Choosing Fungicides for Banana Protection. S. L. Brown, Risks of Radiation and Chemical Compounds, 4700 Grass Valley Road, Oakland, CA 94605
Multinational agribusiness companies need a method for guiding their environmental priorities in production areas where regulatory guidance may be minimal or absent. A Pesticide Priority System (PPS) has been developed to help one such company identify pesticide application practices that may need to be improved to protect human health or the environment. The PPS, described at last year’s SRA meeting, has now been extended and applied to the issue of fungicide application for the protection of bananas from sigatoka and other fungal infections. In this application, the focus was on protection of workers; the PPS is also capable of assessing priorities for protection of neighbors and aquatic resources. Three pathways of exposure were analyzed in detail: direct inhalation of pesticide drift following aerial application; direct dermal exposure to such drift, and indirect dermal exposure through contact with foliage upon re-entry following application. The first two pathways were assessed by extrapolating from data gathered by personal air sampling and dermal patch testing of workers during application of a representative fungicide. Dermal exposure on re-entry was assessed through a mathematical model starting with residue data from a test on a surrogate crop. This presentation will discuss the methods and show how selected results were used to identify a mix of fungicides that would keep environmental risks acceptable while maximizing the cost-effectiveness of fungus control.