This study was carried out to assess the exposure to pesticide residues from vegetable consumption of residents in Seoul using data on pesticide residue concentrations and the quantity of vegetables consumed. A total of 34,520 samples of 96 types of vegetables collected from 2010 to 2014 by the Seoul Metropolitan Government Institute of Health and Environment (SIHE) were analysed for 283 different pesticide residues. Among the vegetable samples, 86.1% did not contain any measurable levels of pesticide and 1.4% had residues exceeding Maximum Residue Limits (MRL). A total of 105 different pesticide residues were found and 45 residues exceeded MRLs. The most commonly found residues were azoxystrobin, diethofencarb, procymidone, cypermethrin, and tebufenpyrad. A total of 547 vegetable samples from 37 different types of vegetables had residues exceeding MRLs. From these results, 20 agrochemicals were chosen based on their high level of detection and violation rate of the MRL. The potential health risk associated with exposure to the pesticides through vegetable intake was estimated as a Risk Index (RI, %ADI). For a citizen of Seoul, the RIs of the mean value and 97.5th percentile were shown to be 0.0 ~ 7.4% and 0.4 ~ 73.9% respectively. For citizens of Seoul by age (consumers only), the highest RIs for children (under 6 years old) and the elderly (over 65 years old) were with chlorothalonil, and the estimated daily intakes (EDI) were 56.0%, 112.5%, respectively, of its ADI. For adults (19 ~ 64 years old) the highest RI was for chlorfenapyr and the EDI reached 118.6%. These results show that, despite the high levels of some pesticide residues, they may not be considered as a serious public health problem.
Keywords: Pesticide residues; Seoul consumers; exposure assessment; risk index; vegetables.