Abstract
Estimation of aggregate exposure and risk requires detailed information regarding dermal contact and mouthing activity. We analyzed micro-level activity time series (MLATS) of children aged 7–12 years to quantify these contact behaviors and evaluate differences by age and gender. In all, 18 children, aged 7–12 years, were videotaped while playing outdoors. Video footage was transcribed via Virtual Timing Device (VTD) software. We calculated the hand and mouth contact frequency, hourly duration and median duration of contact with 16 object categories. Median mouthing frequencies were 12.6 events/h and 2.6 events/h for hands and non-dietary objects, respectively. Median hourly mouthing duration was 0.4 min/h and 0.1 min/h with hands and objects. Median mouthing contact duration was 1 s and 1.5 s with hands and objects, respectively. The median object contact frequency for both the hands combined was 537.3 events/h with an hourly contact duration of 81.8 min/h and a median contact duration of 3 s. There were no significant differences in the mouthing activity between genders or age groups. Female children had longer and more frequent hand contacts with several surface types. Age was negatively correlated with hand contacts of floor and wood surfaces. Contact frequencies in this study are higher than current regulatory recommendations for this age group.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 6 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $43.17 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aung N.N., Yoshinaga J., and Takahashi J. Exposure assessment of lead among Japanese children. Environ Health Prev Med 2004: 9: 257–261.
AuYeung W., Canales R., Beamer P., Ferguson A.C., and Leckie J.O. Young children's mouthing behavior: an observational study via videotaping in a primarily outdoor residential setting. J Child Health 2004: 2: 271–295.
Auyeung W., Canales R.A., Beamer P., Ferguson A.C., and Leckie J.O. Young children's hand contact activities: an observational study via videotaping in primarily outdoor residential settings. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2006: 16: 434–446.
Beamer P., Key M.E., Ferguson A.C., Canales R.A., AuYeung W., and Leckie J.O. Quantified activity pattern data from 6-to-27-month-old farmworker children for use in exposure assessment. Environ Res 2008: 108: 239–246.
Black K., Shalat S.L., Freeman N.C.G., Jimenez M., Donnelly K.C., and Calvin J.A. Children's mouthing and food-handling behavior in an agricultural community on the US/Mexico border. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2005: 15: 244–251.
Brinkman S., Gialamas A., Jones L., Edwards P., and Maynard E. Child activity patterns for environmental exposure assessment in the home, National Environmental Health Monographs, Exposure Series, Austrailia, 1999.
Brouwer D., Kroese R., and can Hemmen J. Transfer of contaminants from surface to hands: experimental assessment of linearity of the exposure process, adherence to the skin, and area exposed during fixed pressure and repeated contact with surfaces contaminated with a powder. Appl Occup Environ Hyg 1999: 14: 231–239.
Canales R.A., and Leckie J.O. Application of a stochastic model to estimate children's short-term residential exposure to lead. Stoch Env Res Risk A 2007: 21: 737–745.
Chisolm Jr J.J., and Harrison H.E. The exposure of children to lead. Pediatrics 1956: 18: 943–958.
De Miguel E., Iribarren I., Chacon E., oòez A., and Charlesworth S. Risk-based evaluation of the exposure of children to trace elements in playgrounds in Madrid (Spain). Chemosphere 2007: 66: 505–513.
Fenske R.A. Dermal exposure assessment techniques. Ann Occup Hyg 1993: 37: 687–706.
Ferguson A.C., Canales R.A., Beamer P., AuYeung W., Key M., and Munninghoff A., et al. Video methods in the quantification of children's exposures. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2006: 16: 287–298.
Firestone M., Moya J., Cohen-Hubal E., Zartarian V., and Xue J. Identifying childhood age groups for exposure assessments and monitoring. Risk Anal 2007: 27: 701–714.
Freeman N.C.G., Hore P., Black K., Jimenez M., Sheldon L., and Tulve N., et al. Contributions of children's activities to pesticide hand loadings following residential pesticide application. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2005: 15: 81–88.
