Análise da eficiência dos equipamentos de proteção aos agrotóxicos utilizados em saúde pública

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is used in Public Health to protect the workers who use pesticides for disease control. The dermal exposure is the highest contamination risk. The permeability is a characteristic that makes PPE unsuitable for using. Even those PPE which are made from waterproof materials, can be permeable, due to fabric porosity and the presence of seams. This study analysed the permeability to pesticides on PPE used by health personnel controlling Aedes aegypti mosquito. Permeability was evaluated through the pipette method, by calculating repellency, retention and penetration percentages of pesticides in the PPE. The results showed that the type of seam influences permeability; and a lower repellency may not be sufficient to evaluate the efficiency of PPE, as this can be compensated by a greater retention, resulting in less penetration.