Citation:

Bradman, A., D A. Whitaker, J N. Morgan, L S. Sheldon, M. G. Nishioka, D. Barr, R. Castorina, B. Claus, T. Mckone, M. Harnly, B. Eskenazi, AND L. Quiros. QUANTITATIVE PESTICIDE EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT OF CHILDREN LIVING IN AN AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITY. Presented at International Society of Exposure Analysis 14th Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, October 17-21, 2004.

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:

In support of planning efforts for the National Children's Study, we conducted a pilot study to test field methods characterizing pesticide exposures to 20 farmworker children aged 6-24 months living in the Salinas Valley, Monterey County, California. Sample collection included dust, air, C18 press, surface wipe, toy wipe, clothing dosimeter (sock and union suits), food, spot urine, and overnight diaper urine samples. Twenty-six common agricultural and home use pesticides were measured in the environmental samples; a subset of organophosphate pesticides and permethrin were measured in food; non-specific and specific metabolites for organophsphate and other common-use pesticides were measured in urine. Four field instruments were administered, including a questionnaire, dietary recall log, home inspection, and visual activity timeline completed by the participants. The children were primarily from Mexico, Spanish speaking, had little formal schooling, and their families were of low to very low income status. Pesticides were detected more frequently in house dust than other media, with diazinon, chlorpyrifos, dacthal, and cis- and trans-permethrin detected in 95-100% of dust samples, with slightly lower detection frequencies in other media except the C18 press samples. Iprodione, malathion, and several pyrethroid pesticides commonly used as home pesticides were detected in 20-55% of the house dust samples and were detected in all media except the C18 press samples. Excluding chlorpyrifos, dust, sock, and union suit samples were correlated (Spearman r=0.32-0.58). Analytes were not detectable in any C18 press sample. Pesticide loading on sock and union suits was higher for 24 month olds compared to 6 month olds (mean ratio=2.3 and 1.8 for socks and unions suits, respectively). Organophosphate pesticides and permethrin were rarely detected in the food samples. The activity timeline, a novel, low-literacy instrument based on pictures, was successfully used by our participants. Participants were also compliant with duplicate diet and overnight diaper sample collection procedures. In all cases intensive education and demonstration was necessary to ensure that participants understood data and sample collection procedures. This presentation will summarize laboratory results for pesticides or metabolites in the environmental, food, and biological samples and will review the success of data collection instruments used with this low-income, low-literacy population.

Although this work was reviewed by EPA and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official Agency policy.

Record Details: