. Tobacco harvester position tended to influence hand exposure. Hand washing significantly reduced acephate levels on the hand, after adjusting for sampling period, hand sampled, job position, and leaf-wipe concentration (P-valuer0.0001) with levels reduced by 96%. A substantial amount of acephate was transferred to the hands, and while hand washing significantly reduced the amount of residue on the hands, not all residue was removed.

First reported outbreak of green tobacco sickness in Brazil

“…Among the cases, 69 (65%) denied alcohol consumption, 82 (77%) reported never smoking, 13 (12%) were former smokers (stopped at least a month before the interview) and 12 (11%) were regular smokers. The median age for initiation of smoking was 15 (range, [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. 47 cases (49%) reported the presence of a smoker at home.…”

“…The importance of an accurate and timely diagnosis was highlighted to health professionals to improve knowledge of the magnitude of the disease. Likewise, increased awareness of the target population about the risks of green tobacco sickness is critical for introducing protective measures for farmers such as gloves, appropriate clothing and the washing of hands during the work, as recommended by Curwin et al 21 .…”

Avaliação da vestimenta-padrão utilizada durante a colheita das folhas do tabaco e implicações na prevenção da Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS)

“…Dessa forma, quando os trabalhadores vão fazer a colheita dessas folhas de tabaco, suas roupas podem ficar molhadas pelo contato com a planta úmida, o que favorece a passagem da nicotina pela roupa e posteriormente o contato com a pele, podendo ocorrer sua absorção e consequentemente o aparecimento de alguns efeitos adversos. Caracteriza-se como uma intoxicação aguda, geralmente moderada, cujos principais sintomas são: dor de cabeça, náuseas, vômitos, cólicas abdominais e tonturas [1][2][3][4][5][6] . A GTS foi primeiramente descrita em literatura médica na década de 1970, nos Estados Unidos, e, posteriormente, em alguns outros países como Japão, Malásia, Itália e Índia 6,7 .…”

“…O Brasil tem grande importância no cenário mundial de produção de tabaco 4,6 , mas ainda são poucas as publicações científicas brasileiras relacionadas com a ocorrência e a prevenção da GTS em nosso país 3,6,7 . De maneira geral, são escassas as publicações que apresentam informações sobre a eficácia das ações propostas e/ou adotadas para prevenção da GTS 2,8-10 diante dos inúmeros artigos publicados mostrando a sua ocorrência [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] . Desses estudos que avaliaram medidas de proteção, três 2,9,10 analisaram o uso de luvas ou a lavagem das mãos como medidas para diminuir o contato e a consequente absorção da nicotina, e apenas um investigou uma vestimenta (capa de chuva emborrachada) na prevenção efetiva da absorção da nicotina 8 .…”

“…Alguns autores apontam que esse fato, associado à falta de treinamento, é um fator importante nesse processo 2,5,6 . Nesse contexto, o objetivo do presente estudo foi avaliar a eficácia de uma vestimenta-padrão, proposta para uso durante a colheita das folhas de tabaco, e se o resultado obtido pode contribuir com a prevenção da GTS.…”