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Distributions, associations, and partial aggregate exposure of pesticides and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in the Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study (MNCPES)

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 13, pages 100–111 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

The Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study (MNCPES) provides exposure, environmental, and biologic data relating to multipathway exposures of children for four primary pesticides (chlorpyrifos, malathion, diazinon, and atrazine), 14 secondary pesticides, and 13 polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Monitoring was performed on a probability-based sample of 102 children aged 3–12 in Minneapolis/St. Paul and in a nearby rural area (Goodhue and Rice counties). This paper provides estimated distributions of this population's exposures and exposure-related measurements and examines associations among the various measures via rank (Spearman) correlations. In addition, it provides some aggregate and cumulative exposure estimates for pesticides, and compares the relative intakes from inhalation and dietary ingestion. Intakes for the four primary pesticides appeared to come principally from the ingestion rather than the inhalation route; this was clearly true for chlorpyrifos but was less certain for the other three primary pesticides because of their higher degree of nondetects. Solid food rather than beverages was clearly the main contributor to the ingestion intake. Despite the dominance of the ingestion route, the urinary metabolite of chlorpyrifos exhibited a stronger association with the air measurements than with the dietary measures. Personal-air samples exhibited strong rank correlations with indoor air samples for chlorpyrifos, malathion, and diazinon (0.81, 0.51, and 0.62, respectively), while personal-air atrazine levels correlated well with outdoor levels (0.69); personal-air diazinon levels also correlated well with outdoor levels (0.67). For the PAHs, many significant associations were evident among the various air samples and for the air samples with the dust samples, especially for those compounds with consistently high percent measurable values (particularly fluoranthene, phenanthrene, and pyrene).

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Notes

  1. A weighted analysis makes use of sampling weights, which reflect the differential selection probabilities of participants. It allows the resultant estimates (e.g., of means or medians or proportions) to apply to the target population, rather than to just the sample of participants, and also allows for standard errors of the estimates to be generated that properly account for the unequal weighting and other features (e.g., stratification, clustering) of the sampling design.

  2. Rank correlations are preferred since they are insensitive to extreme values and do not depend on the particular measurement scale (e.g., concentrations or logarithms of concentrations). The correlation between two measures is not reported if either measure has less than 10% measurable values.

Abbreviations

BW:

body weight

EPA:

US Environmental Protection Agency

FQPA:

Food Quality Protection Act

MNCPES:

Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study

NHEXAS:

National Human Exposure Assessment Survey

NRC:

National Research Council

OP:

organo-phosphate

PAH:

polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon

PAI:

partial aggregate intake

PCI:

partial cumulative intake

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the adroit technical assistance of K. Thomas, L. Cauble, M. Hermann, and L. Klemm for sample collection; of the Center for Disease Control for metabolite analysis in urine; of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute for pesticide analysis in dust samples; and of numerous personnel at Research Triangle Institute. This effort was supported by University of Minnesota Subgrant No. Q6626127101 and EPA Cooperative Agreement No. CR821902-01-0. Although the research depicted in this article has been funded by the EPA, it has not been subjected to review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the agency and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Triangle Institute, PO Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

    C Andrew Clayton & Edo D Pellizzari

  2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, PO 93478, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

    James J Quackenboss

  3. University of Minnesota, School of Public Health, 420 Delaware Street, Minneapolis, SE Minnesota, USA

    John Adgate & Ken Sefton

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  1. C Andrew Clayton
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  2. Edo D Pellizzari
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  5. John Adgate
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Correspondence to C Andrew Clayton.

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Andrew Clayton, C., Pellizzari, E., Whitmore, R. et al. Distributions, associations, and partial aggregate exposure of pesticides and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in the Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study (MNCPES). J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 13, 100–111 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jea.7500261

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