[Current aspects of the problem caused by insecticide residues].
1. In Italy in recent years the use of pesticides in agriculture has increased considerably, especially with respect to organophosphate compounds. On the other hand, organochlorine insecticides now are less employed, because since 1970 laws have been introduced by which the use of these chemicals has been limited. Among the organochlorinated insecticides now employed, we find above all lindane, endosulfan and, in floriculture, DDT. The problem with the environmental diffusion and accumulation of organochlorine pesticides therefore is always related to the human long-term pathology, not yet definitively understood. Since the sixties we have given attention to the problems in the use of pesticides, with regard to organochlorine, we have been investigating either environmental pollution (surface and subsoil water, food, etc.) or human exposure to pesticide residues, whether direct or indirect. In 1968 we investigated, in an area of Tuscany given over to floriculture, the chlorinated insecticides blood levels in 46 exposed subjects (floriculturists) and in a control-group (50 subjects) who had only indirect exposure. We found high values in those of all kinds of the tested insecticides (lindane, aldrin, heptachlor epoxide, DDT) without observing any significant difference among the concentrations of the compounds analyzed in both groups. This showed that at that time the diffusion of organochlorine in the environment was such as to affect all people, independently of occupation, who thus were seen to have the some risk of exposure. 2. Twenty years later we carried out similar research in order to verify whether or not the laws previously referred to produced changes; we also wished to ascertain the possible amounts of the concentration of the pesticides in the blood. Therefore, following the some procedure employed in the previous research, we determined, by gascromatographic technique, pesticide levels (lindane, aldrin, heptachlor epoxide, DDT) in human blood from two different population groups coming from the some area of Tuscany. We analyzed blood drawn from 54 floriculturists (of both sexes aged from 18 to 71 years mean = 43.2 years- and with about 14 years of service on average) and 54 not-professionally exposed subjects, of both sexes, aged from 27 to 73 years (mean = 56 years). Our data have now been compared with those obtained from the study carried out in 1968. All the results have been statistically analyzed in accord with the Student's T-test.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Bigazzi Grasso
C
C
Capei
R
R
Mariottini
E
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; D007306:Insecticides / Q000097:blood*; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010573:Pesticide Residues / Q000097:blood*
D006843:Hydrocarbons, Chlorinated; D007306:Insecticides; D010573:Pesticide Residues
Aspetti attuali del problema dei residui di insetticidi.