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STUDIES OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S EXPOSURES TO PERSISTENT PESTICIDES
Citation:
Wilson, N K., J. C. Chuang, AND C. Lyu. STUDIES OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN'S EXPOSURES TO PERSISTENT PESTICIDES. Presented at National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, August 20-24, 2000.
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:
Young children may have greater exposures than do older children or adults to some persistent organic pesticides, because of differences in their diet and activities. The physical impact of those exposures may also be increased by their small body size, immature body systems, and rapid development. In two small studies examining the potential for exposure to persistent organic pollutants of preschool children who attend child day care centers, we found that the pathways for exposure differed with compound class and with environmental medium. We calculated aggregate exposures from the various environmental media: indoor and outdoor air, house dust, play area soil, and diet. For these children, dietary ingestion was the major pathway for many of the pesticide compounds, including several organochlorines (OC) such as DDT or chlordane, the organophosphates (OP) chlorpyrifos and diazinon, and the herbicide 2,4-D, although inhalation was also important for the OP and OC. Nondietary ingestion also contributed to the sub-acute and chronic exposures of these children. None of the potential doses calculated from the exposures exceeded the established reference doses (RfD). To understand these exposures and confirm our small study findings, we are now doing a larger research study of approximately 260 children. This larger study, Children's Total Exposure to Persistent Pesticides and Other Persistent Organic Pollutants (CTEPP), was initiated in early 2000, with field sampling in North Carolina and Ohio planned to being in July 2000.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication.