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Nondietary ingestion of pesticides by children in an agricultural community on the US/Mexico border: Preliminary results

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 13, pages 42–50 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

An environmental measurement and correlation study of nondietary ingestion of pesticides was carried out in a colonia in south Texas. The purpose of the study was to evaluate young children's exposure to environmental levels of organophosphate (OP) pesticides in the household. Samples were collected to measure levels of OP pesticides in housedust and on children's hands. These, in turn, were compared to levels of OP pesticide metabolites in urine. A total of 52 children, 25 boys and 27 girls, participated in the spring and summer of 2000. The children were 7–53 months of age at the time of recruitment. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were carried out using SAS statistical software. Seventy-six percent of housedust samples and 50% of hand rinse samples contained OP pesticides. All urine samples had at least one metabolite and over 95% had at least two metabolites above the limit of detection (LOD). Total OP loadings in the housedust ranged from nondetectable (nd) to 78.03 nmol/100 cm2 (mean=0.15 nmol/100 cm2; median=0.07 nmol/100 cm2); total OP loadings on the children's hands ranged from nd to 13.40 nmol/100 cm2 (mean=1.21 nmol/100 cm2; median=1.41 nmol/100 cm2), and creatinine corrected urinary levels (nmol/mol creatinine) of total OP metabolites ranged from 3.2 to 257 nmol/mol creatinine (mean=42.6; median 27.4 nmol/mol creatinine). Urinary metabolites were inversely associated with the age of the child (in months) with the parameter estimate (pe)=−2.11, P=0.0070, and 95% confidence interval −3.60 to −0.61. The multivariate analysis observed a weak association between concentrations of OP pesticides in housedust, loadings in housedust, and concentration on hands, hand surface area, and urinary levels of OP metabolites. However, hand loadings of OP pesticides were more strongly associated (r2=0.28; P=0.0156) with urinary levels of OP metabolites (pe=6.39; 95% CI 0.98–11.80). This study's preliminary findings suggest that surface loadings of pesticides, on hands, are more highly correlated with urinary bioassays and, therefore, may be more useful for estimation of exposure in epidemiologic studies than levels of pesticides in housedust.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by EPA STAR grant no. R827440 and NIEHS grants to the Center for Environmental Health Sciences in Piscataway, NJ (P30-ES-05022), and the Center for Environmental and Rural Health at Texas A&M University (P30-ES-09106). This study would not have been possible without the cooperation and assistance of the Sisters of Mercy of Laredo, TX.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (a jointly sponsored institute of Rutgers the State University of New Jersey and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey), Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA

    Stuart L Shalat, Natalie CG Freeman, Marta Jimenez & Kathleen Black

  2. Center for Environmental and Rural Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    Kirby C Donnelly, James A Calvin, Sowmya Ramesh & Catriona Coutinho

  3. National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Larry L Needham & Dana B Barr

  4. TDI-Brooks International, College Station, Texas, USA

    Juan Ramirez

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  1. Stuart L Shalat
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  2. Kirby C Donnelly
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Correspondence to Stuart L Shalat.

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Shalat, S., Donnelly, K., Freeman, N. et al. Nondietary ingestion of pesticides by children in an agricultural community on the US/Mexico border: Preliminary results. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 13, 42–50 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jea.7500249

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