Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Linda A. McCauley, PhD¹, Michael Lasarev, MS², Juan Muniz, MS¹, Yu-Ru Lin, PhD¹, and W. Kent Anger, PhD². (1) School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, 420 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6096, 215 898 9160, lmccaule@nursing.upenn.edu, (2) Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 Sam Jackson Park Rd, Portland, OR 97239-3098

Little evidence is available on acceptable levels of pesticide exposure in agricultural workers. Youth workers may be at increased risk for occupational injury and disease, including the potential for pesticide exposure An investigation of 133 hispanic farmworkers and 56 controls was conducted to assess whether biomarkers of pesticide exposure differed in adolescents workers compared to to adults. Mean age of the adult workers was 29 years with a mean of 9.3 years of agricultural work and average age of the adolescent workers was 15.3 years with a mean of 3.0 years of agricultural work. Work history questionnaires practices were administered and a urine sample was collected for measuring alkylphosphate metabolites from organophosphates and for the metabolite of Captan (THPI). Levels of THPI were shifted significantly higher in the total agricultural group. The median level of the major OP metabolite among teen farmworkers was slightly higher compared to adult workers, though not statistically higher (3.2 ng/mL vs. 1.1 ng/mL). A similar, but non-significant trend was observed for THPI (0.073 µg/mL vs 0.025 µg/mL). Our previous studies found adolescent farmworkers are less knowledgeable about pesticide safety, but safety practices are similar to adults. While exposure levels among these two populations do not differ and these results are reassuring, they can not be generalized to all crops in which adolescents work. Future analyses will examine differences in markers of potential health effects in adolescent farmworkers compared to adults with comparable levels of pesticide exposure.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Describe recent research findings regarding differences in pesticide exposure among adult and adolescent farmworkers.
• Articulate research methods used to assess biomarkers of pesticide exposure among agricultural workers.

Keywords: Occupational Exposure, Pesticide Exposure

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered