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PESTICIDE MEASUREMENT RESULTS FROM THE FIRST NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY OF CHILD CARE CENTERS
Citation:
Tulve, N S., P A. Jones, R C. Fortmann, AND C Croghan. PESTICIDE MEASUREMENT RESULTS FROM THE FIRST NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY OF CHILD CARE CENTERS. Presented at International Society for Exposure Analysis 14th Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA, October 17-21, 2004.
Impact/Purpose:
1. Identify and evaluate the factors that affect children's exposures as a function of age (for age bins proposed by EPA's Risk Assessment Forum).
2. Determine the impact of microenvironment and macroactivity on children's exposure to current-use pesticides and selected phthalates in residences.
3. Determine temporal variability of multimedia concentrations of selected pesticides and phthalates in the residences of very young children (0 to 3 years of age).
4. Perform aggregate exposure estimates for current-use pesticides (soon after application) and phthalates for very young children.
5. Evaluate the relationship between concentrations of biomarkers of exposure measured in urine and aggregate exposure estimates derived from diet and environmental measurements for pesticides and phthalates using the algorithms and approaches specified in the Draft Protocol for Measuring Children's Non-Occupational Exposure to Pesticides by all Relevant Pathways.
6. Evaluate and apportion exposure pathways for pesticides and phthalates.
7. Collect data for selected polybrominated diphenyl ethers (brominated flame retardants) and perfluorinated chemicals (PFOS and PFOA) in the diet and in environmental samples collected in the residences to assess spatial and temporal variability and the potential for children's exposure.
8. Evaluate the utility of the draft standardized protocol for performing exposure assessments for young children.
9. Develop critical inputs for the human exposure models (SHEDS, CARES, Lifeline, Calendex, and others).
10. Collect preliminary data on environmental concentrations of selected metals found in the outdoor residential environment.
11. Evaluate the utility of standardized data collection methods for future large scale studies.
Description:
Approximately 13 million children are placed in non-parental child care during the work day; however, children's exposures to chemicals in child care centers have not been characterized. To address this data gap, three federal agencies teamed to characterize contaminants in child care centers. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and the US Environmental Protection Agency, characterized young children's potential exposures to lead, allergens, and pesticides in a randomly-selected nationally representative sample of licensed institutional child care centers. Multi-stage sampling with clustering was used to select approximately 150 child care centers in 30 primary sampling units in the United States. Child care centers were recruited into the study by telephone interviewers. Samples for pesticides, lead, and allergens were collected at multiple locations in each child care center by field technicians. Wipe samples from indoor surfaces (floors, tabletops, desks, etc.) and soil samples were collected at the child care centers. A wide variety of pesticides were detected in the environmental measurements with chlorpyrifos (0.003-63 ng/cm2 of surface; 9-881 ng/g of soil), diazinon (0.004-15 ng/cm2 of surface; 6-89000 ng/g of soil), and cis- (0.001-103 ng/cm2 of surface; 10-116 ng/g of soil) and trans- (0.002-219 ng/cm2 of surface; 2-118 ng/g of soil) permethrin detected in >60% of the child care centers. Based on the questionnaire responses, pyrethroids were the most commonly used pesticides among child care centers applying pesticides. Furthermore, among the 63% of centers applying pesticides, the number of pesticides in the center ranged from 1 to 10 and the frequency of use ranged from 1 to 107 times annually. More detailed pesticide results will be presented.
Although this work was reviewed by EPA, HUD, and CPSC, and approved for publication, it may not necessarily reflect official Agency policy.