Levels of 48 pesticides in vegetables and water and evaluation of health risk resulting from dietary intake in gardening areas in Burkina Faso

Exceedance of MRLs might induce a risk for the consumers and limits the opportunities of exportation for a sector identified by the authorities as having a great potential for the fight against poverty. In the same way, levels of some water samples exceed both the 0.1 μg/l limit for pesticides taken individually and the 0.5 μg/l limit for the sum of pesticides recommended for drinking water in the EU. Over the 70 individual diets assessed, 3 and 8 yield respectively an acute and chronic cumulative risk for organophosphorus pesticides. Dietary risk was identified for chlorpyrifos in every exposure scenarios and for dieldrin (persistent and forbidden pesticide) for chronic exposure. Chlorpyrifos alone accounts for 81% to 98% of cumulative effects of organophosphorus pesticides. Every scenario exhibits a greater exposure of the consumer through vegetables than water consumption. Processing factor appeared to largely influence the risk occurrence. In this study, 60% was set as default value for cooked commodities (boiled or fried). Further refinements could include the definition of specific processing factors dependent of the local processes and pesticide used. As for dieldrin, multiresidue analysis allowed to detect residues of pesticides not identified by investigators nor gardeners during field surveys. This might imply the existence of other sources that need to be further investigated (lack of knowledge, spray drift, etc.).