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Pyrethroid levels in toddlers’ breathing zone following a simulated indoor pesticide spray

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 29, pages 389–396 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Application of pyrethroid insecticides in residential settings may result in children’s exposures to these chemicals and possible adverse health effects. Household dust is a recognized reservoir for pyrethroids and a potential medium for multi-route pyrethroid exposure. Young children move and play in a manner that resuspends dust, and since their breathing zone is close to the floor, they will have higher inhalation exposure to pesticide-laden dust than other age groups. Directly measuring a toddler’s exposure to household dust presents many logistic challenges. We simulated the dust resuspension induced by a toddler using a robot, which also served as a platform to collect air samples at the toddler’s breathing zone height. We performed simulated pyrethroid residential spray and dust resuspension experiments on vinyl and carpeted floors. The mean pyrethroid airborne concentrations in the stationary and mobile samples were 0.065 μg/m3 and 0.143 μg/m3 for the vinyl floor with 1 g/m2 dust loading, and 0.034 μg/m3 and 0.061 μg/m3 for the carpeted floor with 10 g/m2 dust loading, respectively. Pyrethroids concentrations in the settled dust samples were significantly lower than that measured in the stationary and mobile samples in the carpeted floor experiments. Thus, the use of stationary samples and settled dust samples may underestimate a toddler’s personal inhalation exposure to pyrethroids in residential houses.

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Acknowledgements

Support for this research was provided by Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) at Rutgers University. Clifford P Weisel and Gediminas Mainelis were supported in part by the NIEHS Center for Exposure and Environmental Disease (CEED) (E5005022).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Exposure Science, Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Jiaqi Zhou, Gediminas Mainelis & Clifford P. Weisel

  2. Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Gediminas Mainelis & Clifford P. Weisel

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  1. Jiaqi Zhou
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Correspondence to Clifford P. Weisel.

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Zhou, J., Mainelis, G. & Weisel, C.P. Pyrethroid levels in toddlers’ breathing zone following a simulated indoor pesticide spray. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 29, 389–396 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-018-0065-6

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