The TEAM Study: Personal exposures to toxic substances in air, drinking water, and breath of 400 residents of New Jersey, North Carolina, and North Dakota

The Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study (MNCPES) of the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) was conducted in Minnesota to evaluate children's pesticide exposure. This study complements and extends the populations and chemicals included in the NHEXAS Region V study. One of the goals of the study was to test protocols for acquiring exposure measurements and developing databases for use in exposure models and assessments. Analysis of the data quality is one element in assessing the performance of the collection and analysis protocols used in this study. Data quality information must also be available to investigators to guide analysis of the study data. During the planning phase of MNCPES, quality assurance (QA) goals were established for precision, accuracy, and quantification limits. The data quality was assessed against these goals. The assessment is complex. First, data are not available for all analytes and media sampled. In addition, several laboratories were responsible for the analysis of the collected samples. Each laboratory provided data according to their standard operating procedures (SOPs) and protocols. Detection limits were authenticated for each analyte in each sample type. The approach used to calculate detection limits varied across the different analytical methods. The analytical methods for pesticides in air, food, hand rinses, dust wipe and urine were sufficiently sensitive and met the QA goals, with very few exceptions. This was also true for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air and food. The analytical methods for drinking water and beverages had very low detection limits; however, there were very little measurable data for these samples. The collection and analysis methods for pesticides in surface press samples and soil, and for PAHs in dust wipes were not sufficiently sensitive. Accuracy was assessed primarily as recovery from field controls. The results were good for pesticides and PAHs in air (75-125% recovery). Recovery was lower (o75%) for pesticides in drinking water and beverages. The recovery of pesticides from hand rinses met QA goals (75-100%), but surface press samples showed lower recovery (50-70%). Analysis by gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS) did not confirm the presence of atrazine and other pesticides in hand rinse and surface press samples that had been detected by GC-ECD, but instead GC-MS confirmed background interferences. Assessment of the precision of sample collection and analysis is based on the percent relative standard deviation (%RSD) between the results for duplicate samples. Data are available only for pesticides and PAHs in air. Precision was good (o20% RSD) for analytes with measurable data. There were a few analytes with %RSD 420%, but the number of data pairs was very small in these cases. Precision for instrumental analysis of food sample extracts was excellent, with the median %RSD o 20 for all measurable pesticides. The median %RSD for the analysis of replicate aliquots of food from the same sample composite ...

“…Some attrition in the number of samples with valid data occurred. Overall, these completion statistics were typical of other exposure studies Wallace et al, 1987).…”

Section: Samples Collected and Completion Statisticssupporting

confidence: 55%

“…For subjects agreeing to participate, the proportion that completed the sampling activity was very high. These statistics are the highest ever reported for exposure studies of this complexity Wallace et al, 1987;Whitmore et al, 1994;.…”

Section: Samples Collected and Completion Statisticsmentioning

confidence: 81%

Assessment of data quality for the NHEXAS — Part II: Minnesota children's pesticide exposure study (MNCPES)

Pellizzari

Smith

Clayton

et al. 2003

“…Time-location has been measured using self-report diary instruments for many years (Robinson, 1988;Wallace et al, 1987Wallace et al, , 1991Freeman et al, 1993Freeman et al, , 1999. One of the most widely used diaries for human exposure assessment in the US is the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of global positioning system (GPS) tracking and parent-report diaries to characterize children's time–location patterns

Elgethun

Yost

Fitzpatrick

et al. 2006

105

Respondent error, low resolution, and study participant burden are known limitations of diary timelines used in exposure studies such as the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS). Recent advances in global positioning system (GPS) technology have produced tracking devices sufficiently portable, functional and affordable to utilize in exposure assessment science. In this study, a differentially corrected GPS (dGPS) tracking device was compared to the NHEXAS diary timeline. The study also explored how GPS can be used to evaluate and improve such diary timelines by determining which location categories and which respondents are least likely to record ''correct'' time-location responses. A total of 31 children ages 3-5 years old wore a dGPS device for all waking hours on a weekend day while their parents completed the NHEXAS diary timeline to document the child's time-location pattern. Parents misclassified child time-location approximately 48% of the time using the NHEXAS timeline in comparison to dGPS. Overall concordance between methods was marginal (k ¼ 0.33-0.35). The dGPS device found that on average, children spent 76% of the 24-h study period in the home. The diary underestimated time the child spent in the home by 17%, while overestimating time spent inside other locations, outside at home, outside in other locations, and time spent in transit. Diary data for time spent outside at home and time in transit had the lowest response concordance with dGPS. The diaries of stay-at-home mothers and mothers working unskilled labor jobs had lower concordance with dGPS than did those of the other participants. The ability of dGPS tracking to collect continuous rather than categorical (ordinal) data was also demonstrated. It is concluded that automated GPS tracking measurements can improve the quality and collection efficiency of time-location data in exposure assessment studies, albeit for small cohorts.

“…A number of exposure studies have found that concentrations of personal exposures to VOCs and particulate matter (PM) are frequently higher than outdoor concentrations and, typically, are better correlated with indoor concentrations, suggesting that indoor sources and personal activities strongly influence human exposure to these constituents (Wallace et al, 1984(Wallace et al, , 1985(Wallace et al, , 1986Gordon et al, 1999;Pellizzari et al, 1999;Rojas-Bracho et al, 2000;Bonanno et al, 2001;Jurvelin et al, 2001a, b;Koistinen et al, 2001;Rodes et al, 2001). Results from the Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (TEAM) studies suggested that small sources of VOCs located close to the individual, usually inside the home, are major contributors to personal exposures (Wallace et al, 1985(Wallace et al, , 1986(Wallace et al, , 1987. However, contaminants generated by outdoor sources are transported to and penetrate into homes resulting in a baseline exposure to airborne contaminants to which emissions from indoor sources and personal activities add.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship of Indoor, Outdoor and Personal Air (RIOPA) study: study design, methods and quality assurance/control results

Weisel

Zhang

Turpin

et al. 2004

145

122

The Relationship of Indoor, Outdoor and Personal Air (RIOPA) Study was undertaken to evaluate the contribution of outdoor sources of air toxics, as defined in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, to indoor concentrations and personal exposures. The concentrations of 18 volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 17 carbonyl compounds, and fine particulate matter mass (PM 2.5 ) were measured using 48-h outdoor, indoor and personal air samples collected simultaneously. PM 2.5 mass, as well as several component species (elemental carbon, organic carbon, polyaromatic hydrocarbons and elemental analysis) were also measured; only PM 2.5 mass is reported here. Questionnaires were administered to characterize homes, neighborhoods and personal activities that might affect exposures. The air exchange rate was also measured in each home. Homes in close proximity (o0.5 km) to sources of air toxics were preferentially (2:1) selected for sampling. Approximately 100 non-smoking households in each of Elizabeth, NJ, Houston, TX, and Los Angeles, CA were sampled (100, 105, and 105 respectively) with second visits performed at 84, 93, and 81 homes in each city, respectively. VOC samples were collected at all homes, carbonyls at 90% and PM 2.5 at 60% of the homes. Personal samples were collected from nonsmoking adults and a portion of children living in the target homes. This manuscript provides the RIOPA study design and quality control and assurance data. The results from the RIOPA study can potentially provide information on the influence of ambient sources on indoor air concentrations and exposure for many air toxics and will furnish an opportunity to evaluate exposure models for these compounds.