You are here:
EMERGING APPROACHES FOR ASSESSING THE EXPOSURE OF CHILDREN TO ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS
Citation:
Morgan, M K., D A. Vallero, J. C. Chuang, C. Lyu, AND N K. Wilson. EMERGING APPROACHES FOR ASSESSING THE EXPOSURE OF CHILDREN TO ENDOCRINE DISRUPTORS. Presented at National Ground Water Association 2nd International Conference on Pharmaceuticals and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Water, Minneapolis, MI, October 9-11, 2001.
Impact/Purpose:
The overall objectives of CTEPP were to measure the aggregate exposures of approximately 260 preschool children and their adult caregivers to low levels of a suite of pesticides and organic pollutants that the children may encounter in their everyday environments, and to apportion the routes of exposure and estimate the relative contributions of each route.
Description:
Humans can be exposed to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC's) from environmental sources such as water, food, air, dust and soil. A major concern is that children may be exposed to higher amounts of pollutants than adults because of their different activity patterns, higher body-surface to volume ratios, and greater water and food consumption per kilogram body weight. A pilot study, titled the Children's Total Exposure to Persistent Pesticides and Other Persistent Organic Pollutants (CTEPP), examines the possible exposures of 256 preschool children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years to pollutants commonly found in their everyday environments. This three-year pilot study will quantify the aggregate exposures for these preschool children. Monitoring will be performed at their daycare centers and homes in twelve counties in North Carolina and Ohio during a 48-hour sampling period. Participants will be recruited from daycare centers and from the general population using a random digit dialing (RDD) method. Samples will be chemically analyzed for over 40 persistent pesticides and organic pollutants that children may contact in their daily surroundings. Samples collected over a 48-hour period include food, beverages, drinking water, urine, indoor and outdoor air, hand wipes, indoor floor dust, play area soil, dislodgeable pesticide residues, smooth floor wipes, and food preparation surface wipes. Samples will be chemically extracted and analyzed by GC/MS. These data will help to quantify the dermal, ingestion, and inhalation exposure pathways of these children to suspected EDC's such as herbicides (atrazine), insecticides (organophosphorus, carbamate, pyrethrin and organochlorine), phthalate esters (butylbenzyl, di-n-butyl), phenols, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Total exposure concentrations will be determined for the preschool children through environmental sampling, time-activity diaries, food diaries, questionnaires and by the videotaping of up to 10% of the children in homes in Ohio. Potential doses will be estimated by analysis of the urine samples. Preliminary results will be discussed for water samples analyzed for atrazine from daycare centers and homes.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under contract #68-D-99-011 to Battelle. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication.