Kuwait's Total Diet Study: Dietary intake of organochlorine, carbamate, benzimidazole and phenylurea pesticide residues

The State of Kuwait in cooperation with the U.S. Food and Drug Administrati on (FDA) conducted a Total Diet Study (TDS) to estimate intakes of pesticid e residues by the population. The levels of organochlorine (OC) pesticides, carbamates, benzimidazoles, and phenylureas in the TDS core list are repor ted here. The TDS core list was established through a national food consump tion survey. All food items (140 for the Kuwaiti adult) were prepared as ea ten and analyzed for the pesticides mentioned above. The FDA's multiresidue methods. in Volume I of the Pesticide Analytical Manual were used in gas, liquid, and gel permeation chromatographic analyses. Only vegetable and fru it samples contained pesticide residues (mg/kg), including the carbamates 1 -naphthol (1.4) and 3H-carbofuran (0.94) in carrots; the OC pesticide vincl ozolin (0.47), 3H-carbofuran (0.66), and fenuron (0.6) in kiwi fruit; the O C pesticide procymidone (0.32) and carbendazim (0.5) in grapes; 3H-carbofur an (5.0) in apricots; the OC pesticides captan (0.013) and thiabendazole (0 .63) in pears; captan (0.035) in plums; and carbendazim (0.4) in mandarin o ranges. The levels of 3H-carbofuran found in both apricots and kiwi fruit e xceeded the maximum residue limits (MRLs) of the Food and Agriculture Organ ization/World Health Organization (FAO/WHO) of the United Nations. The dail y intakes of pesticides by the different population groups are discussed in light of the FAO/WHO acceptable daily intakes.