WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Khaled S. Al Salhen*, Maha Jamal, Omaro A. Aburas, Omalsaad E.I. Omar

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Agricultural workers are at risk of exposure to occupational hazardous such as pesticides. Bio monitoring of effects in agricultural workers is necessary to assess the individual risk of handling pesticides. Settings: The study was conducted in the hematological unit at the Analytical Medical Laboratory at El-Beida Hospital, Libya. Subjects and Methods: This study was designed to study the hematological parameters effects of the pesticide pollution among Libyan agricultural workers at Aljebal Alakhtar, Libya. A total of 45 blood samples were collected from male agriculture workers who have been exposed to pesticides in crop fields for a long period time on Aljebal Alakhtar, while 25 blood samples have been taken from the group of people in meanwhile who were not dealing with pesticides (control). The hematocrit value (HCT), hemoglobin content, red blood cells count (RBCs) and mean corpuscular volume (MCV) concentration with increased white blood cells counts (WBCs), mean erythrocyte hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), lymphocytes and neutrophils levels were performed on Selectra E fully automatic hematological analyzer. The samples were analyzed for organochlorine pesticide residues by using gas chromatography-electron capture detector (GC-ECD). All the data from Libyan agricultural workers and age-matched controls from different experiments were analyzed and compared using Student’s t-test. The results were expressed as mean ± SD. The significant test was applied at p value < 0.05. Results: The study indicated also detected four (p,p`-DDT, o,p`-DDT, o,p`-DDE and p,p`-DDD) of the 16 organochlorine compounds tested for in the whole blood samples were detected in all analyzed samples. The mean total p,p`-DDT, o,p-DDT, o,p`-DDE and p,p`-DDD levels in blood samples were 0.169 ± 0.001, 0.129 ± 0.003, 0.328 ± 0.007 and 0.510 ± 0.01 ppm, respectively. Assessment of hematological parameters revealed that the RBCs, hemoglobin, HCT, MCV. MCH, MCHC and neutrophils levels were significantly lower in workers than in controls, while WBCs and lymphocytes levels were significantly higher in workers. Conclusions: These biomarkers seem to be indicative of adverse effects of pesticides in agricultural workers, confirming their use for routine monitoring of effects.