Human Biomonitoring of Emerging Agricultural Exposure: Risks and Health Impacts

Dear Colleagues,

Human Biomonitoring is currently the method of choice for evaluating human exposure to xenobiotics by measuring the chemicals themselves or their metabolites in human tissues or specimens such as blood, urine, or hair. The early effects that can be revealed by some specific biomarkers are also evaluated.

Agriculture remains a field of concern, and typically environmental and biological monitoring have focused on synthetic chemicals (like pesticides and fertilizers).

But the evolution of scientific research has highlighted new risks and health issues for workers in agriculture, caused by microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, and fungi), parasites, allergens, and toxins present in soil, water, air (bioaerosols), animals (domestic, wild, and livestock), insects, and equipment, causing infections, allergies, and poisoning in workers. Common sources include contaminated hay, animal waste, soil, and water. This is the case, for example, of mycotoxins, produced by some fungi, such as some aspergillus strains, that have proven to be carcinogenic, like the well known aphlatoxin B1, which can contaminate cereals (corn), oilseeds, nuts, spices, liver, and milk, especially in hot, humid climates. Its presence in the food industry is strictly regulated to protect public health, as it can enter the food chain via milk and dairy products. Beside the concerns for the possible contamination of food, a new challenge is the biological monitoring of human exposure, specifically of farm workers. Equally as important is the screening of the general population for possible exposure to toxins that have contaminated foodto evaluate reference values.

The evolution of the analytical techniques has made available an analytical method for the detection of very low levels of exposure by measuring biological toxins, or their metabolites, in biological fluids, which is helpful in biological monitoring.

This Special Issue discusses the development of analytical methods for the biological monitoring of emerging risks exposure in agriculture, mainly focusing on biological toxins and the analysis of the results for evaluating the exposure of workers and the general population. This Special Issue solicits therefore the submission of original research and review articles on this topic.

Dr. Enrico Paci
Guest Editor

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