Measuring potential exposure to environmental pollutants: time spent with soil and time spent outdoors

Robinson, John P.; Silvers, A B R A H A M

doi:10.1038/sj.jea.7500097

Cited by 24 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In contrast, we found that the 25-44 age group had the highest rate of soil contact although the absolute differences among age groups were small. In a national survey conducted by telephone, approximately 20% of those contacted reported contact with soil on the preceding day ( Robinson and Silvers, 2000), a value comparable to the 15% observed in the present study. The apparent seasonal dependence of soil and grass contact observed in the present study is also reported by other investigators ( Robinson and Silvers, 2000;Wong et al, 2000 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…In a national survey conducted by telephone, approximately 20% of those contacted reported contact with soil on the preceding day ( Robinson and Silvers, 2000), a value comparable to the 15% observed in the present study. The apparent seasonal dependence of soil and grass contact observed in the present study is also reported by other investigators ( Robinson and Silvers, 2000;Wong et al, 2000 ). Grass contact occurred most frequently on weekend days in the present study, but there was no daily difference in soil contact.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Grass contact occurred most frequently on weekend days in the present study, but there was no daily difference in soil contact. Similarly, Robinson and Silvers (2000) did not observe a weekday/weekend difference in soil contact rates in their national survey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Numerous studies of human time -activity patterns have been conducted for use in exposure and risk assessment, some of which contain data on activities that may be related to pesticide exposure ( e.g., Whitmore et al, 1992;Tsang and Klepeis, 1996;Garlock et al, 1999;Robinson and Silvers, 2000 ). Most of these studies rely upon 24 -h recall or diary methods to collect behavior data for a single day from each respondent (Wallace et al, 1985(Wallace et al, , 1988Robinson, 1988;Wiley and Robinson, 1991 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Temporal patterns of activities potentially related to pesticide exposure

2001

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Longitudinal information on human activity patterns is required to perform reliable assessments of chronic exposure to pesticides in nonoccupational settings. As part of a longitudinal, multimedia exposure survey in Maryland, USA, we collected 2521 person -days of information on the frequency of five activities that are potentially important to pesticide exposure in residential settings: preparation of pesticides; application of pesticides; contact with soil on the skin; contact with grass on the skin; and contact with carpet. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the data for variability by time of year, day of week, and several demographic factors. Eight percent of the population reported preparing pesticides on at least one occasion over the year, while 24% of the population applied pesticides at least once. The majority of the population reported contact with soil ( 68% ), grass ( 72% ), and carpet ( 64% ) over the course of a year. Skin contact with soil and grass was found to occur approximately twice as frequently ( p < 0.001 ) in spring and summer periods than in fall and winter periods. Similarly, contact with soil and grass was about 50% ( p < 0.05 ) more likely to occur on weekend days than on weekdays. These results indicate that short -term measurements ( e.g., 1 -day or 1 -week ) of these activities for an individual may not be equivalent to long -term average patterns. We also found that selected demographic characteristics were significant predictors of several of these activities. Thus, some demographic characteristics may be useful in categorizing exposure although it is unlikely that a single short -term measurement will suffice to describe annual average activity or multiple short -term activity periods.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Temporal patterns of activities potentially related to pesticide exposure

2001

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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“…Variations of the diary method include the``yesterday'' diary, in which the research subject is interviewed indepth about the duration and location of his or her activities during the previous calendar day ( Robinson and Silvers, 2000 ), and the``tomorrow'' diary, in which the research subject is given instructions to complete a diary of activities the next day ( Robinson and Godbey, 1997 ) . NHEXAS piloted the use of an 8-day diary consisting of two parts: a timeline, which tracked the subject's location at every hour of the day, and an activity diary, which elicited yes/no and duration information on 29 activities or exposures (Freeman et al, 1999 ) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of global positioning system technology to track subject's location during environmental exposure sampling

Phillips

Hall

Esmen

et al. 2001

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Global positioning system ( GPS ) data recorders were worn by subjects in the Oklahoma Urban Air Toxics Study ( OUATS ) for automatic logging of their location as they went about their normal daily activities. The location information obtained by the GPS units had an uncertainty of about 10 ± 20 m, which was sufficiently precise to track subjects' movements on trips outside the immediate vicinity of their homes. Due to instrument problems, primarily related to reduced battery life, the units operated for only about 30% of the total monitoring time attempted in 25 trials. The GPS data were compared to time ± activity diaries kept by the subjects. In almost all cases, the GPS data confirmed all travel events reported in the subjects' diaries. Additionally, in five out of five trials in which the logging period covered most or all of the subjects' daytime activities, at least one travel event that was not recorded in the diary was detected by GPS. Notwithstanding the limitations of present technology, GPS was found to be a promising means for tracking of research subjects in community -based exposure assessment studies.

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Individual understandings, perceptions, and engagement with climate change: insights from in‐depth studies across the world

Wolf

Moser

2011

WIREs Climate Change

512

294

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Public understandings and perceptions of, as well as engagement with, climate change have garnered the interest of research and policy for almost three decades. A portion of this growing body of literature examines such perceptions in-depth, using largely qualitative methodologies, such as personal interviews, limited sample size surveys, focus groups, and case studies. This area of research has been conducted on different continents, with individuals of different cultural backgrounds and ethnic groups, and a variety of demographic characteristics. It has examined various aspects of the communication process, such as audience differences, influence of framing, messages and messengers, information processing, etc.). This paper focuses on this subset of the climate change literature, highlighting similarities and differences across cultural, social, and geographical landscapes. Apart from demographic and regional differences, this literature also offers more detailed insights into the effectiveness of different communication strategies and into the cognitive and psychological processes that underlie public opinions. These insights are generally not obtained through large-scale opinion surveys. Our review highlights great variation and sometimes direct contradiction between these pieces of research. This not only points to a need for further refinement in our knowledge of public understanding and engagement, but also simply to accept that no one theory will explain the variation in human experience of climate change and action in response to it.

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Measuring potential exposure to environmental pollutants: time spent with soil and time spent outdoors

Cited by 24 publications

References 5 publications

Temporal patterns of activities potentially related to pesticide exposure

Temporal patterns of activities potentially related to pesticide exposure

Use of global positioning system technology to track subject's location during environmental exposure sampling

Individual understandings, perceptions, and engagement with climate change: insights from in‐depth studies across the world

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