Abstract
Characterizing dietary consumption patterns is critical to dietary pesticide exposure assessment. We compared consumption patterns between adults (age 18–60) in the Metro Atlanta Cohort (MAC), a longitudinal study of pesticide exposure among Atlanta residents, and US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) adults. We focused on foods commonly eaten by US adults and foods likely to contain certain pesticide residues. MAC participants provided consumption data for 6 days per month for 1 year using a web-based data collection tool. We defined “percent eaters” as the percent of participants who reported eating a particular food in 24 h. We computed the NHANES weighted percent eaters and 95% confidence limits (CLs) using the 24-h dietary recall data. We calculated the MAC percent eaters for each sampling day and the percent of days this number fell below, within, or above the NHANES 95% CLs. We also re-sampled the MAC percent eaters across sampling days to find whether the resulting distribution resembled the NHANES estimate, and used the Kruskal–Wallis test to evaluate whether season affected the number of MAC eaters of a particular food on a given sampling day. In general, across all sampling days, a greater proportion of MAC participants reported eating banana, broccoli, cream, grapes, lettuce, onion, peach, pear, peas, strawberries, string beans, and tomatoes than the national estimate, whereas the proportion of apple, spinach, catsup and white bread/roll eaters was similar, and the proportion of milk drinkers was lower. Season predicted the number of MAC peach and strawberry eaters but not other foods. The data show how a higher proportion of Atlanta adults may eat certain foods (e.g., peaches in summer or strawberries in spring) than the national average depending on season or other factors. An exposure assessment that ignored this difference could underestimate dietary pesticide intakes.
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
References
Buck R.J., Ozkaynak H., Xue J., Zartarian V.G., and Hammerstrom K. Modeled estimates of chlorpyrifos exposure and dose for the Minnesota and Arizona NHEXAS populations. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2001: 11: 253–268.
CDC. About the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2009b. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/about_nhanes.htm [accessed 10 August 2009].
CDC. Analytic and Reporting Guidelines: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2006b. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_03_04/nhanes_analytic_guidelines_dec_2005.pdf [accessed 8 August 2009].
CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). MEC In-Person Dietary Interviewer Procedures Manual 2002. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_03_04/DIETARY_MEC.pdf [accessed 15 June 2008].
CDC. MEC In-Person Dietary Interviewer Procedures Manual 2006a. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_05_06/DIETARY_MEC.pdf [accessed 15 February 2009].
CDC. NHANES 2005–2006, 2009a. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhanes/nhanes2005-2006/nhanes05_06.htm [accessed 15 February 2009].
CDC. Interviewer Procedures Manual 2005a. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_05_06/jan05intprocman.pdf [accessed 15 February 2009].
CDC. Phone Follow-Up Dietary Interviewer Procedures Manual 2005b. Available: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/nhanes_05_06/DIETARY_PFU.pdf [accessed 15 February 2009].
Dougherty C.P, Henricks Holtz S., Reinert J.C., Panyacosit L., Axelrad D.A., and Woodruff T.J. Dietary exposures to food contaminants across the United States. Environ Res 2000: 84: 170–185.
Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. 1996. Public Law 104–170.
Haines P.S., Guilkey D.K., and Popkin B.M. Trends in breakfast consumption of U.S. adults between 1965 and 1991. J Am Diet Assoc 1996: 96: 464–470.
Lu C., Barr D.B., Pearson M.A., and Waller L.A. Dietary intake and its contribution to the longitudinal organophosphorus pesticide exposure in urban and suburban children. Environ Health Perspect 2008: 116: 537–542.
Lu C., Barr D.B., Pearson M.A., and Waller L.A. The attribution of urban and suburban children's exposure to synthetic pyrethroid pesticides: a longitudinal assessment. J Exp Sci Environ Epidemiol 2009: 19: 69–79.
Lu C., Pearson M., Renker S., Myerburg S., and Farino C. A novel system for collecting longitudinal self-reported dietary consumption information: the internet data logger (iDL). J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2006: 16: 427–433.
Luo Y., and Zhang M. Multimedia transport and risk assessment of organophosphate pesticides and a case study in the northern San Joaquin Valley of California. Chemosphere 2009: 75: 969–978.
MacIntosh D.L., Kabiru C.W., and Ryan P.B. Longitudinal investigation of dietary exposure to selected pesticides. Environ Health Perspect 2001a: 109: 145–150.
MacIntosh D.L., Kabiru C., Echols S.L., and Ryan P.B. Dietary exposure to chlorpyrifos and levels of 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol in urine. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2001b: 11: 279–285.
MacIntosh D.L., Spengler J.D., Ozkaynak H., Tsai L., and Ryan P.B. Dietary exposures to selected metals and pesticides. Environ Health Perspect 1996: 104: 202–209.
McCabe-Sellers B.J., Bowman S., Stuff J.E., Champagne C.M., Simpson P.M., and Bogle M.L. Assessment of the diet quality of U.S. adults in the Lower Mississippi Delta. Am J Clin Nutr 2007: 86: 697–706.
Meeker J.D., Barr D.B., Ryan L., Herrick R.F., Bennett D.H., and Bravo R., et al. Temporal variability of urinary levels of nonpersistent insecticides in adult men. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2005: 15: 271–281.
Price P.S., Young J.S., and Chaisson C.F. Assessing aggregate and cumulative pesticide risks using a probabilistic model. Ann Occup Hyg 2001: 45 (Suppl 1): S131–S142.
Riederer A.M., Bartell S.M., Barr D.B., and Ryan P.B. Diet and non-diet predictors of urinary 3-phenoxybenzoic acid in NHANES 1999–2002. Environ Health Perspect 2008: 116: 1015–1022.
USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture). Pesticide Data Program — Annual Summary Calendar Year 2005, 2006. Available: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC504994 [accessed: 20 February 2009].
USDA. Pesticide Data Program — 2006 Data, 2007. Available: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/ams.fetchTemplateData.do?template=TemplateG&topNav=&leftNav=ScienceandLaboratories&page=PDPDownloadData/Reports&description=Download+PDP+Data/Reports&acct=pestcddataprg [accessed: 20 February 2009].
US EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). Guidance for Submission of Probabilistic Human Health Exposure Assessments to the Office of Pesticide Programs. Washington, DC, US EPA,, 1998.
US EPA. A model comparison: dietary and aggregate exposure in CALENDEX, CARES, AND LIFELINE, 2004. Available: http://www.epa.gov/scipoly/sap/meetings/2004/april/sapminutesapril2930.pdf [accessed: 24 September 2008].
US EPA. Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook. EPA/600/R-06/096F. Washington, DC, US EPA, 2008.
Acknowledgements
We thank L. Andres, M. Givens, D. Gregory, C. Holbrook, M. Holubar, H.M. Hsiao, and K. Shamsuddin at Emory University for their work on this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
This publication was developed with the support of Science to Achieve Results (STAR) research assistance Grants (R-832244 and R-829364), awarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The content of this publication has not been formally reviewed by the US EPA, and the views expressed in this document are solely the authors’. US EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication. All authors have disclosed that there exist no potential conflicts of interest regarding this paper.
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
Riederer, A., Pearson, M. & Lu, C. Dietary patterns among the Metro Atlanta Cohort: Implications for population-based longitudinal dietary pesticide exposure and risk assessment. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 21, 142–149 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2009.72
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2009.72
