Glyphosate biomonitoring for farmers and their families: results from the Farm Family Exposure Study.

Abstract

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup agricultural herbicides and other herbicide formulations that are widely used for agricultural, forestry, and residential weed control. As part of the Farm Family Exposure Study, we evaluated urinary glyphosate concentrations for 48 farmers, their spouses, and their 79 children (4-18 years of age). We evaluated 24-hr composite urine samples for each family member the day before, the day of, and for 3 days after a glyphosate application. Sixty percent of farmers had detectable levels of glyphosate in their urine on the day of application. The geometric mean (GM) concentration was 3 ppb, the maximum value was 233 ppb, and the highest estimated systemic dose was 0.004 mg/kg. Farmers who did not use rubber gloves had higher GM urinary concentrations than did other farmers (10 ppb vs. 2.0 ppb). For spouses, 4% had detectable levels in their urine on the day of application. Their maximum value was 3 ppb. For children, 12% had detectable glyphosate in their urine on the day of application, with a maximum concentration of 29 ppb. All but one of the children with detectable concentrations had helped with the application or were present during herbicide mixing, loading, or application. None of the systemic doses estimated in this study approached the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reference dose for glyphosate of 2 mg/kg/day. Nonetheless, it is advisable to minimize exposure to pesticides, and this study did identify specific practices that could be modified to reduce the potential for exposure.

Time- and Dose-Dependent Effects of Roundup on Human Embryonic and Placental Cells

“…Mammals and humans may be exposed to Roundup herbicide residues by agricultural practices (Acquavella et al 2004) or when the residues enter the food chain (Takahashi et al 2001); glyphosate is also found as a contaminant in rivers (Cox 1998).…”

Neurobehavioral testing in human risk assessment

“…Children of agricultural workers may have a higher risk of exposure to pesticides compared to the general populations because of the close proximity of their homes to the fields where pesticides are applied and from take-home exposure (Fenske, et al, 2002;Loewenherz, et al, 1997). Although pesticide metabolite levels were not significantly increased in spouses and children living on a farm during pesticide applications, children who had contact or were observing the mixing or application had higher metabolite levels than those who were out of the area when pesticides were mixed or applied (Acquavella, et al, 2005;Alexander, et al, 2007). While information is available on the impact of acute exposure in adults and occupational exposure, little information is available examining the impact of exposures in children.…”

Urine-sampling methods for environmental chemicals in infants and young children

“…The specimen cups provided are typically 100 or 118 ml polypropylene containers with screw-cap lids (Curl et al, 2002;Kissel et al, 2005) or polyethylene containers (TYCO Healthcare, Kautex) (Becker et al, 2006). Samples have also been obtained in larger containers, such as the 500 ml high-density polyethylene wide-mouth containers used in the Farm Family Study (Acquavella et al, 2004) or 1 l polyethylene wide-neck flasks as used in GerES IV from children 5 years and older (or in some girls older than 7 years) (Becker et al, 2008). Plastic collection jugs as well as wide-mouth beakers have also been used (Valcke et al, 2006;Soden et al, 2007).…”