Cali is located in a major agricultural area of Colombia, and for many years organochlorine pesticides (OCP) were applied to cotton and sugar cane crops. Although most of these chemicals are no longer used, they continue to persist in the environment, including the atmosphere. In this work  polyurethane foam (PUF) passive air samplers were deployed for three months in four strategic points of the city. The results showed that the presence of hexachlorobenzene, heptachlor endosulfan, a-HCH, ?-HCH, heptachlor epoxide, chlordane, o,p'-DDD, o,p'-DDE and p,p'-DDT were detected. Cancer risk assessment by inhalation of atmospheric contaminants was calculated for each pollutant using Monte Carlo simulations with Crystal Ball software. Calculations were performed using 100,000 iterations and a life span of 75 years divided in two periods: 0 to 15 years old for children and 15 to 75 years old for adults. The first case was based on inhalation rate (IR) 0.45 m�/h, exposure duration (ED) 15 yo, body weight (BW) 12 kg, and average time (AT) of 15 x 365 days (d) whereas the second case was based on IR is 0.36 m�/h, ED 50 y, BW 71.8 kg, and AT 50 y x 365 d. The exposure time was assumed to be 24 h/d, exposure frequency 350 d and percentage of inhaled chemical absorbed 100%. This is a preliminary study in a short period of the atmosphere of the city of Cali. The results showed values, for passive samplers, lower than those for active samplers possibly due to atmospheric variations. It is worth noting that the cancer risk from inhaling OCP for the four stations, were 4.52E-05, 2.92E-06, 3.36E-05, 6.50E-05, these values ??are the ranges slightly acceptable and can be source of contribution to the high cancer cases registered in the city of Cali.

Persistent organochlorinated pesticides and cancer risk assessment associated with an urban community in Cali, Colombia

248th National Meeting (2014)

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