Background: The Córdoba city greenbelt (CCG) contributes 16% to the Argentinean vegetables production. Peri-urban horticulture is typically conformed by smallholders and migrant laborers. Social determinants of health and pesticide exposure in the CCG, following the comprehensive model proposed by Castellanos (1990) about the health-disease process were studied.

Materials and methods An analytical study was performed, using qualitative and quantitative methodologies: a) 17 interviews to horticultural family members and, b) a population based survey conducted among horticultural workers (n=143), inquiring sociodemographic, labor and health aspects.

Results: The 33% of the horticulturist are Bolivian migrants; 69% of the workers live in the orchard, more than one family member works in 51% of the cases. Also, 80% of them applied pesticides with backpack sprayer. The industrial extractive production model and the weak role of the State in regulation and control, characterize the "general domain" of the model. The domain of "the particular" can be characterized by long working hours and indivisibility of home-farm spaces. Everyday life ("the singular" domain) is signed by the use of pesticides in usual labor, insufficient or lack of protective measures and hygiene practices.