Grantee Research Project Results
2002 Progress Report: Pesticide Exposures of Preschool Children Over Time
EPA Grant Number: R829363Title: Pesticide Exposures of Preschool Children Over Time
Investigators: Wilson, Nancy K. , Chuang, Jane C. , Strauss, Warren J. , Lyu, Christopher
Institution: Battelle Memorial Institute
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2005
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2002
Project Amount: $1,340,414
RFA: Aggregate Exposure Assessment for Pesticides: Longitudinal Case Studies (2001) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pesticides , Safer Chemicals , Human Health
Objective:
The effects on children’s pesticide exposures as the result of recent changes in pesticide uses, such as those resulting from the federally mandated phase-outs of residential use of chlorpyrifos and diazinon and the increased use of alternative pesticides, are not established. The main objective of this research project is to estimate the longitudinal changes in aggregate exposures to targeted pesticides for selected preschool children in the same age group over 4 years.
The variability among preschool children’s exposures in similar microenvironments and among those in different microenvironments also is not well known. The second objective of this research project is to estimate the interpersonal variability of pesticide exposures among preschool children living in different homes and among preschool children living in the same home.
Progress Summary:
Official notice of funding of this project, acronym PEPCOT, was received in September 2002. Battelle Institutional Review Board approval was received in October 2002, and EPA Protection of Human Subjects Certification was received in December 2002. Recruiting began shortly thereafter. A National Institutes of Health Certificate of Confidentiality for the project was received in February 2003.
Recruitment
To recruit 50 households with 2 children 3 years of age or younger, households from the Children’s Total Exposure to Pesticides and Other Persistent Organic Pollutants study of preschool children’s exposures who agreed to future contact were contacted first. Only three of these households were eligible; two were successfully recruited for PEPCOT. The recruitment approach used for the remaining participants was target-list telephone screening and referrals. Telephone screening was done through computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). The telephone sample list was restricted to households with a head of household between the ages of 18 and 35 located in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. Of 3,011 cases in the telephone screening list with final outcomes, 1,860 were ineligible, 409 refused screening, 664 were non-working numbers, and 78 were eligible and agreed to be visited by project staff for further discussions of the project and informed consent, giving an eligibility rate of 5 percent and a response rate of 74 percent.
The PEPCOT project team visited the 78 screened, eligible households and obtained written consent from 51. One household dropped out later. Of the remaining households, 21 refused, 2 were ineligible, and 3 could not be located. There are 50 households now participating in the project. The project team is recruiting five additional households as participant backups.
Field Sampling
The 50 participating households were each assigned to 1 of 3 groups for spring, summer, or fall sampling. By the end of May 2003, field sampling was completed for all 17 households in the spring group. Samples were collected over a 24-hour period. Microenvironmental sample types included: indoor and outdoor air, indoor floor dust, food preparation surface wipes, and floor surface wipes. Personal samples included children’s liquid and solid food, hand wipes, and first morning urine. For those children still in diapers, overnight diapers were collected. For those children being breast-fed, samples of breast milk were requested, but were not always possible to obtain.
Ancillary, interpretive information was collected through use of computer-assisted interviewing (CAPI) programs, except for the child activity diaries, which were in a booklet to be filled out by the parents. The CAPI forms included House/Building Characteristics Observation Survey, the Pre-monitoring Questionnaire, and the Post-monitoring Questionnaire.
All CATI and CAPI programs performed automatic quality control checks during data entry. These checks included range checks, consistency checks, and skip pattern checks.
Future Activities:
We will complete field sampling with the summer, fall, and spring group of households. Laboratory analysis of the collected samples will continue. Summary statistical analysis of the collected data will be initiated.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 8 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
multimedia, herbicides, insecticides, sensitive populations, pesticides, human health risk assessment, age-dependent response, age-related differences, assessment of exposure, children’s vulnerability, cumulative pesticide exposure, long-term exposure, pesticide exposures,, RFA, Health, Scientific Discipline, Toxics, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Environmental Chemistry, Health Risk Assessment, pesticides, Risk Assessments, Susceptibility/Sensitive Population/Genetic Susceptibility, Disease & Cumulative Effects, Children's Health, genetic susceptability, Molecular Biology/Genetics, Risk Assessment, health effects, pesticide exposure, cumulative exposure, urban air, sensitive populations, multi-pathway study, long term exposure, dermal exposure reduction model, age-related differences, exposure, dermal contact, air pollution, Human Health Risk Assessment, children, cumulative pesticide exposure, children's vulnerablity, assessment of exposure, human exposure, insecticides, pesticide residues, exposure pathways, age dependent response, dietary exposure, human health, long-term exposure, environmental hazard exposures, biomedical research, body burden, exposure assessmentProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.