Pesticide Residues in Peri-Urban Bovine Milk from India and Risk Assessment: A Multicenter Study.

Pesticides residue poses serious concerns to human health. The present study was carried out to determine the pesticide residues of peri-urban bovine milk (n = 1183) from five different sites (Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Ludhiana and Udaipur) in India and dietary exposure risk assessment to adults and children. Pesticide residues were estimated using gas chromatography with flame thermionic and electron capture detectors followed by confirmation on gas chromatography-mass spectrometer. The results noticed the contamination of milk with hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH), dichloro-diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT), endosulfan, cypermethrin, cyhalothrin, permethrin, chlorpyrifos, ethion and profenophos pesticides. The residue levels in some of the milk samples were observed to be higher than the respective maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticide. Milk samples contamination was found highest in Bhubaneswar (11.2%) followed by Bangalore (9.3%), Ludhiana (6.9%), Udaipur (6.4%) and Guwahati (6.3%). The dietary risk assessment of pesticides under two scenarios i.e. lower-bound scenario (LB) and upper-bound (UB) revealed that daily intake of pesticides was substantially below the prescribed acceptable daily intake except for fipronil in children at UB. The non-cancer risk by estimation of hazard index (HI) was found to be below the target value of one in adults at all five sites in India. However, for children at the UB level, the HI for lindane, DDT and ethion exceeded the value of one in Ludhiana and Udaipur. Cancer risk for adults was found to be in the recommended range of United States environment protection agency (USEPA), while it exceeded the USEPA values for children.

Pesticide Residues in Bovine Milk in Punjab, India: Spatial Variation and Risk Assessment to Human Health.

In the present study, gas chromatographic analysis of pesticide residues in bovine milk (n = 312) from Punjab, India, showed chlorpyrifos, DDT, and γ-HCH as the predominant contaminants. In addition, the presence of ß-endosulfan, endosulfan suphate, cypermethrin, cyhalothrin, fenvalerate, deltamethrin, malathion, profenofos, and ethion was reported in milk samples. In this study, it was observed that 12 milk samples exceeded the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for γ-HCH (lindane), 18 for DDT and chlorpyrifos, and 1 sample each for endosulfan, cypermethrin, and profenophos. In India, DDT is still permitted for a malaria control program, which may be the plausible reason for its occurrence in milk samples. The spatial variation for presence of pesticide residues in milk indicated greater levels in cotton-growing areas of Punjab. At current levels of pesticide residues in bovine milk, the human health risk assessment in terms of noncancer and cancer hazard was calculated based on both lower-bound [LB (mean residue levels)] and upper-bound [UP (95th percentile level)] limits. It was noticed that cancer and noncancer risk were within United States Environmental Protection Agency prescribed limits for both adults and children at the LB, but children were being exposed to greater risk for DDT and HCH at the 95th-percentile UB level.