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- Arias-Andrés, M., et al.
(författare)
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Lower tier toxicity risk assessment of agriculture pesticides detected on the Rio Madre de Dios watershed, Costa Rica
- 2018
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Ingår i: Environmental Science and Pollution Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0944-1344 .- 1614-7499. ; 25:14, s. 13312-13321
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Costa Rica is a tropical country with one of the highest biodiversity on Earth. It also has an intensive agriculture, and pesticide runoff from banana and pineapple plantations may cause a high toxicity risk to non-target species in rivers downstream the plantations. We performed a first tier risk assessment of the maximum measured concentrations of 32 pesticides detected over 4 years in the River Madre de Dios (RMD) and its coastal lagoon on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. Species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) were plotted in order to derive HC5 values for each pesticide, i.e., hazard concentrations for 5 % of the species, often used as environmental criteria values in other countries. We also carried out toxicity tests for selected pesticides with native Costa Rican species in order to calculate risk coefficients according to national guidelines in Costa Rica. The concentrations of herbicides diuron and ametryn and insecticides carbofuran, diazinon, and ethoprophos exceeded either the HC5 value or the lower limit of its 90 % confidence interval suggesting toxic risks above accepted levels. Risk coefficients of diuron and carbofuran derived using local guidelines indicate toxicity risks as well. The assessed fungicides did not present acute toxic risks according to our analysis. Overall, these results show a possible toxicity of detected pesticides to aquatic organisms and provide a comparison of Costa Rican national guidelines with more refined methods for risk assessment based on SSDs. Further higher tier risk assessments of pesticides in this watershed are also necessary in order to consider pesticide water concentrations over time, toxicity from pesticide mixtures, and eventual effects on ecosystem functions.
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- Mena, F., et al.
(författare)
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Use of cholinesterase activity as a biomarker of pesticide exposure used on Costa Rican banana plantations in the native tropical fish Astyanax aeneus (Gunther, 1860)
- 2014
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Ingår i: Journal of environmental biology. - 0254-8704. ; 35:1 (SI), s. 35-42
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Costa Rica, thousands of tones of agricultural pesticides have been used for decades and their use is continuously increasing due to intensive and expanding production of coffee, pineapple, rice, ornamental plants and bananas. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether choline esterase (ChE) activity could be used as a biomarker of exposure to pesticides in the Costa Rican native fish Astyanax aeneus (characidae). Three methods used in order to evaluate the ChE biomarker were as follows: Laboratory studies where A. aeneus was exposed to organophosphate pesticide (ethoprophos); In situ 48 hr exposure assessment using caging experiments with fish exposed upstream and downstream of banana plantations and ChE activity estimation of in fish captured directly at sites with different degrees of pesticide exposure. Results from the laboratory studies showed that ChE activity in both brain and muscle tissue was significantly lower in fish exposed to ethoprophos than in controls. Fish from the caging experiments showed no difference in ChE activity neither in brain nor in muscle tissue between the four tested sites and was attributed to the short duration of the exposure. A significant difference in ChE activity was determined in muscle of fish captured from Laguna Madre de Dios compared to fish from Canal Batan. Although our laboratory results revealed that ChE activity in A. aeneus was highly responsive to ethoprophos, results from field experiments were less conclusive and showed that the captured fish showed large variability in ChE activity and that more research is needed before ChE activity can be used as reliable biomarker of pesticide exposure.
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- van Wendel de Joode, Berna, et al.
(författare)
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Aerial Application of Mancozeb and Urinary Ethylene Thiourea (ETU) Concentrations among Pregnant Women in Costa Rica: The Infants' Environmental Health Study (ISA).
- 2014
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Ingår i: Environmental Health Perspectives. - : Environmental Health Perspectives. - 1552-9924 .- 0091-6765. ; 122:12, s. 1321-1328
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Mancozeb and its main metabolite ethylene thiourea (ETU) may alter thyroid function; thyroid hormones are essential for fetal brain development. In Costa Rica, mancozeb is aerially sprayed at large-scale banana plantations on a weekly basis. Objectives: (1) evaluate urinary ETU concentrations in pregnant women living nearby large-scale banana plantations; (2) compare their estimated daily intake (EDI) with established Reference Doses (RfDs); and (3) identify factors that predict their urinary ETU concentrations. Methods: We enrolled 451 pregnant women from Matina County, Costa Rica, with large-scale banana production. We visited 445 women up to three times during pregnancy to obtain urine samples (n = 872) and information on factors that possibly influence exposure. We determined urinary ETU concentrations using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS). Results: Pregnant women's median urinary ETU concentrations were more than five times higher than reported for other general populations. Seventy-two percent of the women had EDIs above the RfD. Women who lived closest (1st quartile, < 48 meters) to banana plantations on average had a 45% (95% CI: 23, 72%) higher urinary ETU compared with women who lived farthest away (4th quartile, ≥ 565 meter). Compared with the other women, ETU was also higher in women who washed agricultural work clothes on day before sampling (11%; 95% CI; 4.9, 17%), worked in agriculture during pregnancy (19%; 95% CI: 9.3, 29), and immigrant women (6.2%; 95% CI: 1.0, 13%). Conclusions: The pregnant women's urinary ETU concentrations are of concern, and the principal source of exposure is likely to be aerial spraying of mancozeb. The factors predicting ETU provide insight into possibilities for exposure reduction.
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