Potential Dermal Exposure of Florists to Fungicide Residues on Flowers and Risk Assessment

Flowers are susceptible to many pests and diseases. Therefore, they can be sprayed several times during their growth considering that no MRL are set for flowers. High levels of pesticide residues potentially expose daily the florists who handle cut flowers and possibly could endanger their health. A study was carried out to evaluate the risk for florists exposed to fungicide residues during normal professional tasks. Cotton gloves were distributed to 20 florists (two pairs to each florist) and worn during two consecutive half days during normal professional tasks (from min 2 hours to max 3 hours/day) to measure their potential dermal exposure (PDE). Samples were analyzed with a multi-residue (QuEChERS) method validated by a laboratory accredited for pesticide residues and with a combination of gas and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. It appears from the results that a total of 54 fungicides with different toxicity classes were detected on cotton gloves. An average of 15.53 mg/kg fungicide residues per glove sample was measured. Six of 54 are suspected of causing cancer after prolonged or repeated exposure. Boscalid was both the active substance for which the highest maximum and average concentrations (26.21 and 3.47 mg/kg, respectively). Famoxadone had the most critical PDE (156% AOEL for the maximum concentration). As a consequence, this study leads to conclude that Belgian florists, who worked for several years and handled a large number of flowers contaminated by high concentrations of pesticide residues, are exposed daily with a potential effect on their health. This suggests that safety standards should be set for residue levels on cut flowers.