Impact/Purpose:

The objective of this task is to determine the amount of water ingested by a broad age range of swimmers during swimming activities.

Description:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Action Plan for Beaches and Recreational Waters describes research needs for exposure assessment related to swimming activities which include characterizing swimming populations with regard to routes of exposure and the magnitude of their exposure. The latter includes characteristics such as the duration of time in the water, how much water is swallowed and the frequency of swimming activities. The amount of water ingested may be significant with regard to the higher swimming-associated rates of illness observed in children when compared to those found in adult swimmers in epidemiological studies conducted by the EPA. Although this finding may be linked to immature immune systems in children, it is more likely related to the ingestion of larger volumes of water. Various chlorine stabilizers, used in swimming pools in tropical and subtropical climates, provide useful compounds that are not metabolized when swallowed and can be quantitatively recovered in the urine. This study will recruit a broad age spectrum of individuals who use swimming pools that are disinfected with various commercial chlorine stabilizers. Study volunteers will be asked to collect a 24 hour urine sample following swimming activity. Swimming pool water samples and the urine samples will be assayed for the chemical biomarker using methodology developed in the NERL. The concentration of this organic stabilizer in the urine sample will be used to determine the amount of water ingested while swimming.

Brief: The goal of the research is to conduct a full field sampling study to determine the volume of water swallowed when persons engage in recreational swimming activities. The data generated from the studies correlated with questionnaire responses may provide regulatory personnel, risk assessors, computer modellers, etc., with information in regard to swimmer behavior that may assist, in part, to determine health risks associated with water ingestion. It is quite possible that decision makers having access to information on water conditions (level and type of pollutants {chemical and / or microbiological}, atmospheric conditions, etc.), in conjunction with swimmer behavior characteristics data, may be able to identify risks to certain vulnerable segments (children, mature citizens, persons with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, etc., ) of the population before exposure takes place. This could trigger warnings to the potentially affected groups or even closure of the particular site until the identified stressor has subsided.

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT

Start Date:10/01/1999

Projected Completion Date:09/01/2005

OMB Category:Other

Record ID: 56184

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Project Information:

Progress :

In FY01, Human Subjects Approval was granted and a Pilot study was conducted (7/01) to get a preliminary assessment of the amount of water persons swallow when engaged in recreational swimming activities; and to determine to the fullest extent possible the feasibility of engaging in a full field sampling study in FY02. A total of 57 participants from the Greater Cincinnati area took part in the first phase of the swimming activities. Ninety-three percent of the swimming participants returned 24hr urine samples to the designated location. The sampling population ( 24 males and 29 females) consisted of 12 adults and 41 children. The average water ingestion of the children was 37mL vs. 16mL for adults. As expected, boys tended to swallow more water than girls, and male participants in general swallowed 64% more water than their female counterparts.

In FY02, information obtained from the Pilot Study was used in planning and implementing a "full field sampling water ingestion study".

Poster presentation (12/2-5/01), "A Pilot Study to Determine the Water Volume Ingested by Recreational Swimmers", given at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis, Seattle, WA.

Preliminary "Protection of Human Subjects Certification" was received (3/15/02) from the Agency Human Subjects Research Review Official (HSRRO) to enabling funding of a Task Order Contract.

Task Order Contract awarded (5/30/02) to Battelle-Columbus (Columbus, OH) to conduct the full field sampling water ingestion study.

Final "Protection of Human Subjects Certification" was received (7/12/02) from the Agency HSRRO to allow human subjects research to commence under the Task Order Contract.

The NERL Task Order Project Officer conducted a site visit (8/26/02) at Battelle-Columbus.

Due to the inability to recruit the planned number of swimmers prior to the close of the 2002 swim season, Battelle-Columbus submitted a request on 9/3/02 to extend the period of performance of the full field sampling water ingestion study to 9/30/03.

