Endocrine-disrupting activity in carbendazim-induced reproductive and developmental toxicity in rats.

This study was designed to investigate the endocrine-disrupting activity of carbendazim-induced reproductive and developmental toxicity in Sprague-Dawley rats treated orally with the fungicide. Cotreatment of male rats with 675 mg/kg carbendazim and 50 or 100 mg/kg flutamide, an androgen receptor antagonist, once daily for 28 d blocked decrease of testis weight induced by treatment with carbendazim alone. The cotreatment prevented losses of spermatozoa and cell morphology and decrease of sperm concentration induced by carbendazim. Premating treatment of male and female rats with 200 mg/kg carbendazim for 28 d produced androgenic effects including incomplete development of uterine horn, enlargement of uretha, absence of vagina, and induction of seminal vesicles in female offspring, without marked effects in male offspring. Premating treatment with 100mg/kg benomyl, the parent compound of carbendazim, resulted in incomplete development of uterine horn and absence of vagina in female offspring and produced testis and epidydimis atropy in male offspring. Treatment of male rats with 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 mg/kg carbendazim for 56 d produced dose-dependent increases of androgen receptor concentrations in testis and epididymis. Additions of 5, 50, and 500 microM carbendazim to testis extract from untreated rats replaced binding of [3H]-5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone to androgen receptor in a concentration-dependent manner. The present study demonstrates that reproductive toxicity induced by carbendazim is blocked by an androgen receptor antagonist in male rats and developmental toxicity of the fungicide shows androgenic properties in female offspring. These results suggest that androgen- and androgen receptor-dependent mechanisms are possibly involved in carbendazim-induced toxicity.

Pesticide patch test series for the assessment of allergic contact dermatitis among banana plantation workers in panama.

BACKGROUND: Irritant contact dermatitis and allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) are frequent among agricultural workers and require targeted interventions. Patch testing is necessary for differential diagnosis, but patch testing with pesticides is uncommon. OBJECTIVE: This study explores the frequency of ACD and sensitization to pesticides among highly exposed banana plantation workers. METHODS: Frequently and recently used pesticides on banana plantations in Divala, Panama, were documented. A pesticide patch test tray specific for this population was prepared. A structured interview was administered to 366 participants, followed by a complete skin examination. The pesticide patch test series, as well as a standard patch test series, was applied to 37 workers with dermatoses likely to be pesticide related and to 23 control workers without dermatoses. RESULTS: The pesticide patch tests identified 15 cases (41%) of ACD (20 positive reactions) among the 37 workers diagnosed with pesticide dermatosis. Three controls had allergic reactions to pesticides (4 positive reactions). The pesticides were carbaryl (5 cases), benomyl (4 cases), ethoprophos (3), chlorothalonil (2), imazalil (2), glyphosate (2), thiabendazole (2), chlorpyrifos (1), oxyfluorfen (1), propiconazole (1), and tridemorph (1). Ethoprophos and tridemorph had not been previously identified as sensitizers. Thus, the prevalence of ACD was 0.03 (15 of 366). On the basis of observed prevalences of positive patch-test reactions among the subgroups with and without dermatoses, we estimated that > or = 16% of the entire population may be sensitized to pesticides. CONCLUSION: Sensitization to pesticides among banana plantation workers is a frequent occupational health problem. Pesticide patch test trays should be used in assessing skin diseases in highly exposed workers.

Analysis on the move: deconstructing troublesome health questions and troubling epidemiology.

Qualitative research gets close to experiences of pain, illness, and disease; consequently, qualitative researchers often find themselves asked troublesome questions (i.e., laypeople ask for practical, helpful answers to their everyday illness concerns). This is not surprising, but of interest is the fact that academics ask each other such troublesome questions as part of academic discourse. When academics ask such questions, they may sometimes be after practical information, but they may also be using the questioning as an attack on the supposed excessive relativism of social constructionism. Three key analytical moves that offer a useful deconstruction of troublesome health questions are outlined, showing that they are another useful topic of constructionist inquiry. To lessen abstraction, these moves are brought to bear on a case study of a possible connection between pesticide use and birth defects, thus showing how social science and epidemiology can be connected, troubled, and extended in the process.

Anophthalmia and benomyl in Italy: a multicenter study based on 940,615 newborns.

Following the report on clusters of anophthalmia and microphthalmia in England and Wales and their possible relation to the pesticide Benomyl, we analyzed the situation in Italy for the period 1986 to 1990 using data from the Italian registries of congenital malformations and national data on Benomyl use. Of 940,615 consecutive births, 33 cases of clinical anophthalmia and 78 cases of microphthalmia were reported (birth prevalence: 0.35 and 0.83/10,000). Birth prevalence by region for 18 of Italy's 20 political regions was evaluated for the two malformations, grouped together after exclusion of defects associated with chromosomal anomalies, no dishomogeneity in space or time among registries or among regions was observed for the study period. In no region was a statistically significant difference identified between observed and expected overall birth prevalence. Correlation analysis between the prevalence of micro/anophthalmia and Benomyl use by region showed a negative, nonsignificant coefficient, and an inverse correlation was found when the 18 regions were divided into four groups by increasing levels of Benomyl use. Parental occupation in agriculture did not seem to be associated with micro/anophthalmia when compared to a control group affected with isolated prearicular tags (odds ratio 0.63; CL 0.07-2.52). On the basis of these results, though the limits intrinsic to ecologic correlation studies must be taken into account, an association between Benomyl use and congenital micro/anophthalmia appears to be unlikely.

Benlate. A medical and scientific controversy.

Benlate, a fungicide, has been used for over 20 years in Florida to treat agricultural crops and ornamentals. In the past few years, there have been reports of crop damage and health effects from exposure. Physicians should be aware of research findings regarding these effects.

Contact allergy to the fungicide benomyl?

Benomyl is a widely used fungicide. Contact allergy to benomyl has been reported in a few cases. We describe a group of 62 workers, exposed to benomyl. None had contact dermatitis from benomyl. It appears that benomyl at most is a weak sensitizer. We suggest that earlier-reported allergy may represent cross-reactions and/or that the development of contact allergy to benomyl requires previous exposure to other chemically related pesticides.

[Cytogenetic activity of metabolites of pesticides representing different classes of chemical compounds]. / Issledovanie tsitogeneticheskoi aktivnosti nekotorykh metabolitov riada pestitsidov--predstavitelei neskol'kikh klassov khimicheskikh soedinenii.

The cytogenetic activity of some substances formed in agricultural plants during metabolism of pesticides of four classes of chemical compounds was studied in the culture of human peripheric blood lymphocytes. Metabolites were shown either to have mutagenic properties similar to those of the initial compounds (ziramtetramethylthiourea, both being mutagens; captan-phthalimide, both possessing no cytogenetic activity) or to be considerably transformed in comparison with them as a result of deactivation (benomile-MBC) or activation (betanal-MHPC) processes. The latter variant if being determined for the genetic hazard of the pesticide necessitates to take into account data on the mutagenic character of those metabolites which really might enter the human organism.