The role of diet in children's exposure to organophosphate pesticides

Abstract

Background: Studies suggest that some of the greatest exposure to OPs in children occurs in agricultural communities and various pathways of exposure including the take-home pathway, proximity to orchards, and diet have been explored. However, the importance of the dietary pathway of exposure for children in agricultural communities is not well understood.

Objectives: Our goal was to ascertain whether there were associations between measures of OP exposure and apple juice, fruit, and vegetable consumption across growing seasons by children of farmworkers and non-farmworkers in a rural agricultural setting.

Methods: Study participants were children of farmworker (N=100) or non-farmworker (N=100) households from a longitudinal cohort study. Dietary intake of fruits and vegetables was assessed using a "5-A-Day" abbreviated food frequency questionnaire, and exposure to OPs was characterized using three urinary di-methyl and three di-ethyl metabolite measurements per child for each of three growing seasons. We used generalized estimating equations to examine data.

Results: Consumption frequency of fruits and vegetables was similar between children of farmworkers and non-farmworkers and across seasons. There were a few significant trends between dimethyl metabolites (DMAP) and fruit, vegetable or apple juice consumption; however, no clear pattern held across seasons or occupation. One difference was found in vegetable consumption during the harvest season, where the farmworker families showed a significant relationship between vegetable consumption and dimethyl metabolite levels (p=0.002). We also found a significant difference in this relationship between farmworkers and non-farmworkers (p=0.001). No significant trends between fruit and vegetable consumption and diethyl (DEAP) metabolites were found.

Conclusions: Our study shows the importance of considering season and parents' occupation in understanding OP exposure routes among children in an agricultural community. The impact of these factors on dietary OP exposure requires a more thorough analysis of the availability and consumption of produce from different sources including farms using pesticides where parents worked.

Keywords: Agricultural community; Children; Diet; Farmworker; Organophosphate pesticides; Pesticide; Pesticide exposure; Rural.

Figure 1

Cumulative percentage of children's total produce consumption frequency (juices, fruits, and vegetables) per day by season and household occupational status (farmworker or non-farmworker). The groups are similar with no statistically significant differences observed in the consumption frequency patterns.

Figure 2a

Total fruit and total vegetable consumption versus mean DMAP levels (nmol/mL) during the thinning, harvest, and non-spray seasons by household occupational status (farmworker or non-farmworker). Significant positive trends with the farmworker child group between DMAP levels and vegetable consumption during the harvest season (p=0.002), significantly different than the trend in non-farmworkers vegetable consumption in the harvest season (p=0.01).).

Figure 2b

Total fruit and total vegetable consumption per day versus mean DEAP levels (nmol/mL) during the thinning, harvest, and non-spray seasons by household occupational status (farmworker or non-farmworker). No differences in trend by occupation in any season. .