Grantee Research Project Results
Development of Environmental Public Health Indicators for Organophosphorus Insecticide Mixture Exposure
EPA Grant Number: FP917303Title: Development of Environmental Public Health Indicators for Organophosphorus Insecticide Mixture Exposure
Investigators: Zurlinden, Todd J
Institution: Colorado State University
EPA Project Officer: Lee, Sonja
Project Period: August 1, 2011 through July 31, 2013
Project Amount: $84,000
RFA: STAR Graduate Fellowships (2011) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Fellowship - Human Health: Public Health Sciences , Academic Fellowships
Objective:
Nearly all people living in the United States are exposed to organophosphorus (OP) insecticides/ pesticides, through household or agricultural applications or ingestion of residues on food. Building linkages between OP insecticide mixtures, human exposures and public health outcomes is critical in creating rational regulations and stewardship programs to protect human health. Such linkages can be formed through the development of suitable environmental public health indicators (EPHIs), important metrics that can be used for long-term tracking and surveillance of environmental public health, as well as assessing the actual impacts of environmental risk-management decisions. Unfortunately, existing EPHIs for OP insecticide exposure lack a rigorous health-based underpinning and do not consider cumulative exposure, and thus are limited in their applicability and usefulness. To address this critical deficiency, the principal objective of this project is to develop quantitative, health-effect-based EPHIs for OP insecticide mixture exposure.
Approach:
The proposed approach begins with a surrogate measure of adverse health effects of OP insecticides, and uses quantitative and statistical models, coupled with data from environmental and biomonitoring studies to reconstruct the information necessary to compute appropriate EPHIs. The essential components of this methodology are: (1) biologically based models of the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) of OP insecticides; (2) pharmacodynamic models linking OP insecticide metabolites and B-esterase inhibition; and (3) statistical models and supporting data for individual and population variability with respect to OP insecticide exposure.
Expected Results:
The study anticipates that the methodology, models and tools developed in this project will help elucidate specific environmental public health indicators that can be measured and tracked over time to effectively link changes in OP insecticide levels to impacts on public health. These indicators will be derived from a synthesis of biologically based computational and statistical models, information about population variability as it relates to OP insecticide exposure and risk, data from environmental and biomonitoring studies, and knowledge about the mechanisms underlying the adverse health effects of OP insecticide exposure. Therefore, the study expects to produce EPHIs that are more accurate, relevant and useful than the statistically based measures currently in use, and consequently the overall benefit will be an improvement of EPA’s ability to protect public health.
Potential to Further Environmental / Human Health Protection
Building linkages between OP insecticide mixtures, human exposures and public health outcomes is critical in creating rational regulations and stewardship programs to protect human health. Such linkages can be formed through the development of suitable environmental public health indicators (EPHIs), important metrics that can be used for long-term tracking and surveillance of environmental public health, as well as assessing the actual impacts of environmental risk-management decisions.