ABSTRACT
Benomyl is used as a protective and eradicant fungicide and is effective against a wide range of fungi that affect field crops, fruits, nuts, ornamentals and turf. Humans may be exposed to benomyl through dermal contact where it is mixed and used, through the inhalation of dust particles to which it has sorbed in fields and from dermal contact from picking fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed with benomyl. Benomyl may enter the atmosphere in the vapor phase or sorbed to particulate matter. A proposed pathway for the bacterial degradation of benomyl proceeds by 2-aminobenzimidazole. In aqueous solutions, especially under acidic conditions, benomyl is hydrolyzed to methyl 2-benzimidazole carbamate and butyl isocyanate. In a field study on the fate of benomyl applied to bare soil and to turf, benomyl and its degradation products showed little or no downward movement through the soil. Benomyl showed limited movement in a soil thin layer chromatography experiment with a silty clay loam soil.
