Abstract
Purpose To assess occupational inhalation exposure to
the herbicide atrazine during pesticide application in a
developing country.
Methods Personal air samples were collected during
atrazine application using a personal sampling pump
equipped with an OSHA Versatile Sampler (OVS-2) sorbent
tube. Samples were collected from 24 pesticide
applicators in Honduras. Application was observed during
sampling, and a survey was completed in the home.
Results Fourteen of the 24 participants used pump
backpack sprayers to apply atrazine and 10 used tractor/
boom systems. Despite applying about 15 times as much
atrazine, the tractor/boom participants (11.5 lg/m3
) had
only slightly higher (not statistically significant) timeweighted
averages (TWA) than participants using backpack
sprayers (9.6 lg/m3
). Within the backpack sprayer
group, those that used a cone spray nozzle (11.54 lg/m3
)
had nearly double the TWA than applicators using a flat
spray nozzle (5.98 lg/m3
; P = 0.04). In the tractor/boom