Human health risk from hexachlorocyclohexane and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane pesticides, through consumption of vegetables: estimation of daily intake and hazard quotients

Abstract

People are encouraged to consume more fresh vegetables due to the high nutritional value and fibre contents in vegetables. At the same time, due to pesticidal residue in vegetables, vegetable consumption is considered as an important route of pesticides uptake by human beings. Pesticides, particularly organochlorines such as Aldrin, heptachlor and isomers of dichlorodiphe - nyltrichloroethane (DDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) are a major concern because of their persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity, and long-range environmental transport ability. Hence information on such toxic contaminants in vegetables is very essential, due to human health concern. In order to assess the potential health risks associated with vegetable consumption due to pesticidal residues of DDT and HCH, sixty four samples of commonly available vegetables were collected from a local market in West Bengal, India and analysed for DDT and HCH. In this study, estimated average daily intake of HCHs and DDTs through vegetables was ranged between 5.0x10–8–9.1x10–6 mg kg–1 day–1 with an average value of 2.0x10–6 mg kg–1 day–1. Human health risk was assessed in terms of incremental lifetime cancer risk and health hazard index was between 1.7x10–8–8.8x10–6 and 1.5x10–7– 1.7x10–2, respectively. Generated results were compared with maximum residual levels and reference values, were within acceptable limits and suggested no health risk to the human populations. Therefore, an extensive study on vegetables with the inclusion of other persistent organic pollutants and toxic metals should be carried out to know the overall scenario of contamination of vegetables.

Keywords

• dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, hexachlorocyclohexane, pesticides, vegetables, average daily dose, health risk, hazard index.