RECENT MEDICALS Re: Children's Environmental Health Information Resources

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JAMA 2001 Dec 12;286(22):2804-5

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ids=11767732 & dopt=Abstract</A>

From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pesticide-related

illnesses associated with the use of a plant growth regulator--Italy, 2001.

PMID: 11767732 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

1: AAOHN J 2001 Apr;49(4):194-212; quiz 213-4

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ids=11760524 & dopt=Abstract</A>

Essentials of environmental health. Enhancing your occupational health

nursing practice (Part II).

Chalupka SM.

College of Health Professions, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA.

1. In the United States, approximately 24 million people use water daily from

unregulated water supplies. Agents of water pollution can be categorized as

biological (e.g., Cryptosporidium parvum), chemical (e.g., industrial

solvents), or radionuclide (e.g., radon). 2. More than 600 chemicals are

registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as pesticides in the

United States. Human exposure occurs through direct contact or dermal

absorption, inhalation, and ingestion of food, water, and breast milk. It is

estimated that 50% of all the pesticides ingested in a lifetime are ingested

in the first 5 years of life. 3. Children are at particular risk for exposure

to environmental toxicants like pesticides because of time spent crawling and

playing on floors, lawns, and other potentially contaminated surface areas,

and hand to mouth behaviors. At this time, toxicity data for many pesticides

in common use are inadequate to determine potential for neurotoxicity and

adverse effects on the developing immune and endocrine system. 4. To meet the

challenge of environmental health issues, occupational and environmental

health nurses have important opportunities to promote health in the workplace

and the community through research, direct clinical services, advocacy, and

education.

Publication Types:

PMID: 11760524 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

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1: Int J Occup Environ Health 2001 Oct-Dec;7(4):275-86

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ids=11783857 & dopt=Abstract</A>

Paraquat in developing countries.

Wesseling C, van Wendel de Joode B, Ruepert C, Leon C, Monge P, Hermosillo H,

Partanen TJ.

Central American Institute for Studies on Toxic Substances (IRET),

Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica. cwesseli@...

The herbicide paraquat is considered safe by industry and the bulk of

regulators worldwide. However, determinants of exposure from 30 years ago

persist in developing countries. Little is known about systemic absorption

from occupational exposures. The relationships between exposure determinants,

levels of external exposure, biomarkers of exposure, and outcomes are not

clear. High rates of severe acute poisonings have been documented. In

addition, topical injuries occur in as many as 50% of exposed workers.

Non-worker populations are also at risk, particularly children. Long-term and

delayed health effects include Parkinson's disease, lung effects, and skin

cancer. Regulatory agencies have not fully recognized either the inherent

toxicity of paraquat or the particular risks derived from exposures in

developing countries. Independent risk assessment in the developing-country

context and application of the precautionary principle are necessary to

prevent adverse effects of dangerous pesticides in susceptible populations.

PMID: 11783857 [PubMed - in process]

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1: Food Addit Contam 2001 Dec;18(12):1124-9

Assessing the risks of pesticide residues to consumers: recent and future

developments.

CA, Renfrew MJ, Woolridge MW.

Pesticides Safety Directorate, York, UK. caroline.harris@...

Assessing exposure of consumers to pesticide residues is an area of

regulatory science that has rapidly developed over the last decade. From

simplistic, deterministic models calculating lifetime exposure for adults

only, assessment procedures have diversified so that more realistic estimates

of long term exposures for adults, schoolchildren, toddlers and infants and

short term exposures for adults and toddlers (who generally bound the more

extreme consumer patterns) are now carried out. The final assessment of risk

still remains a simplistic numeric comparison against hazard assessment based

on a wide range of toxicity studies incorporating the appropriate safety or

uncertainty factors. As development of risk assessments continues, the use of

probabilistic models is becoming an invaluable information tool for

quantitative risk management and aiding assessment of cumulative exposure.

This paper examines the recent developments in risk assessment and consumer

perception of the risks of pesticide residues, and speculates where the

future developments in these areas may lie.

PMID: 11761124 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

J Agric Food Chem 2002 Jan 2;50(1):235-41 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut

Refinements in acute dietary exposure assessments for chlorpyrifos.

JP, Shaw MC, Keeler LC.

Dow AgroSciences, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46268.

Food pesticide residue data are used by the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) to determine potential dietary risk from chronic and acute

exposures. An acute dietary risk assessment determines the pesticide exposure

resulting from a single-day consumption of food, and uses stepwise refinement

of residue estimates to better judge actual exposures. All exposure

refinements use estimates of the fraction of crops treated and food residues

measured increasingly closer to the point of actual food consumption, without

changes in the pesticide uses. Exposure distributions at all levels of data

refinement were extremely right skewed. At the highest level evaluated,

estimated exposures at the 99.9th percentile were 0.00087 mg/kgBW/day

compared to 0.2648 mg/kgBW/day at the tolerance level for children 1-6 years,

theoretically the highest-exposed population sub-group. The estimated

exposure at the 99.9th percentile of the U.S. population was approximately

twice the exposure at the 99th percentile and 33 times the exposure at the

90th percentile. This evaluation showed the calculated exposure at the

highest tier of assessment was 300 times lower than the tolerance level

assessment for children 1-6 years at the 99.9th percentile. Reduction in

exposure estimates between these tiers was due to a combination of the

following factors: food residue measurements in a specially designed

market-basket study, government-sponsored monitoring data, probabilistic

methodologies, market share information, and food processing data. This case

study demonstrates that an improved understanding of the uncertainties of

acute dietary exposure from pesticides is possible by using well-established

statistical tools and applying them to comprehensive exposure information,

including residue monitoring data, consumption data, and pesticide use

information.

PMID: 11754574 [PubMed - in process]

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