Decontaminating Pesticide Protective Clothing

Abstract

Exposure to some pesticides poses risks of cancer, birth defects, genetic mutations, and sterility (Boraiko 1980). Of the three routes of chemical entry into the human body, respiratory, dermal, and oral, the primary exposure mechanism for pesticides is dermal. Until recently, we gave less attention to dermal exposure, perhaps because the older pesticides were less absorbable through the skin. Current labeling of pesticides calls for the prudent use of protective clothing by handlers who mix, load, transfer, apply, and/or dispose of pesticides. Wicker et al. (1979) reported that contaminated clothing acts as an occlusive dressing, maximizing dermal absorption of insecticides. Lavy et al. (1983) reported that herbicide applicators wearing obviously contaminated clothing show greater levels of exposure than other workers. Much of the early work in clothing decontamination has been summarized in a review paper (Laughlin and Gold 1988). This paper supplements earlier findings with more recently published work.