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Organochlorine pesticide residues in Argentina general population's meals and babies' diets.

Higa J

Proceedings of the VII International Congress of Rural Medicine, September 17-21, Salt Lake City, Utah. International Association of Agricultural Medicine, 1978 Sep; :20-22

00182607

Tests were made of the blood of individuals occupationally exposed to organochlorine pesticides and members of the general population of Argentina in order to determine the degree to which the general population has been exposed to such chemicals. Individuals who have been engaged during at least 5 years in the application of these pesticides in the antimalaria and Chagas disease campaigns had much higher levels of these chemicals in their blood samples. Even so, none of these individuals demonstrated any excess of clinical signs of toxicity, carcinogenesis, or absence from work. Tests made of infants indicated that babies were born with a detectable amount of these chemicals in their blood stream. This amount increases during the first 5 to 7 years of life, and then levels off. Newborns had a concentration of these pesticides in the blood which was 20 to 50 times less than that of their mothers, due in part to the smaller amount of fatty tissue present in the body of the newborn and secondly to the detoxicating properties of the placenta. Samples of uncooked food had levels of DDT (50293), dieldrin (60571) and lindane (58899) which were all below the accepted standards for daily intake. At times there were levels of alpha-BHC (319846) or beta-BHC (319857) which even surpassed the quantities of the active pesticide present. The author indicated that the concentration of chlorinated residues in the milk of mothers was such that breast feeding may pass dangerously high levels on to the suckling child.

NIOSH-Grant; Grants-other; Chlorinated-hydrocarbons; Environmental-contamination; Agricultural-chemicals; Pest-control; Insecticides; Blood-analysis; Humans; Children; Food-contaminants

Prev Med & Environmental Hlth University of Iowa Inst/agric Med & Environ Hlth Iowa Oakdale, Iowa 52319

50-29-3; 60-57-1; 58-89-9; 319-84-6; 319-85-7

19780917

Conference/Symposia Proceedings

24225

Grant

1978

Grant-Number-R13-OH-00694

Other Occupational Concerns; Grants-other

Proceedings of the VII International Congress of Rural Medicine, September 17-21, Salt Lake City, Utah

UT; IA

University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa