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USE OF POPULATION STUDIES TO IDENTIFY ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES TO ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING HERBICIDES
Citation:
SCHREINEMACHERS, D. M. USE OF POPULATION STUDIES TO IDENTIFY ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES TO ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING HERBICIDES. Presented at NIEHS-Future Research on Endocrine Disruption meeting, Durham, NC, August 27 - 29, 2007.
Impact/Purpose:
To investigate county level associations between exposures to herbicides and adverse health effects.
Description:
Not only animal studies, but also population (ecologic) studies can contribute to the identification of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Population studies are fundamental in identifying public health hazards, and provide hypotheses for more targeted studies. Chlorophenoxy herbicides have been widely used since WW II for control of broadleaf weeds in grain agriculture and maintenance of forests, parks, road sides and home lawns. These herbicides are present in streams and in the atmosphere, where they can be transported for hundreds of miles attached to air particles. Most of the spring wheat produced by the U.S. is grown in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Herbicides, predominantly chlorophenoxy herbicides, are applied to at least 85% of the spring wheat acreage. Residents of counties where spring wheat is grown may be environmentally exposed to low, repeated doses of chlorophenoxy herbicides. In order to investigate county level associations between exposures to these herbicides and adverse health effects, percent of a counties land area dedicated to spring wheat agriculture was used as a surrogate measure of exposure, because information on herbicide use by county was not available. A series of ecologic studies based on existing databases, and including only rural, agricultural counties of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, investigated health effects in high- and low-wheat counties during 1979-1998. Excess mortality from cancer, acute myocardial infarction, diabetes, and renal disease, and excess rates of birth defects were observed in the high-wheat counties. Several dose-response effects were observed. The combined results from these studies have identified the existence of a major public health problem in these regions, and have generated hypotheses for more in depth investigations by animal, epidemiological, or molecular studies. This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.