Pesticides biological monitoring

Information on exposure levels is fundamental for the assessment and management of health risks related to occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides. Biological monitoring is a primary tool for exposure evaluation,... 

Barr DB, Barr JR, Driskell WJ, et al. 1999. Strategies for biological monitoring of exposure for contemporary-use pesticides. Toxicol Ind Health 15 168-179. 

He F. 1993. Biological monitoring of occupational pesticides exposure. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 93 S69-S76. 

MS 17 Biological monitoring of workers exposed to organo-phosphorus pesticides. 

C.P. Weisskopf and J.N. Seiber, New approaches to the analysis of organophosphate metabolites in the urine of field workers, in ACS Symposium Series Biological Monitoring for Pesticide Exposure Measurement, Estimation, and Risk Reduction, eds. R.G.M. Wang, C.A. Franklin, R.C. Honeycutt, and J.C. Reinert, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, pp. 206-214 (1989). 

Calculation of ID using biological monitoring techniques requires the knowledge of the pharmacokinetics of the parent pesticide in laboratory animals. This will allow the use of the parent or its urine metabolite(s) to calculate the total amount of the parent that had been absorbed through the skin of the test subject. The amount of the residue in the urine should be corrected for any molecular weight differences between the parent and its urine metabolite(s) and also corrected for daily urine excretion volumes based on creatinine analysis of the urine samples. 

There are situations where close-up observations of the volunteer study participant may not be warranted. For example, during a study to determine exposure to pesticides of a group of custom applicators using biological monitoring, observing the workers may not be acceptable in order to make sure that the exposure levels are not biased by any control of the study by the investigator. 

Coye MJ, Lowe JA, Maddy KT. 1986. Biological monitoring of agricultural workers exposed to pesticides I. Cholinesterase activity determinations. J Occup Med 28 619-627. 

Biological monitoring methods for pesticide exposure evaluation... 

Besides alkylphosphates, OP metabolism gives rise to the production of other metabolites that can be used as exposure markers (Table 4). Unchanged OP compounds in blood or urine can also be measured to confirm exposure (Table 4), but this method is of limited use for routine biological monitoring of occupational exposure, as OP compounds are rapidly excreted in urine. Moreover, most OP pesticides are unstable, and, with a few exceptions, they are not detectable in biological specimens after a few hours. So far, the measurement of unchanged compounds in biological fluids has been performed primarily for research purposes and has limited practical applicability. 

Table 6 Biomarkers Used in Biological Monitoring of Human Exposure to Some Groups of Pesticides...

There is a growing need to better characterize the health risk related to occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides. Risk characterization is a basic step in the assessment and management of the health risks related to chemicals (Tordoir and Maroni, 1994). Evaluation of exposure, which may be performed through environmental and biological monitoring, is a fundamental component of risk assessment. Biomarkers are useful tools that may be used in risk assessment to confirm exposure or to quantify it by estimating the internal dose. Besides their use in risk assessment, biomarkers also represent a fundamental tool to improve the effectiveness of medical and epidemiological surveillance. 

Dillon, H.K. and Ho, M.H. (1987) Biological monitoring of exposure to organophos-phorus pesticides, in Biological Monitoring of Exposure to Chemicals Organic Compounds, H.K. Dillon and M.H. Ho (Eds.), Wiley, New York, pp. 227-287. 

Determination of the efficiency for pesticide exposure reduction with protective clothing a field study using biological monitoring... 

Pesticides—Toxicology. 2. Agricultural laborers—Health risk assessment. 3. Biological monitoring. 4. Pesticides—Safety measures. 

Woollen, B.H. (1993) Biological monitoring for pesticide absorption, Am. Occup. Hygiene, 37 525-540. 

Nimmo, D.R., T.L. Hamaker, E. Matthews, and J.C. Moore. 1981. An overview of the acute and chronic effects of first and second generation pesticides on an estuarine mysid. Pages 3-19 in J. Vernberg, A. Calabrese, F.P. Thurberg, and W.B. Vernberg (eds.). Biological Monitoring of Marine Pollutants. Academic Press, New York. 

C. Aprea, C. Colosio, T. Mammone, C. Minoia and M. Maroni, Biological monitoring of pesticide exposure a review of analytical methods, J. Chromatogr. B. Anal. Tech. Biomed. Life Sci., 769 (2002) 191-219. 

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