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ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENTS OF ORGANOPHOSPHATE AND PYRETHROID PESTICIDES TO ASSESS EXPOSURES OF YOUNG CHILDREN LIVING IN JACKSONVILLE, FL
Citation:
Tulve, N S., D. Whitaker, R. Fortmann, H. Brown, E. R. Bozeman, A. Hilliard, AND L. P. Naeher. ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENTS OF ORGANOPHOSPHATE AND PYRETHROID PESTICIDES TO ASSESS EXPOSURES OF YOUNG CHILDREN LIVING IN JACKSONVILLE, FL. Presented at International Society of Exposure Analysis 2002 Conference, Vancouver, Canada, August 11-15, 2002.
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:
The Duval County Health Department (DCHD, Jacksonville, FL), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), conducted a research study to characterize young children's potential exposures to organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides. The overall objectives of this study were to: (1) measure the urine metabolite levels of organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides from a group of 4-6 year old children living in the greater Jacksonville area, (2) identify possible household sources of these pesticides by performing screening measurements and pesticide inventories, (3) investigate whether the environmental pesticide levels correlate with the biological levels, and, (4) correlate questionnaire exposure information with the environmental data.
The study was designed as a three-tiered approach:
tier 1: recruitment of 200 children into the study, completion of a questionnaire, and collection of a urine sample from each participating child;
tier 2: collection of environmental screening samples from approximately 25% of the children who participated in tier 1;
tier 3: a detailed exposure assessment in nine of the homes sampled in tier 2.
Participation in tier 2 was dependent on the answers to the pesticide related questions in the initial questionnaire. Participation in tier 3 was dependent on both the answers to the pesticide related questions in the initial questionnaire and the results of the household pesticide inventory. Results of the pesticide inventory showed that synthetic pyrethroids were the primary pesticides used in the residences. Data from tiers 1 and 2 will not be presented in this paper.
For the nine participants in tier 3, an aggregate exposure assessment was performed that included the collection of environmental (surface wipes, transferable residues, indoor/outdoor air) and personal samples (a time activity diary, pesticide residues on cotton socks, duplicate diet, urine) to evaluate potential exposure from each route (inhalation, dermal, dietary, indirect ingestion).
Data from the aggregate exposure assessment will be presented (tier 3). These data will be used to evaluate the exposure algorithms developed by EPA as part of its draft protocol on how to conduct an exposure assessment study with young children. Data will also be presented on the applicability of questionnaire responses as predictors for environmental loadings of pesticide residues.
This work has been funded in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under an EPA Technical Services Contract (Contract No. 1D-5377-NAGX) to the Duval County Health Department. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for presentation and publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.