Modelling of Health Risk Associated with the Intake of Pesticides from Romanian Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract

This study is focused on the assessment of risks caused by pesticide residues to Romanian and other European populations, by modelling the acute and chronic risks considering short- and long-term exposures to pesticide residues in specific fruits and vegetables from different Romanian regions. Data were obtained from the Romanian 2016 official monitoring programme. For assessing the dietary risk, we used the Pesticide Residue Intake model—PRIMo. According to the official data, it was found that 50.44% of fruit samples and 28.25% of vegetable samples were contaminated with pesticides. Our study focused on acute risks and chronic risks (in a maximalist worst-case scenario) posed by pesticide residues in strawberries, apples, lettuce and potatoes, given both their high degree of consumption and contamination with pesticides. The short-term exposure assessment of children’s health due to consumption of apples, lettuce and potatoes contaminated with dimethoate, chlorothalonil and carbendazim, revealed exposure levels higher than the acute reference dose (ARfD, as 100%), raising acute risks. On the other hand, the long-term exposure assessment showed that the highest percentage from the acceptable daily intake (ADI, as 100%) was obtained for German children (DE child) (273.9%), followed by Netherlands children (NL child) (143.7%) diets, based on consumption of apples with dimethoate residues. Therefore, serious measures are needed for banning pesticides such as dimethoate, chlorothalonil and carbendazim from all countries in the EU. This would reduce the health risks generated by the consumption of contaminated fruits and vegetables.