Residue of chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin in vegetables and probabilistic exposure assessment for consumers in Zhejiang Province, China

Residues of chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin in 2082 vegetable samples were analyzed and health risks were assessed with probabilistic simulations for consumers in Zhejiang Province of China, during 2007-2010 monitoring campaign. The proportion of samples in which pesticides were detected with chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin residues in various vegetable commodities was 0-22.8% and 4.2-29.3%, and with ranges of 0.01-3.47 and 0.01-1.83 mg/kg, respectively. About 1.4% and 0.3% of vegetable samples exceeded the maximum residue limits (MRLs) for chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin, respectively. Data obtained were then used for estimating the potential health risks associated with the exposures to these pesticides. To evaluate exposures, a Monte Carlo simulation was applied and the distribution obtained was randomly sampled by Latin Hypercube. The outcome indicated that the exposure of youth's (2-17 year-old) was higher than the adults (18-65 year-old) and the seniors (above 66 year-old), and the exposure levels for consumers in urban areas was higher than that of in the rural areas. The estimated daily intakes (EDIs) of chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin for the most sensitive age group (2-6 year-old) based on the probabilistic assessment at high percentile (P99.9) were accounted for 48.99% and 31.8% of ADIs, respectively. The results showed that occurrence of pesticide residues in vegetables from the region could not be considered a serious public health problem. Nevertheless, an investigation into continuous monitoring and tighter regulation of pesticide residues in vegetables in the whole country is recommended.