Community Exposures to Airborne Agricultural Pesticides in California: Ranking of Inhalation Risks
Click
Here to Add Comment Subject: Community Exposures to Airborne Agricultural Pesticides in California: Ranking of Inhalation Risks
Date:
Fri, 13 Dec 2002 17:37:27 -0500
From:
Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide
Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p1175-1184lee/abstract.html
Article
Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 110, Number 12, December 2002
[ Citation in PubMed ] [
Related Articles ]
Community Exposures to Airborne Agricultural Pesticides in California: Ranking of Inhalation Risks
Sharon Lee, Robert McLaughlin, Martha Harnly, Robert Gunier, and Richard Kreutzer
California Department of Health Services, Environmental Health
Investigations Branch, Oakland, California, USA
[ Full Article in HTML ] [ Full Article in PDF ] [ EHP-in-Press ]
Abstract
We assessed inhalation risks to California communities from airborne agricultural pesticides by probability distribution analysis using ambient air data provided by the California Air Resources Board and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. The pesticides evaluated include chloropicrin, chlorothalonil, chlorpyrifos, S,S,S-tributyl phosphorotrithioate, diazinon, 1,3-dichloropropene, dichlorvos (naled breakdown product), endosulfan, eptam, methidathion, methyl bromide, methyl isothiocyanate (MITC; metam sodium breakdown product), molinate, propargite, and simazine. Risks were estimated for the median and 75th and 95th percentiles of probability (50, 25, and 5% of the exposed populations). Exposure estimates greater than or equal to noncancer reference values occurred for 50% of the exposed populations (adults and children) for MITC subchronic and chronic exposures, methyl bromide subchronic exposures (year 2000 monitoring), and 1,3-dichloropropene subchronic exposures (1990 monitoring). Short-term chlorpyrifos exposure estimates exceeded the acute reference value for 50% of children (not adults) in the exposed population. Noncancer risks were uniformly higher for children due to a proportionately greater inhalation rate-to-body weight ratio compared to adults and other factors. Target health effects of potential concern for these exposures include neurologic effects (methyl bromide and chlorpyrifos) and respiratory effects (1,3-dichloropropene and MITC). The lowest noncancer risks occurred for simazine and chlorothalonil. Lifetime cancer risks of one-in-a-million or greater were estimated for 50% of the exposed population for 1,3-dichloropropene (1990 monitoring) and 25% of the exposed populations for methidathion and molinate. Pesticide vapor pressure was found to be a better predictor of inhalation risk compared to other methods of ranking pesticides as potential toxic air contaminants. Key words: agriculture, air monitoring, fumigants, inhalation exposures, pesticides, risk assessment. Environ Health Perspect 110:1175-1184 (2002). [Online 30 September 2002]
http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2002/110p1175-1184lee/abstract.html
Address correspondence to S. Lee, California Department of Health
Services, Environmental Health Investigations Branch, 1515 Clay
Street, Suite 1700, Oakland, CA 94612 USA. Telephone: (510) 622-4478.
Fax: (510) 622-4505. E-mail: sseidel@dhs.ca.gov
We thank staff of the California Air Resources Board and Department of Pesticide Regulation for discussion of the air monitoring reports, C. Wilder for preparation of the manuscript, and A. Bradman for reviewing the initial manuscript.
The opinions expressed are the views of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the policies of the California Department of Health Services.
Received 9 November 2001; accepted 26 April 2002.
Last Updated: September 30, 2002
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, please email us at list@safe2use.com.