Is organic farming safer to farmers' health? A comparison between organic and traditional farming

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bonassi S ; Coelho P ; Costa C ; Costa S ; Dall'Armi V ; García-Lestón J ; Laffon B ; Mattei F ; Pingarilho M ; Silva S ; Snawder, John E. ; Teixeira JP ; Valdiglesias V
• Description:
  Exposure to pesticides is a major public health concern, because of the widespread distribution of these compounds and their possible long term effects. Recently, organic farming has been introduced as a consumer and environmental friendly agricultural system, although little is known about the effects on workers' health. The aim of this work was to evaluate genetic damage and immunological alterations in workers of both traditional and organic farming. Eighty-five farmers exposed to several pesticides, thirty-six organic farmers and sixty-one controls took part in the study. Biomarkers of exposure (pyrethroids, organophosphates, carbamates, and thioethers in urine and butyrylcholinesterase activity in plasma), early effect (micronuclei in lymphocytes and reticulocytes, T-cell receptor mutation assay, chromosomal aberrations, comet assay and lymphocytes subpopulations) and susceptibility (genetic polymorphisms related to metabolism - EPHX1, GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1 - and DNA repair-XRCC1 and XRCC2) were evaluated. When compared to controls and organic farmers, pesticide farmers presented a significant increase of micronuclei in lymphocytes (frequency ratio, FR=2.80) and reticulocytes (FR=1.89), chromosomal aberrations (FR=2.19), DNA damage assessed by comet assay (mean ratio, MR=1.71), and a significant decrease in the proportion of B lymphocytes (MR=0.88). Results were not consistent for organic farmers when compared to controls, with a 48% increase of micronuclei in lumphocytes frequency (p=0.016) contrasted by the significant decreases of TCR-Mf (p=0.001) and %T (p=0.001). Our data confirm the increased presence of DNA damage in farmers exposed to pesticides, and show as exposure conditions may influence observed effects. These results must be interpreted with caution due to the small size of the sample and the unbalanced distribution of individuals in the three study groups. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Biological Assay Biomarkers Blood Carbamates Chromosomes DNA Ether Farmers Immune System Insecticides Occupational Health Organophosphates Safety

  More +
• Keywords:
  Agricultural-chemicals Agricultural-industry Agricultural-machinery Agricultural-processes Agricultural-products Agricultural-workers Author Keywords: Biomarkers Bioassays Cell-alteration Cell-morphology Chromosome-damage DNA-damage Ethers Gene-mutation Genotoxic-effects Genotoxicity Immunologic-disorders Immunotoxicity Immunotoxins Lymphocytes Organic Farming Organo-phosphorus-compounds Organo-phosphorus-pesticides Pesticides Pesticides-and-agricultural-chemicals Pyrethroids Thioates

  More +
• ISSN:
  0378-4274
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DART - Division of Applied Research and Technology
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  166-176
• Volume:
  230
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20043910
• Citation:
  Toxicol Lett 2014 Oct; 230(2):166-176
• Contact Point Address:
  Carla Costa, Department of Environmental Health, Portuguese National Institute of Health, Rua Alexandre Herculano, 321, 4000-055 Porto, Portugal
• Email:
  carla.trindade@insa.min-saude.pt
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Toxicology Letters
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:52094b73ee44f6197c898bf82a5fad1fd8a06b35508d0791089b48fd41b5781b68b63ba107f204ff6d7632cdfec761d531220700e801cdb9e746ec6d5216289b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/199782/cdc_199782_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 530.48 KB ]