Urinary biomarker concentrations of captan, chlormequat, chlorpyrifos and cypermethrin in UK adults and children living near agricultural land

Abstract

There is limited information on the exposure to pesticides experienced by UK residents living near agricultural land. This study aimed to investigate their pesticide exposure in relation to spray events. Farmers treating crops with captan, chlormequat, chlorpyrifos or cypermethrin provided spray event information. Adults and children residing ≤100 m from sprayed fields provided first-morning void urine samples during and outwith the spray season. Selected samples (1–2 days after a spray event and at other times (background samples)) were analysed and creatinine adjusted. Generalised Linear Mixed Models were used to investigate if urinary biomarkers of these pesticides were elevated after spray events. The final data set for statistical analysis contained 1518 urine samples from 140 participants, consisting of 523 spray event and 995 background samples which were analysed for pesticide urinary biomarkers. For captan and cypermethrin, the proportion of values below the limit of detection was greater than 80%, with no difference between spray event and background samples. For chlormequat and chlorpyrifos, the geometric mean urinary biomarker concentrations following spray events were 15.4 μg/g creatinine and 2.5 μg/g creatinine, respectively, compared with 16.5 μg/g creatinine and 3.0 μg/g creatinine for background samples within the spraying season. Outwith the spraying season, concentrations for chlorpyrifos were the same as those within spraying season backgrounds, but for chlormequat, lower concentrations were observed outwith the spraying season (12.3 μg/g creatinine). Overall, we observed no evidence indicative of additional urinary pesticide biomarker excretion as a result of spray events, suggesting that sources other than local spraying are responsible for the relatively low urinary pesticide biomarkers detected in the study population.

Development of a Biomarker for Penconazole: A Human Oral Dosing Study and a Survey of UK Residents’ Exposure

“…A study was conducted of residents living within 100 m of agricultural land that had been identified as likely to be subject to pesticide spraying. The overall study design has been described in detail elsewhere [ 7 , 8 ]. The study received full ethical approval by the NHS South East Scotland Research Ethics Committee (SESREC) 3 (study number 10/S1103/63).…”

“…Potential human health effects arising from exposure have not been well characterised, although penconazole has been linked with an endocrine disrupting mode of action [ 4 ] and it is classified under the Global Harmonised System as H302: Harmful if swallowed (Acute toxicity, oral—Category 4) and H361: Suspected of damaging fertility or the unborn child (Reproductive toxicity—Category 2) [ 5 ]. In the UK, there remains public concern and debate regarding exposure to pesticides and the potential exposure of residents living close to agricultural land has been investigated recently [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. A goal of this type of study is to determine appropriate biomarkers of pesticide exposure in human samples and to compare the relative amount of those biomarkers found to what might be anticipated from low-level human exposure at the ADI.…”

“…The objectives of the present study were to develop a robust analytical method for quantifying penconazole metabolites in human urine, then to determine biomarker levels in volunteers exposed to a single oral dose of penconazole at the ADI and, finally, to compare this data with measured metabolite levels in samples collected as part of a large investigation of rural residents’ exposure [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], in which penconazole was one of five target pesticides.…”

Simultaneous degradation of β‐cypermethrin and 3‐phenoxybenzoic acid by Eurotiumcristatum ET1, a novel “golden flower fungus” strain isolated from Fu Brick Tea

“…What is more, 3-PBA is classified as an endocrine-disrupting chemical and thus presents a greater risk than its parent compound (McCarthy, Thomson, Shaw, & Abell, 2006). It is also worth to mention that these two compounds have even been detected in human urine and elsewhere (Galea et al, 2015;Gosetti et al, 2018;Rousis, Zuccato, & Castiglioni, 2016). Hence, the removal of β-CY and 3-PBA from environment is urgent.…”

Concentrations and temporal trends in pesticide biomarkers in urine of Swedish adolescents, 2000–2017

“…Some major general population biomonitoring studies on pesticides are conducted through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in the USA [20][21][22][23][24], the German Environmental Survey [25], and the Canadian Health Measures Survey [3,26]. There are also studies of organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides, dithiocarbamates, chlormequat, azole compounds, and phenoxy herbicides in groups from the general populations in, for example, France [27], Israel [28], the UK [29,30], Italy [31], Germany [32,33], and Australia [34].…”