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DEVELOPMENT OF ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR SPECIFIC LAWN- APPLIED PESTICIDES IN HOUSE DUST
Citation:
Nishioka, M. C., H. M. Burkholder, M. C. Brinkman, AND S. M. Gordon. DEVELOPMENT OF ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR SPECIFIC LAWN- APPLIED PESTICIDES IN HOUSE DUST. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-97/110 (NTIS PB98-117906), 1997.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
Many pesticides have been developed for residential outdoor application, particularly for lawn care. Residues from these applications may be tracked into the home, where they become incorporated with house dust and persist for long periods of time. Consequently, potential human exposure to pesticides in house dust may be more important than outdoor exposures to lawn residues, especially for small children. House dust is a very complex medium of soil, human and animal dander, insect parts and droppings, food residues, and foreign matter relating to human activity. Analytical methods for detection and quantification of pesticides in house dust have been largely lacking. The purpose of this effort was to develop the necessary methods needed to assess the potential human exposure of lawn-applied pesticides associated with house dust. The new methods developed presented in this report are designed for detection of specific lawn-applied herbicides in house dust and in extracts of polyurethane form (PUF) rollers used to sample dislodgeable residues from surfaces. The method developed for the herbicide acids is applicable, as well, to the analysis of the wood-preservative pentachlorophenol and the disinfectant 2,4-dichlorophenol. The method developed for the dinitro-aniline herbicides may also be applied successfully to the analysis of several thiophosphate insecticides and a chlorinated fungicide, chlorothalonil. The methods that were developed are rigorous and rugged, and performed well when applied in field studies of simulated track-in of lawn-applied pesticides into the home. Recoveries of surrogate recovery standards were generally greater than 90 percent in these studies.
