Exposição ocupacional a formulação contendo glifosato / Occupational exposure to glyphosate formulations

ABSTRACT

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the most largely used herbicide in the world and has been held responsible, in scientific studies, for toxic effects in cases of accute intoxication through ingestion in suicide attempts. Toxic effects caused by occupational exposures to different glyphosate formulations have not been indentified. The existing commercial glyphosate formulations have several ingredients that are called adjuvants wich, nevertheless, have toxicological effects and may cause distinct symptoms. The objetive of this work was to review the cases of occupational exposure to formulations of glyphosate and the toxic effects found in farm workers who were examined at the Toxicology Ambulatory at Unicamp. From a total of 334 patients, 160 of them were exposed to fromulations of glyphosate and 146 presented distinct clinical signs and symptons with the same kind of exposure. We have reached the conclusion that adjuvants components in the formulations may be rsponsible for more important toxicological effects than active ingredient, glyphosate...