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Study design
The study was carried out in two stages. A prestudy was conducted to evaluate
the comfort, acceptability, and effectiveness of protective garments made of
the nonwoven materials, Kleenguard and Tyvek, to select one for use in the
main study. In the main study, we evaluated garments made of the selected
material and cotton.
On day I of the prestudy, one group of workers wore Kleenguard protective
garments, the other group wore Tyvek garments. All workers wore cotton
sampling garments beneath their protective clothing to assess its permeability
to the insecticide during work. Upon completion of the day's operations, the
protective and sampling garments were removed carefully from each operator.
Each garment was turned inside out and wrapped in aluminium foil. Each
foil package was placed in a polyethylene bag labeled with the worker's
number, day, type of garment, and date. All garments were kept in refrigerated
storage before analysis.
On day 2, workers in both groups wore new Kleenguard protective garments
without sampling garments underneath to assess comfort. On day 3, this
procedure was repeated using Tyvek protective garments.
On days I and 6 of the main study, one group of workers wore Kleenguard
protective garments and the other group wore cotton. All workers wore cotton
sampling garments under their protective clothing to assess their protection
against insecticide. Upon completion of the day's work, the protective and
sampling garments were removed and stored as described for the prestudy.
On day 2 (main study), new protective garments were issued to the two groups
of workers (Kleenguard for one group, cotton for the other) for daily assessment
of comfort and durability. Each worker wore the same garment until
either the study team agreed that it could no longer be worn because of
deterioration or until the end of the study.
Regular assessments were also made of the performance and condition of
protective gloves and face shields. The opinions of the mixerloaders were
obtained through the use of a questionnaire.
Daily operations
To standardize the daily work as much as possible, the two mixerloaders in
each group prepared Tamaron spray solution for the spray operators in their
respective group. Each mixerloader handled the same quantity of the insecticide
formulation.
The spray operators applied the same volume of insecticide (seven knapsack
tanks) each day. Operators worked sufficiently far apart to minimize the
possibility of cross-contamination due to drift from other sprayers.
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