Assessment of lawn care worker exposure to dithiopyr

Eighteen ChemLawn lawn care specialists were monitored for worker exposure by both passive dosimetry and biological monitoring techniques in the performance of normal duties of mixing/loading and application of Dimension herbicide to turfgrass. Passive dosimetry was performed, utilizing cotton gauze patches, silica gel air sampling absorption media, and hand washes as per US Environmental Protection Agency Pesticide Assessment Guidelines. Biological monitoring was performed by analysis of all urine specimens collected from each specialist from initiation until 72 h after application of dithiopyr. The mean body dose estimate from urinalysis of the specimens collected over the 72 h period was 4.60 x 10(-5) mg/kg/lb applied. The passive dosimetry body dose estimates using dermal deposition measurements corrected for skin penetration and simulated inhalation measurements were calculated for the two clothing scenarios observed in the worker tests. The mean body dose estimate for a fully clothed specialist wearing a long-sleeved shirt was 8.09 x 10(-5) mg/kg/lb while for a specialist wearing a short-sleeved shirt the estimate was 3.62 x 10(-4) mg/kg/lb. The lower leg regions, which were protected by long pants and boots, had the highest exposure by passive dosimetry data.