209066 : Development of an Icon-Based Questionnaire for Measuring Life Exposure to Pesticides in Children

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Martha M. Fuchs, BA , Center for Reseach on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET), Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR
Diane Rohlman, PhD , Center for Reseach on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology (CROET), Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR
Children of agriculture workers have a higher risk of exposure to pesticides compared to the general population because of close proximity of their homes to fields where pesticides are applied and from take-home exposure. Moreover, children are at greater risk for exposure to toxicants than adults because they demonstrate behaviors that lead to greater exposure opportunities, such as crawling on the floor and hand-to-mouth-behavior. We have developed an icon-based questionnaire to obtain a qualitative measure of potential exposure across a child's lifespan. The questionnaire employs visual markers on a calendar to stimulate recall by the child's parents about where they have lived and occupational and residential pesticide use throughout the child's lifetime. Parents from two groups of children, families living in an urban community and families living in an agriculture community, completed the questionnaire. Families from the agricultural community had significantly higher scores on the questionnaire than families from the urban community (4.1 vs. .54; p<.001). Participants currently living in an urban community reported significantly less time living in agricultural zones over the children's lifetime than those living in an agricultural community (p<.001) and parent's lifetime history of working in agriculture was also less in families currently living in an urban community than people living in an agricultural community (p<.001). This establishes a qualitative measure of potential lifetime exposure that can be associated with other exposure measurements, such as pesticide and metabolites levels in urine and dust, to provide a quantitative measure of potential exposure risk over an individual's lifetime.

Learning Objectives:
Discuss how to establish a qualitative measure for life time exposure to pesticides and how to validate such measures with biological markers.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, Agricultural Work Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked on this project for the last nine months and have executed the data collection, organization, and interpretation for the three studies in which the methods to be presented were used. I have presented this information to the project's Advisory Panel as well as to other researchers working on the project.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.