Exposures while applying commercial disinfectants

Measurements were made on 40 applicators applying chemical disinfectants to floors, walls, other hard surfaces, or carpeting by high-pressure spray, low-pressure spray, mopping, wiping, or aerosol spray. Inhalation exposure was assessed with air samples. Clothing and skin deposition was assessed with dermal gauze dosimeters attached both outside applicators' work clothing and inside their clothing against their skin. As is typical of agricultural pesticide applications, the airborne route of exposure was very low, usually below the chemical limit of detection. The primary route of exposure and dosing was to the skin. The normal work clothing worn by applicators consistently reduced clothing deposition to lower values reaching the skin. The effects of chemical detection limits and short use durations caused the analyte on many individual dosimeters to be below the method detection limit. Mean measured total dose of the active ingredient onto the skin (ranging from 0.1 to 26 mg per task) was converted to equivalent dose of the applied mixture (ranging from 0.1 to 2.7 g) to adjust for widely varying disinfectant concentrations. A discussion is also presented on the serious limitations of applying the assumption that undetectable samples are "one-half the detection limit" to a study of this nature where results are the sum of multiple measurements.