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a useful reference
Environmental Health P E R S P E C T I V E S
doi:10.1289/ehp.5754 (available at http://dx.doi.org/)
Online 31 October 2002
Organophosphorus pesticide exposure of urban and suburban pre-school
children
with organic and conventional diets
Cynthia L. Curl, Richard A. Fenske, Kai Elgethun
Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health and
Community Medicine,
University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7234.
Abstract
Organophosphorus (OP) pesticide exposure from diet was assessed by
biological monitoring
among Seattle pre-school children. Parents kept food diaries for three
days prior to urine
collection, and distinguished organic and conventional foods based on
label information.
Children were then classified as having consumed either organic or
conventional diets based on
analysis of the diary data. Residential pesticide use was also recorded
for each home. Twentyfour
hour urine samples were collected from 18 children with organic diets
and 21 children with
conventional diets, and analyzed for five OP pesticide metabolites.
Significantly higher median
concentrations of total dimethyl alkylphosphate metabolites were found
than total diethyl
alkylphosphate metabolites (0.06 and 0.02 µmol/L, respectively;
p=.0001). The median total
dimethyl metabolite concentration was approximately six times higher for
children with
conventional diets than for children with organic diets (0.17 and 0.03
µmol/L, p=.0003); mean
concentrations differed by a factor of nine (0.34 and 0.04 µmol/L). Dose
estimates were
calculated from urinary dimethyl metabolites and from agricultural
pesticide use data, assuming
that all exposure came from a single pesticide. The dose estimates
suggest that consumption of
organic fruits, vegetables and juice can reduce children’s exposure
levels from above to below
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s current guidelines, thereby
shifting exposures from
a range of uncertain risk to a range of negligible risk. Consumption of
organic produce appears
to provide a relatively simple means for parents to reduce their
children’s exposure to
organophosphorus pesticides.
.