Dietary exposure of Brazilian consumers to dithiocarbamate pesticides—A probabilistic approach

A probabilistic estimation of the exposure of the Brazilian population to the dithiocarbamate pesticides was performed using the Monte Carlo Risk Assessment program (MCRA 3.5). Residue data, as CS2, for 3821 samples were obtained from the Brazilian national monitoring program on pesticide residues and from the monitoring program conducted in the Distrito Federal on rice, beans and nine fruits and vegetables. Food consumption data were obtained from a Brazilian household budget survey conducted between 2002 and 2003. Processing factors for washing, peeling or cooking were applied to the residues found in the crops. Daily intakes at the highest percentiles for the general population reached a maximum of 2.0 μg CS2/kg body weight per day (upper band of the 95% confidence interval at P99.99). Tomato, rice, apple and lettuce were the commodities which contributed most to the intake. Based on the registered uses and the toxicological profile of dithiocarbamates, the risk from exposure was evaluated assuming that all residues came from the use of ethylene-bis-dithiocarbamate (EBDC) or that a fraction of it came from the use of propineb. For this last scenario, a cumulative risk assessment was conducted. In the first scenario, the highest intake reached up to 11.9% EBDC ADI for the general population and up to 31.1% ADI for children. When 30% of the residues were considered as coming from propineb use, the values were 15.2% and 39.7% ADI, respectively.