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PESTICIDE SCREENING RESULTS FROM EIGHT DAYCARE CENTERS
Citation:
Akland, G G., E A. CohenHubal, J. H. Raymer, L S. Sheldon, AND E. D. Pellizzari. PESTICIDE SCREENING RESULTS FROM EIGHT DAYCARE CENTERS. Presented at 11th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Exposure Analysis, Charleston, SC, November 4-8, 2001.
Impact/Purpose:
1. To identify those pesticides, pathways, and activities that represent the highest potential exposures to children;
2. To determine the factors that influence pesticide exposures to children;
3. To develop methods for measuring multimedia exposures to children, including methods that account for important activities that take place in home, school, and day care settings;
4. To generate data on multimedia pesticide concentrations, pesticide biomarkers, and exposure factors that can be used as inputs to aggregate exposure models for children.
Description:
To improve assessments of children's exposures to pesticides in support of the Food Quality Protection Act, priority research and data needs include: pesticide use patterns, pesticide residue distributions, and dermal exposure assessment approaches. To address these gaps, the National Exposure Research Laboratory of the U.S.EPA is conducting research to develop protocols for applying existing dermal exposure assessment approaches to children in residential and daycare settings. In the process, data are being collected on pesticide use patterns and pesticide distributions following scheduled applications in daycare centers.
In this study, the macroactivity approach for assessing dermal exposure is being evaluated. For this approach, dermal exposure is estimated using empirically-derived pesticide transfer coefficients to aggregate the mass transfer associated with a series of contacts with a daycare floor surface. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase of this study, eight daycare centers in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area volunteered to allow field technicians to enter their center and collect transferable residue samples from one classroom the morning following a pesticide application. Samples were collected across the floor of the classroom using three different methods: C-18 press sampler, PUF roller, and surface wipes. Preliminary results from the first phase of this study provide screening data on the pesticides used by daycare centers and the levels of these pesticides on surfaces following an application. Significant analytical challenges were associated with developing a standard multi-residue analysis for the many different pesticides encountered. Results indicate that:
-A broad range of pesticides is currently being applied in the RTP area daycare centers (eight different pesticides were applied and measured).
-Surface residues measured in areas where children spend time ranged from below the level of detection to over 500 ng/cm2 .
The first phase of this study was used to identify a daycare with easily detectable levels of pesticides. In the second phase of this study, nine children in the selected daycare center will be recruited to participate in a pilot monitoring study to test the feasibility of applying the macroactivity approach to assessing dermal exposure of young children in a residential setting.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under contract no. 68-D-99-012 to Research Triangle Institute. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication.