Current issue: 58(4)
The following treatments were compared in three Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) reforestation areas on a scarified moist mineral-soil site in southern Finland, planted with 1+1 bareroot stock in spring 1987: (a) no weed control treatment; (b) mulching with a fibre slurry produced by mixing wastepaper with water and applied 1 cm deep to an area of 60 cm in diameter around the seedling soon after planting; (c) glyphosate (at 2 kg ha-1) sprayed on a 1 m2 spot around the seedling in early August 1987; (d) terbuthylazine (at 10 kg ha-1) applied as (c). Monitoring of the trials over a 4-year period between 1987–90 showed that none of the treatments reduced surface vegetation to an extent that would have benefited pine. The percentage cover development of the vegetation, dominated by Agrostis capillaris, Calamagrostis arundinaceae, Deschampsia flexuosa, Festuca ovina, Epilobioum angustifolium and Pteridium aquillinum, followed much the same pattern in all treatments, with (c) slightly favouring forbs. Survival of pine at the end of the study period was about 90%, with non-significant differences between treatments. Mulching and terbuthylazine treatment slightly reduced seedling height growth in the second year. Growth was better in glyphosate treatment than in terbuthylazine treatment in the lowest (<30%) and the highest (>60%) pre-treatment weed cover classes, and in the latter also better than in untreated control. Mulching gave variable results; at its best it provided also good control of weeds for several years, without, however, improving the initial development of pine in these trials.
The purpose of this study was to measure workers’ exposure to MCPA and glyphosate when sprayers connected to the brush saws was used. A non-pressurized sprayer with a pump and a pressurized sprayer where dosage was regulated with manual control were studied. Exposure was measured from the breathing zone and urine samples.
MCPA collected from the breathing zone gathered into alcohol was 0.05 mg/m3 for the pressurized sprayer, 0.02 mg/m3 for the non-pressurized sprayer, and 0.04 mg/m3 (average) for both types of sprayers together.
MCPA in the breathing zone, collected from splashes and fog into a glass fibre filter, was 0.18 mg/m3 for the pressurized sprayer, 0.09 mg/m3 for the non-pressurized sprayer, and 0.12 mg/m3 for both sprayers used together. Glyphosate in the breathing zone, collected into sodium hydroxide was below 0.05 mg/m3.
In five urine samples taken after the work day there was on the average 0.4 mg/l MCPA, while in 21 samples the MCPA contents were under the definition limit (0.2 mg/l).
The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.