Potential exposure and risk assessment of agricultural workers to the insecticide chlorantraniliprole in rice paddies.

BACKGROUND: Exposure of agricultural workers in rice paddies to the insecticide chlorantraniliprole and its subsequent potential health risks were investigated during two scenarios (mixing/loading and hand-held spraying). The exposure factors, such as the outer dosimeter, inner dosimeter, gauze, and nitrile gloves, were calculated using whole-body dosimetry to measure dermal exposure. The inhalation exposure was determined using a fiberglass filter which is set with an Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) sampler. A recovery test was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the analytical method. RESULTS: The exposure amounts of various matrices were calculated from extraction volume and concentration of the target compound. The dermal exposure to chlorantraniliprole was 0.6 mg [0.001% of the total active ingredient (a.i.)] for mixing and loading, and 28.6 mg (0.066% of the total a.i.) for application. The inhalation exposure to chlorantraniliprole was 7.2 µg (1.3%, 1.2 × 10-5 % of the total applied a.i.) for mixing and loading, and 1.9 µg (0.006%, 4.4 × 10-6 % of the total applied a.i.) for application. The most exposed part of the body was the hand (90.4%) during mixing and loading, whereas the primary sites during application were the thighs (32.8%) and shins (22.6%). For mixing and loading, the amount of actual dermal exposure was 5.5 µg day-1 and that of actual inhalation exposure was 21.9 µg day-1 . By contrast, in the application, the amounts of actual dermal and actual inhalation exposures were 34 178.7 and 5.9 µg day-1 , respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The risk assessment results demonstrated that the risk of chlorantraniliprole exposure in rice paddies was low during application than during mixing and loading. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.