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. 2020 May 9;17(9):3303.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17093303.

Development of Personal Protective Clothing for Reducing Exposure to Insecticides in Pesticide Applicators

Manoch Naksata  1 , Anucha Watcharapasorn  1   2 , Surat Hongsibsong  3 , Ratana Sapbamrer  4
Affiliations

Development of Personal Protective Clothing for Reducing Exposure to Insecticides in Pesticide Applicators

Manoch Naksata et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Wearing appropriate personal protective equipment during the application of pesticides is one method of reducing dermal exposure to pesticides. Thus, the aim of this research is to develop personal protective clothing (PPC) coated with gum rosin and investigate the efficiency of its level of protection against chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin. Comparison of the protection efficiency of each PPC with Tychem® C coveralls was also investigated. Five commercially available cotton fabrics were chosen for tailoring the PPC, and then, the PPC was coated with a gum rosin finish to provide water repellence. The efficiency of the level of protection of the gum rosin-coated PPC against insecticides was tested in a laboratory (closed chamber). The remarkable findings were that the % protection efficiencies for all the PPC, with the exception of one, were not significantly different to those for Tychem® C coveralls. The protection efficiencies ranged from 99.85% to 99.97% against chlorpyrifos and 99.11% to 99.89% against cypermethrin. Therefore, our results suggest that gum rosin-coated clothing provided satisfactory levels of protection against insecticides and could be considered as suitable protective clothing for pesticide applicators. Choice of an appropriate fabric for coating with gum rosin also needs to be considered. A further study in field conditions is warranted to confirm the protection efficiency in a working environment.

Keywords: chlorpyrifos; cypermethrin; fabric; insecticide; personal protective clothing; personal protective equipment; pesticide; risk reduction; safety.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Properties of fabrics which were used to tailored personal protective clothing (PPC).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Closed chamber for experiment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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