Evaluation of carbonaceous adsorbent coated fabric as a barrier to pesticide penetration for dermal exposure reduction in pesticide application

The purpose of the research was to assess the barrier protection of carbonaceous adsorbent coated fabrics to pesticide penetration using three pesticides at three levels of exposures. The fabric helsasafe^(R) was a three component, textile/adhesive/adsorber structure, employing Ambersorb^(R) adsorbent, a patented synthetic adsorbent resulting from pyrolysis of macroreticular polymer beads. A pesticide spray chamber delivered a controlled amount of pesticide solution to the fabric samples. The analysis was completed by extracting the pesticide residue from the fabric with hexane. High performance liquid chromotography (HPLC) analysis enabled the detection of pesticides at the ppm level. The results showed that helsasafe^(R) 503045 and 502666 provided complete barrier protection for one pass exposure levels for all three pesticides. These two fabrics also provided complete protection for two and three pass exposures of the pesticide Chlorobenzilate^(R). In addition, the same two fabrics provided complete barrier protection in the majority of replications for the other two pesticides at two and three pass exposures. Also, all three helsasafe^(R) fabrics provided better barrier protection to the pesticide Terrazole^(R) than the six denim fabrics used for comparison.