Freeman N.C.G., Jimenez M., Reed K.J., Gurunathan S., Edwards R.D., and Roy A., et al. Quantitative analysis of children's microactivity patterns: the Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2001: 11: 501–509.
Hubal E.A.C., Sheldon L.S., Burke J.M., McCurdy T.R., Barry M.R., and Rigas M.L., et al. Children's exposure assessment: a review of factors influencing children's exposure, and the data available to characterize and assess that exposure. Environ Health Perspect 2000: 108: 475–486.
Jones-Otazo H.A., Clarke J.P., Diamond M.L., Archbold J.A., Ferguson G., and Harner T., et al. Is house dust the missing exposure pathway for PBDEs? An analysis of the urban fate and human exposure to PBDEs. Environ Sci Technol 2005: 39: 5121–5130.
Julian T.R., Canales R.A., Leckie J.O., and Boehm A.B. A model of exposure to rotavirus from nondietary ingestion iterated by simulated intermittent contacts. Risk Anal 2009: 29: 617–632.
Leckie J.O., Naylor K.A., Canales R.A., Ferguson A.C., Cabrera N.L., Hurtado A.L., Lee K., Lin A.Y., Ramirez J.D., and Vieira V.M. Quantifying children's microlevel activity data from existing videotapes, 2000 Report by Exposure Research Group, Stanford University for US EPA. U2F112OT-RT-99-001182.
Macedo P.A., Schleier III J.J., Reed M., Kelley K., Goodman G.W., and Brown D.A., et al. Evaluation of efficacy and human health risk of aerial ultra-low volume applications of pyrethrins and piperonyl butoxide for adult mosquito management in response to West Nile virus activity in Sacramento County. J Am Mosq Control Assoc 2010: 26: 57–66.
Morgan M.K., Sheldon L.S., Croghan C.W., Jones P.A., Chuang J.C., and Wilson N.K. An observational study of 127 preschool children at their homes and daycare centers in Ohio: environmental pathways to cis-and trans-permethrin exposure. Environ Res 2007: 104: 266–274.
National Research Council. Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1993.
Nicas M., Best D. A study quantifying the hand-to-face contact rate and its potential application to predicting respiratory tract infection. J Occup Environ Hyg 2008: 5: 347–352.
Özkaynak H., Xue J., Zartarian V.G., Glen G., and Smith L. Modeled estimates of soil and dust ingestion rates for children. Risk Anal 2010: 31 (4): 592–608.
Reed K.J., Jimenez M., Freeman N.C.G., and Lioy P.J. Quantification of children's hand and mouthing activities through a videotaping methodology. J Expo Anal Env Epid 1999: 9: 513–520.
Schleier J.J., Macedo P.A., Davis R.S., Shama L.M., and Peterson R.K.D. A two-dimensional probabilistic acute human-health risk assessment of insecticide exposure after adult mosquito management. Stoch Env Res Risk Assess 2009: 23: 555–563.
Stapleton H.M., Kelly S.M., Allen J.G., McClean M.D., and Webster T.F. Measurement of polybrominated diphenyl ethers on hand wipes: estimating exposure from hand-to-mouth contact. Environ Sci Technol 2008: 42: 3329–3334.
Tulve N.S., Egeghy P.P., Fortmann R.C., Xue J., Evans J., and Whitaker D.A., et al. Methodologies for estimating cumulative human exposures to current-use pyrethroid pesticides. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2010: 21 (3): 317–327.
Tulve N.S., Suggs J.C., McCurdy T., Hubal E.A.C., and Moya J. Frequency of mouthing behavior in young children. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2002: 12: 259–264.
US EPA. Dermal exposure assessment: principles and applications, 1992 EPA/600/8-9-91.
US EPA. Risk assessment guidance for superfund (RAGS): Volume I, Human health evaluation manual, part E, 2004 EPA/540/R/99/005.
