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ASSESSMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN'S POTENTIAL PESTICIDE EXPOSURE FOLLOWING A RESIDENTIAL PESTICIDE APPLICATION. PART II - USE OF THE MACROACTIVITY APPROACH
Citation:
Tulve, N S., P. Hore, E A. CohenHubal, N. G. Freeman, P. J. Lioy, AND L S. Sheldon. ASSESSMENT OF YOUNG CHILDREN'S POTENTIAL PESTICIDE EXPOSURE FOLLOWING A RESIDENTIAL PESTICIDE APPLICATION. PART II - USE OF THE MACROACTIVITY APPROACH. Presented at ISEA 2000 Exposure Analysis in the 21st Century: Integrating Science, Policy and Quality of Life, Monterey Peninsula, CA, October 24-27, 2000.
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:
Young children may be more susceptible to pesticides because they are undergoing rapid physiological and behavioral development. In addition, young children, as compared to adults, are more likely to engage in activities (i.e., playing, sitting on the floor) in which they may come into direct contact with contaminated surfaces. As a result, children may be more exposed to pesticides through normal daily activities after a residential pesticide application within the home.
One method being evaluated to assess children's exposure to pesticides is the macroactivity approach. In this approach, a child's exposures to chemicals are estimated for each microenvironment where a child spends time and each macroactivity that the child conducts within that specific microenvironment. The aggregate exposure is then modeled using empirically-derived transfer coefficients specific to each microenvironment/macroactivity combination.
The Children's Post-Application Pesticide Pilot Study is a collaborative effort between the EPA and the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) in New Jersey. Nine families with young children (< 5 years old) were recruited to participate in the study. Four-hour videotape segments, time-activity diaries and questionnaires, dermal wipes, and transferable residue loadings were collected during the study. Specific macroactivity and microenvironment combinations for these children were determined from the videotape segments and the time-activity diaries and questionnaires. Transferable residue loadings from the surfaces on which the children spent the majority of their time were measured using a surface sampler (i.e., modified Edwards-Lioy press sampler, Lioy-Weisel-Wainman quantitative surface sampler, or alcohol wipes). Dermal wipe concentrations, including hands and knees, were also determined. Transferable residues and dermal wipe measurements were used to calculate transfer coefficients. Transfer coefficients were found to be variable and dependent on both the activity level of the child and the contacted surfaces. These data were used to evaluate the feasibility of using the macroactivity approach to assess children's exposure.
This work has been funded in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under an EPA Technical Services Contract (Contract No. 0D-5227-NAEX) to the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. It has been subjected to Agency review and approved for presentation and publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.