Children living closer to an orchard also tended to have slightly higher pesticide residues in their urine. The habit of wearing work shoes inside the home also correlated with measured exposure among the children of pesticide applicators. The methodology in this study may have tended to underestimate exposures due to the limited panel of urinary metabolites evaluated. Thus this study proves that childhood exposure to agricultural pesticides in farm areas does occur and can be significant, but the limitations of the study make it difficult to use for actually quantifying total exposure. There is a consistent association between higher residues of organochlorine pesticides in blood serum and black race and lower social class.
Many farm workers are non-white and are known to bear a disproportionate burden of exposure.
Non-white poor children living in farm communities are the most likely to be impacted by pesticides and are the most likely to suffer from any potential health effects from this exposure. Methods should be developed to measure levels of all pesticides used in our environment in both environmental media and in human tissues or urine. Such methods should be applied to farm children and other particularly exposed populations to quantify the total exposure among these groups.