Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: A suspected human carcinogen and antithyroid substance, ethylenethiourea (ETU), is produced during the metabolism of ethylenebisdithiocarbamates (EBDCs). These fungicides are sprayed from above or while wearing a backpack. Ethylenethiourea (ETU), a Type II B carcinogen, and antithyroid chemicals are produced when EBDCs are broken down.

Objective: The objective of conducting this research was to compare the occurrence of thyroid problems among EBDC-exposed mango plantation workers with ETU levels.

Method: 90 employees between the ages of 20 and 52 who had been exposed to EBDCs directly or indirectly for at least two years each from four plantations that had been heavily reliant on dithiocarbamates over the previous ten years were chosen at random. These workers were most recently exposed 2 to 7 days prior to the start of the investigation. 40 control workers were chosen from an organic farm. These laborers lived at least 40 kilometers from the mango plantations and had no exposure to EBDCs. Weekly and daily applications of EBDCs were made using aerial and backpack spraying, respectively. In addition to or in instead of EBDCs, other fungicides such as chlorothalonil, propanol, and bioethanol were applied. Farmers were primarily exposed through skin contact and breathing. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, version 10, was used to perform descriptive statistics, student t-tests, analyses of variance, Fisher’s exact tests, Pearson’s correlation analyses, and regression analyses.

Results: Despite being well within the normal range, the results showed that exposed workers had greater mean thyroid-stimulating hormone measurements than the control group. Compared to 2 in the control group, 10 of the exposed farmers showed abnormal thyroid ultrasonography results, which were primarily single nodules. Blood ETU levels among the directly exposed, indirectly exposed, and control groups were substantially different (P<0.002), although urine ETU levels were not (P=0.11; analysis of variance). Environmental ETU levels were below the threshold required for cleanup by the US EPA. A strong direct link between nodule size and blood ETU level in farmers with solitary thyroid nodules was observed.

Conclusion: According to this research, blood ETU is a more accurate biomarker of EBDC exposure than urinary ETU, hence medical surveillance programs for EBDC-exposed personnel should include blood ETU measurement to look for thyroid gland diseases.