US EPA. Guidance on selecting age groups for monitoring and assessing childhood exposures to environmental contaminants, 2005 EPA/630/P-03/003F.
US EPA. Child-specific exposure factors handbook (Final report), 2008 EPA/600/R-06/096F.
US EPA. Exposure factors handbook (External review draft) 2009 update, 2009 EPA/600/R-09/052A.
Van Hemmen J.J., and Brouwer D.H. Assessment of dermal exposure to chemicals. Sci Total Environ 1995: 168: 131–141.
Wu N., Herrmann T., Paepke O., Tickner J., Hale R., and Harvey E., et al. Human exposure to PBDEs: associations of PBDE body burdens with food consumption and house dust concentrations. Environ Sci Technol 2007: 41: 1584–1589.
Xue J., Zartarian V., Moya J., Freeman N., Beamer P., and Black K., et al. A meta-analysis of children's hand-to-mouth frequency data for estimating nondietary ingestion exposure. Risk Anal 2007: 27: 411–420.
Xue J., Zartarian V., Tulve N., Moya J., Freeman N., and Auyeung W., et al. A meta-analysis of children's object-to-mouth frequency data for estimating non-dietary ingestion exposure. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2010: 20: 536–545.
Zartarian V., Ferguson A.C., and Leckie J.O. Quantified dermal activity data from a four-child pilot field study. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1997a: 7: 543–552.
Zartarian V., Ferguson A.C., Ong C.G., and Leckie J.O. Quantifying videotaped activity patterns: video translation software and training methodologies. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1997b: 7: 535–542.
Zartarian V., and Leckie J.O. Dermal exposure: the missing link. Environ Sci Technol 1998: 32: 134A–137A.
Zartarian V., Ozkaynak H., Burke J.M., Zufall M.J., Rigas M.L., and Furtaw E.J. A modeling framework for estimating children's residential exposure and dose to chlorpyrifos via dermal residue contact and nondietary ingestion. Environ Health Perspect 2000: 108: 505–514.
Zartarian V.G., Ferguson A.C., and Leckie J.O. Quantified mouthing activity data from a four-child pilot field study. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 1998: 8: 543–553.
Zartarian V.G., Xue J., Ozkaynak H., Dang W., Glen G., Smith L., and Stallings C. A probabilistic arsenic exposure assessment for children who contact CCA-treated playsets and decks, Part 1: model methodology, variability results, and model evaluation. Risk Analysis 2006: 26: 515–531.
Acknowledgements
This project was supported by ORETF Study #ORF018, US EPA Contract #QT-RT-99-001182, the University of Arizona Vice Provost for Research, and the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health.
Human subjects: A human subjects protocol (titled “Quantifying Children's Activity Patterns on Residential Lawns Using Videotaping Methods”) and informed consent form were approved by the Institutional Review Boards at Stanford University (Protocol #9798-487, approved 25 June 1998) for collection and transcription of the videotaped data. A human subjects protocol (title “Quantifying Children's Microlevel Activities from Transcribed Data”) was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Arizona (Protocol #09-0693-02, most recently approved 3 August 2010) for the analyses of the transcribed data presented in this paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Beamer, P., Luik, C., Canales, R. et al. Quantified outdoor micro-activity data for children aged 7–12-years old. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 22, 82–92 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2011.34
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2011.34
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
A Community-Based Health Risk Assessment Following the Gold King Mine Spill: Results from the Gold King Mine Spill Diné Exposure Project
Exposure and Health (2023)
-
Exploring spatial averaging of contamination in fomite microbial transfer models and implications for dose
Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2022)
-
Frequency of hand-to-head, -mouth, -eyes, and -nose contacts for adults and children during eating and non-eating macro-activities
Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2021)
-
Age-related changes to environmental exposure: variation in the frequency that young children place hands and objects in their mouths
Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2020)
-
Mouthing activity data for children age 3 to <6 years old and fraction of hand area mouthed for children age <6 years old in Taiwan
Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2018)