With thousands of pesticides registered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, it not feasible to sample for all pesticides applied in agricultural communities. Hazard-ranking pesticides based on use, toxicity, and exposure potential can help prioritize community-specific pesticide hazards. This study applied hazard-ranking schemes for cancer, endocrine disruption, and reproductive/developmental toxicity in Yuma County, Arizona. An existing cancer hazard-ranking scheme was modified, and novel schemes for endocrine disruption and reproductive/developmental toxicity were developed to rank pesticide hazards. The hazard-ranking schemes accounted for pesticide use, toxicity, and exposure potential based on chemical properties of each pesticide. Pesticides were ranked as hazards with respect to each health effect, as well as overall chronic health effects. The highest hazard-ranked pesticides for overall chronic health effects were maneb, metam-sodium, trifluralin, pronamide, and bifenthrin. The relative pesticide rankings were unique for each health effect. The highest hazard-ranked pesticides differed from those most heavily applied, as well as from those previously detected in Yuma homes over a decade ago. The most hazardous pesticides for cancer in Yuma County, Arizona were also different from a previous hazard-ranking applied in California. Hazard-ranking schemes that take into account pesticide use, toxicity, and exposure potential can help prioritize pesticides of greatest health risk in agricultural communities. This study is the first to provide pesticide hazard-rankings for endocrine disruption and reproductive/developmental toxicity based on use, toxicity, and exposure potential. These hazard-ranking schemes can be applied to other agricultural communities for prioritizing community-specific pesticide hazards to target decreasing health risk. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Compared to the general United States (U.S.) population, Arizona counties along the U.S.-Mexico border have a higher prevalence of dental caries, which can be reduced with adequate fluoride exposure. Because of concern regarding local tap water quality, fluoride-free bottled water consumption is common in this region, raising concern that families are not receiving adequate fluoride to promote dental health.
Non-dietary ingestion is an important exposure pathway for children owing to their frequent hand-to-mouth and object-to-mouth activities involving soil and dust contacts. We used videotaping and the computer-based translating methods to quantify the mouthing activity information for 24 children ages 3 to
Environ Res. 2016 Apr;146:331-9. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2015.12.011. Epub 2016 Jan 21.Multimedia exposures to arsenic and lead for children near an inactive mine tailings and smelter site.Loh MM1, Sugeng A2, Lothrop N2, Klimecki W3, Cox M4, Wilkinson ST5, Lu Z6, Beamer PI2.Author information1Department of Community, Environment and Policy, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, P.O. Box 245163, Tucson, AZ 85718, USA. Electronic address: mloh@email.arizona.edu.2Department of Community, Environment and Policy, Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, 1295 N. Martin Avenue, P.O. Box 245163, Tucson, AZ 85718, USA.3Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210207, Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.4Hospital Medicine and Outreach, Department of Pediatrics, Diamond Children's Medical Center, The University of Arizona, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. Tucson, AZ 85724, USA.5Superfund Research Program, The University of Arizona, 1110 E. South Campus Dr., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.6BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona, 1657 E. Mabel St., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.AbstractChildren living near contaminated mining waste areas may have high exposures to metals from the environment. This study investigates whether exposure to arsenic and lead is higher in children in a community near a legacy mine and smelter site in Arizona compared to children in other parts of the United States and the relationship of that exposure to the site. Arsenic and lead were measured in residential soil, house dust, tap water, urine, and toenail samples from 70 children in 34 households up to 7 miles from the site. Soil and house dust were sieved, digested, and analyzed via ICP-MS. Tap water and urine were analyzed without digestion, while toenails were washed, digested and analyzed. Blood lead was analyzed by an independent, certified laboratory. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated between each environmental media and urine and toenails for arsenic and lead. Geometric mean arsenic (standard deviation) concentrations for each matrix were: 22.1 (2.59) ppm and 12.4 (2.27)ppm for soil and house dust (
