Biomonitoring of exposure to pesticides

Abstract

Pesticides are widely used chemicals making human exposure to pesticides a realistic possibility. Biomonitoring is a common and useful tool for assessing human exposure to pesticides. For the past several decades, methods have been developed to measure a variety of pesticides in human urine or blood to evaluate exposures. Many of these methods have employed analytical techniques such as chromatography and mass spectrometry to accurately measure urinary metabolites or blood body burdens of several classes of pesticides. The pesticides assessed include the banned organochlorine pesticides, the more modern organophosphorus, carbamate, and pyrethroid insecticides along with a variety of herbicides including phenoxyacetic acids and triazines. These methods are capable of detecting concentrations in biological samples resulting from occupational exposures to pesticides, and in some instances, general background exposures from residential or dietary exposures. These data have been used for a variety of applications. They have documented the pervasiveness of pesticide exposures, have allowed us to determine the primary predictors of exposure in certain populations, have helped us to identify the most important pathways of exposure, and have helped us to better understand any potential risks associated with exposures. In addition, these methods have helped us to document poisoning cases and identify etiologic agents in crisis situations. We discuss the methods that have been employed over the last 40 years and how these methods have addressed critical public health questions.

Widely Used Pesticides with Previously Unknown Endocrine Activity Revealed as in Vitro Antiandrogens

“…Similarly, although the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in the United States incorporates human biomonitoring of pesticides, exposure concentrations in human target tissues are very poorly understood, because of the almost complete lack of toxico kinetic data, short half-lives of current use pesticides, unspecific urinary metabolites, and unknown metabolic pathways (see Barr 2008) (Table 1). Linuron and tebuconazole are known in vivo anti androgens (Lambright et al 2000;Taxvig et al 2007); however, data on the other pesticides are much more limited.…”

A perspective on the potential risks of emerging contaminants to human and environmental health

“…In the latter case, the main classes are insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and Grouping many compounds on the basis of similarities in their chemical structures is possible (Alonzo and Corrêa 2003), e.g., organochlorines (including aldrin and DDT), organophosphates (diazinon and malathion), carbamates (carbaryl and propoxur), pyrethrins and pyrethroids (tefluthrin), triazines (atrazine), phenoxyacid (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), chloroacetanilides, also called chloroacetamides (metolachlor and alachlor), and phenylureas (diuron) (Barr 2008). Organochlorines, organophosphorus, and pyrethroids (which are synthetic analogues of pyrethrins) serve mainly as insecticides, acaricides, or nematicides.…”

“…Organochlorines are persistent pesticides belonging to the group of POPs: they have long environmental half-lives and tend to bioaccumulate in the food chain. They are liposoluble, have low volatility, and may spread to various places via exposed animals or physicochemical processes (Borga et al 2001;Alonzo and Corrêa 2003;Barr 2008;Andreu and Picó 2012). In general, organophosphates, carbamates, synthetic pyrethroids, triazines, phenoxyacid, and chloroacetanilides, among others, are considered nonpersistent.…”

“…Most decompose within several weeks under exposure to sunlight and water, so they do not tend to bioaccumulate, except in cases of unfavorable degradation conditions. However, extensive use of these products has culminated in constant human exposure to pesticides via domestic use or the food chain (Barr 2008;Andreu and Picó 2012).…”

Analytical methods for human biomonitoring of pesticides. A review

“…In general, whole blood or its components (serum or plasma) are preferred when determining internal exposure to persistent pesticides such as organochlorine insecticides (the intact pesticide and/or its metabolite) which have long biological half-lives (several years) [14]. The main disadvantage of using blood in human biomonitoring is that it is an invasive matrix, and its collection needs the participation of qualified personal.…”