Age Considerations

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Age Considerations

• Impacts on
• Pesticide Exposure and Health Outcomes

Helen Murphy FNP, MHS Pacific Northwest
Agricultural Safety and Health Center
(PNASH) School of Public Health University of
Washington
2009
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How would behavioral and biological attributes
associated to each of these age groups impact
pesticide exposure and its short or long term
health effects?
Women of Childbearing Years
Young Male Adults
Prenatal
Toddlers
Young children adolescents
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Pre-Natal Exposures

• Prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos an
  organophosphate is associated to
  neurodevelopmental effects in the child
• Increased odds of abnormal reflexes in neonates
• Poorer verbal IQ in 3½ and 5 year olds
• Increased odds of pervasive developmental disorder

Whyatt RM et al. 2005, Ruah VA. et al, 2006,
Young JG et al 2005, Roberts EM 2007
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Toddlers

• GREATER EXPOSURE
• Hand to mouth behaviors
• SKIN contact with floors and lawns
• Lighter less clothing
• Eats (12x) and drinks (2x) more per weight than
  adults
• GREATER ABSORPTION
• ? Breathing rates (1.7x more)
• ? Heart rates
• ? Skin surface/weight (2.7 x more)
• GREATER SENSITIVITY
• Sensitive developing organs (reproductive,
  neurological)
• Less ability to detoxify (immature hepatic cells)

Selevan SG, Kimmel CA, Mendola P. 2000
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Children and Adolescents

• Physically still developing biologic risks
• Dependency Parental role in preventing
  exposures
• Sources of food and water
• Home and school proximity to agriculture sites
• Para-occupational exposures
• Household and school use of pesticides
  (structural, garden and pet pest control
  measures)

Source David C. Schwebel, Ph.D. Department of
Psychology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
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Children and Adolescents

• Risk taking behaviors
• Learning by experimentation (e.g. Indonesia
  making rockets out of old pesticide containers)
• Perceptual development overestimate physical
  abilities
• Social development peers and sibling roles
• Impulse control still developing by early 20s
• Cognitive Development affects following
  directions, doing what the rules say, remembering
  understanding rules, sense of invulnerability,
  planning and organizing, consequences of
  decisions.

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Young Male Adults

• 81 of hired farm workers are male, 77 lt age 44
  
• Sole breadwinners thus likely to value work
  productivity over personal safety.
• Reproductive hazards possibly male mediated -
  e.g. spontaneous abortions (SAB)
• Risk for SAB increased four fold if father did
  not use PPE (Arbuckle et al 1999)
• Critical window for SAB risk is the 3 months of
  spermatogenesis prior to conception (Sanborn et
  al 2007)
• Birth defect critical window pre conception and
  1st trimester (Sanborn et al 2007)
• Risk taking behaviors sense of invulnerability
• Risks exposing families through work clothes,
  skin, and vehicles. (see Work to Home Exposure
  Pathway slides)

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Women of Child Bearing Years

• Women using hormonally active pesticides
  (lindane, atrazine, mancozeb or maneb) have 1.5 x
  increased odds of longer cycles, missing a
  period, mid cycle bleeding (Farr SL et al 2004 )
• Studies suggest that occupational exposure to
  certain herbicides (dicamba, glyphosate, 2,4-D)
  fungicide-insecticides (thiocarbamates) increase
  by 20 time needed to become pregnant (Curtis et
  al 1999)
• May not know they will become pregnant at the
  pre conception critical window of exposure
  relative to risks for birth defects (Sanborn et
  al 2007)
• Risks exposing families through work clothes,
  skin, and vehicles. (see Work to Home Exposure
  Pathway slides)

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References

• Selevan SG, Kimmel CA, Mendola P. Identifying
  critical windows of exposure for children's
  health. Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Jun108
  Suppl 3451-5. Review
• Whyatt RM et al. Biomarkers in assessing
  residential insecticide exposures during
  pregnancy and effects on fetal growth. Tox
  Applied Pharm 206 (2) 246-254 AUG 7 2005
• Ruah VA. et al. Years of Life Among Inner-City
  Children Impact of Prenatal Chlorpyrifos Exposure
  on Neurodevelopment in the First 3. Pediatrics
  2006181845-1859.
• Young JG et al. Association between in utero
  organophosphate pesticide exposure and abnormal
  reflexes in neonates. Neurotoxicology. 2005
  Mar26(2)199-209.

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References

• Roberts EM et al. Maternal residence near
  agricultural pesticide applications and autism
  spectrum disorders among children in the
  California Central Valley. Environ Health
  Perspect. 2007 Oct115(10)1482-9
• Arbuckle TE, Savitz DA, Mery LS, Curtis KM.
  Exposure to phenoxy herbicidesand the risk of
  spontaneous abortion. Epidemiology
  199910752-60.
• Sanborn M, Kerr KJ, Sanin LH, Cole DC, Bassil KL,
  Vakil C. Non-cancer health effects of pesticides
  systematic review and implications for family
  doctors. Can Fam Physician. 2007
  Oct53(10)1712-20.
• Farr SL, Cooper GS, Cai J, Savitz DA, Sandler DP.
  Pesticide use and menstrual cycle characteristics
  among premenopausal women in the Agricultural
  Health Study. (2004).
• Curtis KM, Savitz DA, Weinberg CR, Arbuckle TE.
  The effect of pesticide exposure on time to
  pregnancy. Epidemiology. 1999 Mar10(2)112-7.

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