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Creatinine corrections for estimating children's and adult's pesticide intake doses in equilibrium with urinary pesticide and creatinine concentrations

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 18, pages 360–368 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

A urine contaminant concentration per se has uncertain meaning for human health because of dilution by hydration. However, the estimation of the health-related daily intake dose of pollutant (mg/kg/day) that equilibrates with a spot urinary concentration of a pesticide residue or metabolite, or other analyte, can be made using creatinine-corrected toxicant levels (mg analyte/mg creatinine) multiplied by an estimate of the subjects’ expected creatinine excretion rates (mg creatinine/kg/day). The objective was to develop a set of equations predicting a person's expected daily creatinine excretion (mg/kg) as a function of age, gender, race and morphometry, from birth to old age. We review the creatinine excretion literature where infants, children and adults provided 24 h total urine samples for creatinine analysis. Equations are developed for infants (≤3 years), children (3–18 years) and adults (≥18 years) that match at 3 and 18 years. A series of equations that estimate daily creatinine excretion (mg/day) are developed that are piecewise continuous from birth through infancy through adolescence and through adulthood for males and females, and Black and White races. Complicating factors such as diet, health status and obesity are discussed. We propose that these equations, with caveat, can now be used with measured urine concentrations to consistently estimate the corresponding equilibrium intake doses of toxicants at ages from birth to 92 years for the healthy non-obese. We recommend that this system of equations be considered for future development and reporting of applied doses in mg/kg/day of pollutants and toxicants that are measured in urine samples, as in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

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Acknowledgements

An anonymous reviewer gave excellent advice on medical aspects that considerably improved this paper. This work is supported by EPA Contract GS-10F-0484N to Danya International Inc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Danya International Inc., 8737 Colesville Road, Suite 1100, Silver Spring, 20910, Maryland, USA

    David T Mage & Anuradha Kodali

  2. United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW 7509P, Washington, 20460, District of Columbia, USA

    Ruth H Allen

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  1. David T Mage
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Correspondence to David T Mage.

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This paper has been cleared for publication by the USEPA. It represents the views of the authors but does not necessarily represent Agency policy. Mention of chemicals or commercial instruments does not imply recommendation for their use. The authors declare they have no conflicting financial interests.

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Mage, D., Allen, R. & Kodali, A. Creatinine corrections for estimating children's and adult's pesticide intake doses in equilibrium with urinary pesticide and creatinine concentrations. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 18, 360–368 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jes.7500614

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