Battelle-Columbus received a no-cost extension, on 6/16/03, under contract 68-D-99-011, Task Order 0020, Mod 0001, until 9/30/03 to complete the human subjects testing (site selection and recruiting; sample collection and sample analysis; and data analysis / data handling and final report generation) for the full field sampling study.

a) Battelle-Columbus collected data for 268 swimming participants by the end of the swimming season in 2002. This left 332 swimming subjects remaining for summer 2003 (out of a requested total of 600 participants), and possibly an additional 44 swimming subjects to meet the age and gender category goals initially requested.

b) The human subjects field testing was resumed on 7/7/03.

c) A report received from Battelle-Columbus, for the period ending 7/31/03, stated that data for 35% of the 332 remaining swimming participants had been collected and processed.

d) A report from Battelle-Columbus, for the period ending 8/28/03, stated that 82% of the desired participants during the summer of 2003 had been obtained. And, overall Battelle-Columbus had completed roughly 90% of the project's recruitment goal and endeavored to recruit until about 9/15/03.

The PI provided water volume ingestion data for recreational swimmers, to ORD's National Center for Environmental Assessment, from the [human subjects testing] pilot study. The data is of interest for keeping the Exposure Factors Handbook up-to-date.

Water ingestion data has been subsequently provided to: a) Sciences International, Alexandria, VA for assistance in a report being prepared for the American Chemistry Council, Brominated Biocides Panel; b) Office of Pesticide Programs, Antimicrobials Division, and c) to other ORD researchers conducting swimmer assessments with a focus on water ingestion.

A paper was submitted, for publi

Relevance : Recognizing the need for stronger beach monitoring programs, improved water quality standards, and timely guidance relating to the use of recreational waters, the EPA responded to national directives (BEACH Program and the Clean Water Action Plan) by implementing the "Beach Action Plan". Via the "Beach Action Plan" the EPA intends to implement actions to assist state, tribal, and local entities in recreational water monitoring and public notification about water quality. The result of such actions should be a standardization of the mechanisms for water quality monitoring programs, water quality standards and implementation programs and risk communication practices, etc., throughout the United States. Additionally, another objective of the "Beach Action Plan is to improve the science that supports recreational water monitoring.

Thus, the focus of this research effort is to determine the chemical biomarker, cyanuric acid, in recreational swimming pool water and human urine. Cyanuric acid, a chlorine stabilizer, is routinely swallowed when individuals engage in swimming activities at their local community pools, etc.. The compound subsequently passes through the body unmetabolized and is excreted quantitatively in the urine. NERL scientists embarked on a research pilot study to determine the volume of water ingested when persons engage in swimming activities. The NERL research effort is significant because no definitive studies have been attempted to quantify this important parameter. For nearly 50 years scientists have only been able to provide estimates of the amount of water persons swallow when engaging in recreational and other swimming activities. The results of the Pilot Study research, in part, provided information to help Agency scientists plan for the larger full field sampling study, to test and evaluate the analytical methodology, and to gain some insight into the behavior of different age groups of swimming participants. When the full field sampling study is completed, the findings of that effort may have a significant impact on the development of health effects criteria for recreational waters. The average amount of water ingested by swimmers of different ages, i. e., both adults and children, may help to better understand the relationship between microbiological indicators of water quality and illnesses that may have resulted from swimming activities. Behavioral and demographic factors will be compared to swimming characteristics to determine what activities lead to greater risk in the population. This work may set the precedence for developing better water quality guidelines for modelling exposures to various sources of fecal pollution in [recreational] swimming pools, coastal waters, lakes, and rivers, etc.. In addition, this information may also be applicable to chemical risk assessment of the population to various toxic substances (e.g., disinfection by-products, pesticides, metals, organometals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs], polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs], etc.), and illness correlations (chronic and / or acute) may be determinable from the water ingested during recreational swimming activities. The data obtained from this task are not intended for application to any National Estimates of Water Ingestion during swimming activities.

Clients :Office of Research and Development and Office of Water

Project IDs:

ID Code :5887

Project type :OMIS