# Presentation: 773750

## Children and Pesticides:  Approaches to Reducing Health Risks through Intervention, Source Management, and Community Partnerships

- Kacee Deener, Chris Saint, Nigel Fields (Presented by Vivian Turner)
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Research

***How can differential risk be mitigated?***

**Research Goals**

**Methods/Approach**

**Impact and Outcomes**

**Results/Conclusions**

**Future Directions**

**Science Question**

- The EPA-funded children’s environmental health research centers are ongoing.  Future efforts will continue to make important strides in the fields of environmental epidemiology and children’s environmental health.  Research efforts will continue to incorporate in-home and community level intervention programs in an effort to reduce exposures and their potential health effects.

**References**

- Brenner, B.L., et al.  Integrated Pest Management in an Urban Community:  A Successful Partnership for Prevention.  **Environmental Health Perspectives** 111(13):  1649-1653 (2003).
- Curl, C.L., et al.  Evaluation of Take-Home Organophosphorus Pesticide Exposure among Agricultural Workers and Their Children.  **Environmental Health Perspectives** 110(12):  787-792 (2002).

-  The Central Coast Grower Shipper Association has agreed to provide warm hand washing water and protective clothing based on research findings, an action that is expected to dramatically reduce take home pesticide exposures, and ultimately reduce children’s exposure to these pesticides.
-   The children’s center at the University of Berkeley has developed a prenatal environmental health education program for pregnant women enrolled in the California Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program (a state-funded service that provides prenatal care to 150,000 low-income women in California each year).
-  The Columbia University children’s center is working with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the New York City Housing Authority to determine if IPM is an effective alternative to aerosol pesticides in public housing.  This partnership has created the potential for broader implementation of IPM in public housing that would reduce children’s exposure to pesticides.

- EPA has made it a priority to conduct and fund high quality children’s environmental health research. Within EPA, the National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) offers an extramural grants program entitled Science to Achieve Results (STAR).  STAR, in cooperation with NIEHS, has funded several children’s environmental health centers that are conducting basic and applied research into the causes and mechanisms of children’s environmentally induced diseases. One unique component of this research is the inclusion of community-based intervention projects designed to mitigate risk by reducing hazardous exposures and their potential health effects.  Through this effort, EPA has developed a portfolio of research that examines ways to reduce health risks from exposure to pesticides through source management, intervention, and community partnerships.
_**Components of Intervention Research**_
-  Identification of relevant exposure pathways
-  Tailoring of intervention methods to specific situations.
-  In-home intervention programs (both urban and rural)
-  Community level intervention programs
-  Partnerships with community organizations
_**Examples of In-home Interventions**_
-  Development of home-based educational strategies
-  Implementation of integrated pest management (IPM), which incorporates professional house cleaning, sealing of cracks and crevices to reduce cockroach populations, and encouraging the use of lower toxicity pesticides in the home
_**Examples of Community Level Interventions**_
-  Health fairs
-  Family parties
-  Educational programs
_**Community Partnerships **_
-  Multi-lingual community health organizations
-  State-funded health programs
-  Agricultural associations

- Through the EPA’s STAR extramural research program, the Children’s Centers have:
-  Confirmed that a major exposure pathway for children in an agricultural setting can be attributed to a farmworker parent “taking home” pesticide residues.
-  Implemented interventions that are designed to break the “take-home” pathway (removing work boots before entering the home, change out of work clothes before entering the home, etc.).
-  Discovered that many farmworkers, because of cultural beliefs that cold water causes arthritis, do not wash their hands in the field where only cold water is provided for hand washing.
- Demonstrated that IPM is more effective at reducing cockroach populations than traditional pest control practices.

-  Pesticides are applied in large quantities in urban communities to control cockroaches, however many pesticides pose potential threats to health
-  The threat is higher for children, who have proportionately greater exposures and unique developmentally determined vulnerabilities
-  Integrated Pest Management (IPM) relies on non-chemical tools, such as cleaning of food residues, removal of potential nutrients, and sealing cracks and crevices.  Least toxic pesticides are used sparingly
-  The children’s center at Mount Sinai in New York City evaluated IPM’s effectiveness through a prospective intervention trial
-  Household cockroach infestation was measured by glue traps at baseline and 6 months after intervention
-  Intervention group received individually tailored IPM education, repairs, least-toxic pesticide application, and supplies
-  Control group was demographically and socioeconomically similar to intervention households.  They received an injury prevention intervention.
-  The proportion of intervention households with cockroaches declines significantly after 6 months (80.5% to 39.0%)
-  Control groups were essentially unchanged (78.1% to 81.3%)
-  Costs for IPM were equal to or less than traditional chemical based pest control
-  Results show that individually tailored IPM can be successful and cost-effective in an urban community

-  Researchers analyzed organophosphate pesticide exposure in farm worker households (n=218) in agricultural communities in Washington State to investigate the take-home pathway of pesticide exposure
-  House dust samples, vehicle dust samples and urine samples (from parent and child) were collected
-  Azinphosmethyl was detected in higher concentrations (p<0.0001) than other pesticides
-  Geometric mean concentrations of azinphosmethyl were 0.53 μg/g in house dust and 0.75 μg/g in vehicle dust
-  Azinphosmethyl concentrations in house dust and vehicle dust from the same household were significantly associated (r2 = 0.41, p < 0.0001).
-  Dimethyl dialkylphosphate levels in child and adult urine from the same household were also significantly associated (r2 = 0.18, p < 0.0001)
-  Results of this work support the hypothesis that the take-home exposure pathway contributes to residential pesticide contamination in agricultural homes where young children are present

_**Integrated Pest Management:  A Less Toxic and More Effective Solution (Brenner et al., 2003)**_

_**Take-Home Pesticide Exposure Contributes to Residential Pesticide Contamination in Agricultural Homes (Curl et al., 2002)**_