For many, spring heralds fresh air and exercise on the golf course. But are players at risk of being exposed to dangerous levels of pesticides used to beautify and maintain green grass on a golf course? To find out, researchers asked volunteers to play 18 holes on a simulated course sprayed with common pesticides. They report the results in ACS Agricultural Science and Technologysaying there is probably limited cause for concern about toxic exposure from pesticide-treated grass.
There are many studies on pesticide exposure among people who care for and harvest crops in treated environments. But John M. Clark and his colleagues couldn’t find much comparable information about people who play sports, including soccer and golf, outdoors. So his team designed a study to investigate the potential risks to golfers of four pesticides, which have low volatility and relatively low toxicity to humans, and are commonly used on golf course turf: cyfluthrin (insecticide), chlorothalonil (fungicide), MCPP-p (herbicide) and 2,4-D (herbicide).
For the study, the researchers created what they considered a “worst-case” 18-hole course: All areas of a simulated golf course were treated with the maximum amount suggested by the manufacturers of the four pesticides. They then recruited eight volunteer golfers to play a full round on the treated grass one hour after the pesticide application and remain on the course for four hours. To measure pesticide exposure, four of the volunteers wore full-body cotton suits with headscarves, socks and gloves that would collect contact residues, and personal air samplers that would capture airborne residues. The other four volunteers wore cotton suits cut over their own golf clothes and provided urine samples after the round.
After the volunteers finished playing golf, Clark’s team measured pesticide residues in the dosimetry suits and air samplers and found that the hand and lower leg segments collected the most residues. , while airborne residues contributed little to exposure. The researchers also measured the volunteers’ exposure risk from the levels of pesticides found in the suits and in urine samples by calculating the hazard quotient (HQ). The team found that the golfers’ exposure HQ values indicated little risk for the four pesticides used in this study.
Finally, Clark and his colleagues compared the results of the insecticide cyfluthrin with their 2008 results. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry study with older neurotoxic insecticides on the same simulated golf course and using the same protocols. The HQ values of both studies were well below 1.0, the level indicating potentially hazardous exposure. However, in the previous work, the volunteers’ urinalysis HQ values of 0.0318 and 0.054 for chlorpyrifos and carbaryl, respectively, were an order of magnitude larger than the volunteers’ urinalysis HQ of 0.0318 and 0.054 for chlorpyrifos and carbaryl, respectively, 0043 of this 2024 study with the insecticide cyfluthrin. The researchers say this comparison shows the potential benefit of using modern, lower-volatility, less-toxic pesticides, which could further reduce golfers’ risk of suffering adverse effects from exposure.
The authors acknowledge funding from the United States Golf Association and the New England Regional Turf Foundation.