Respiratory exposure of museum personnel to dichlorvos insecticide

Dichlorvos (DDVP) is an organophosphate insecticide used to protect museum specimens from insect pests. Respiratory exposure of museum personnel to DDVP has not been studied previously. Analysis of air samples from museum rooms where DDVP was being used when the ventilation system was "on" showed a lower and significantly different (p = 0.025) amount of DDVP when compared to air samples collected from the same rooms when the ventilation system was "off". The DDVP concentrations of all samples collected were below the threshold limit value established by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.