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Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a seed warehouse
Four workers at a seed supply warehouse in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, complained of ocular irritation on the job. Pesticide-coated seeds were stored in the warehouse but no significant amount of pesticide was detected in the air inside the warehouse. To identify the cause of the ocular irritation and...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan
2014
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331199/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25327297 http://dx.doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2014-0147 |
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author | MATSUKAWA, Takehisa YOKOYAMA, Kazuhito ITOH, Hiroaki |
author_facet | MATSUKAWA, Takehisa YOKOYAMA, Kazuhito ITOH, Hiroaki |
author_sort | MATSUKAWA, Takehisa |
collection | PubMed |
description | Four workers at a seed supply warehouse in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, complained of ocular irritation on the job. Pesticide-coated seeds were stored in the warehouse but no significant amount of pesticide was detected in the air inside the warehouse. To identify the cause of the ocular irritation and to determine an appropriate solution to the problem, the authors used thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze the profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air of the two warehouses at the site—warehouse A, where the four workers experienced ocular irritation, and warehouse B, where no workers experienced ocular irritation. Comparing the profiles of VOCs in these warehouses indicated that n-butyl isocyanate, a hydrolyzed product of the fungicide benomyl, was the cause of the workers’ ocular irritation. n-Butyl isocyanate is known to be a contact irritant and if the benomyl-coated seeds were not properly dried before storage in the warehouse n-butyl isocyanate would have been produced. The results of the study suggest that more attention should be paid both to the pesticide itself and to the products of pesticide degradation. In this study, n-butyl isocyanate was identified as a product of pesticide degradation and a causative chemical affecting occupational health. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4331199 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-43311992015-02-19 Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a seed warehouse MATSUKAWA, Takehisa YOKOYAMA, Kazuhito ITOH, Hiroaki Ind Health Field Report Four workers at a seed supply warehouse in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, complained of ocular irritation on the job. Pesticide-coated seeds were stored in the warehouse but no significant amount of pesticide was detected in the air inside the warehouse. To identify the cause of the ocular irritation and to determine an appropriate solution to the problem, the authors used thermal desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze the profiles of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air of the two warehouses at the site—warehouse A, where the four workers experienced ocular irritation, and warehouse B, where no workers experienced ocular irritation. Comparing the profiles of VOCs in these warehouses indicated that n-butyl isocyanate, a hydrolyzed product of the fungicide benomyl, was the cause of the workers’ ocular irritation. n-Butyl isocyanate is known to be a contact irritant and if the benomyl-coated seeds were not properly dried before storage in the warehouse n-butyl isocyanate would have been produced. The results of the study suggest that more attention should be paid both to the pesticide itself and to the products of pesticide degradation. In this study, n-butyl isocyanate was identified as a product of pesticide degradation and a causative chemical affecting occupational health. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan 2014-10-17 2015-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4331199/ /pubmed/25327297 http://dx.doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2014-0147 Text en ©2015 National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License. |
spellingShingle | Field Report MATSUKAWA, Takehisa YOKOYAMA, Kazuhito ITOH, Hiroaki Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a seed warehouse |
title | Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a
seed warehouse |
title_full | Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a
seed warehouse |
title_fullStr | Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a
seed warehouse |
title_full_unstemmed | Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a
seed warehouse |
title_short | Ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a
seed warehouse |
title_sort | ocular irritation from product of pesticide degradation among workers in a
seed warehouse |
topic | Field Report |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331199/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25327297 http://dx.doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2014-0147 |
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