BackgroundPyrethroid insecticides are the most commonly used residential insecticides in the United States.ObjectivesOur objective was to assess human exposure via biomonitoring to pyrethroid insecticides in a representative sample of the general U.S. population ≥ 6 years of age.MethodsBy using isotope-dilution high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray chemical ionization/tandem mass spectrometry, we measured five urinary metabolites of pyrethroid insecticides in 5,046 samples collected as a part of the 1999–2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Univariate, multivariate, and Pearson correlation analyses were performed using SUDAAN and SAS software, incorporating the appropriate sample weights into the analyses. Multivariate analyses included age, sex, race/ethnicity, creatinine, fasting status, and urine collection time as covariates.ResultsWe detected 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3PBA), a metabolite common to many pyrethroid insecticides, in more than 70% of the samples. The least-squares geometric mean (LSGM) concentration (corrected for covariates) of 3PBA and the frequency of detection increased from 1999–2000 (0.292 ng/mL) to 2001–2002 (0.318 ng/mL) but not significantly. Non-Hispanic blacks had significantly higher LSGM 3PBA concentrations than did non-Hispanic whites and Mexican Americans in the 2001–2002 survey period and in the combined 4-year survey periods but not in the 1999–2000 survey period. Children had significantly higher LSGM concentrations of 3PBA than did adolescents in both NHANES periods and than adults in NHANES 1999–2000. Cis- and trans-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid were highly correlated with each other and with 3PBA, suggesting that urinary 3PBA was derived primarily from exposure to permethrin, cypermethrin, or their degradates.ConclusionsPyrethroid insecticide exposure in the U.S. population is widespread, and the presence of its metabolites in the urine of U.S. residents indicates that children may have higher exposures than adolescents and adults.

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Preterm birth and low maternal education increase children's risk of failure of first-grade standardized tests. Promoting women's academic achievement and reduce rates of preterm birth may be important to achieving gains in elementary school performance.

Organophosphorus (OP) insecticides were among the first pesticides that EPA reevaluated as part of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. Our goal was to assess exposure to OP insecticides in the U.S. general population over a six-year period. We analyzed 7,456 urine samples collected as part of three two-year cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999–2004. We measured six dialkylphosphate metabolites of OP pesticides to assess OP pesticide exposure. In NHANES 2003–2004, dimethylthiophosphate was detected most frequently with median and 95th percentile concentrations of 2.03 and 35.3 μg/L, respectively. Adolescents were two to three times more likely to have diethylphosphate concentrations above the 95th percentile estimate of 15.5 μg/L than adults and senior adults. Conversely, for dimethyldithiophosphate, senior adults were 3.8 times and 1.8 times more likely to be above the 95th percentile than adults and adolescents, respectively, while adults were 2.1 times more likely to be above the 95th percentile than the adolescents. Our data indicate that the most vulnerable segments of our population—children and older adults—have higher exposures to OP pesticides than other population segments. However, according to DAP urinary metabolite data, exposures to OP pesticides have declined during the last six years at both the median and 95th percentile levels.

Environmental managers are increasingly charged with involving the public in the development and modification of policies regarding risks to human health and the environment. Involving the public in environmental decision making first requires a broad understanding of how and why the public perceives various risks. The Savannah River Stakeholder Study was conducted with the purpose of investigating individual, economic, and social characteristics of risk perceptions among those living near the Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Site. A number of factors were found to impact risk perceptions among those living near the site. One's estimated proximity to the site and relative river location surfaced as strong determinants of risk perceptions among SRS residents. Additionally, living in a quality neighborhood and demonstrating a willingness to accept health risks for economic gain strongly abated heightened risk perceptions.

The public is becoming increasingly distrustful of hazardous waste management activities. However, public trust is a requisite condition for effective environmental management of hazardous waste sites. Without trust, it is unlikely that such institutions can effectively convince the public that a site is safe and can be reused. The authors of this article conducted a study of the social, economic, psychological, demographic, and political factors that may affect environmental risk assessment and communication at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Site (SRS). Public trust was a central focus of this study. A population survey was conducted to evaluate the level of public mistrust and correlates of public mistrust among residents living near the SRS. In this sample, several groups of respondents demonstrated high levels of trust. Respondents living upriver from SRS and respondents whose county was economically dependent on SRS voiced high levels of trust. Respondents who were predisposed toward accepting additional hazardous waste or accepting public health risks for economic gain also showed high levels of trust. Findings suggest that public trust is influenced by a variety of factors including personal traits, experiences, and economic needs.

Children’s cognitive development and academic performance are linked to both fetal and early childhood factors, including preterm birth and family socioeconomic status. We evaluated whether the relationship between preterm birth (PTB) and first grade standardized test performance among Georgia public school students was modified by neighborhood deprivation in early childhood. The Georgia Birth to School cohort followed 327,698 children born in Georgia from 1998–2002 through to end-of-year first grade standardized tests. Binomial and log-binomial generalized estimating equations were used to estimate risk differences and risk ratios for the associations of both PTB and the Neighborhood Deprivation Index for the census tract in which each child’s mother resided at the time of birth with test failure (versus passing). The presence of additive and multiplicative interaction was assessed. PTB was strongly associated with test failure, with increasing risk for earlier gestational ages. There was positive additive interaction between PTB and neighborhood deprivation. The main effect of PTB versus term birth increased risk of mathematics failure: 15.9% (95%CI: 13.3–18.5%) for early, 5.0% (95% CI: 4.1–5.9%) for moderate, and 1.3% (95%CI: 0.9–1.7%) for late preterm. Each 1 standard deviation increase in neighborhood deprivation was associated with 0.6% increased risk of mathematics failure. For children exposed to both PTB and higher neighborhood deprivation, test failure was 4.8%, 1.5%, and 0.8% greater than the sum of two main effects for early, moderate, and late PTB, respectively. Results were similar, but slightly attenuated, for reading and English/language arts. Our results suggest that PTB and neighborhood deprivation additively interact to produce greater risk among doubly exposed children than would be predicted from the sum of the effects of the two exposures. Understanding socioeconomic disparities in the effect of PTB on academic outcomes at school entry is important for targeting of early childhood interventions.

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