Take-Home Pathways Study

Details

• Personal Author:
  Ballew C ; Fenske R ; Galvin K ; Tchong M
• Description:
  One of the main concerns of agricultural workers is the possibility of exposing their children and families to the pesticides they encounter in the orchards. Agricultural workers may inadvertently bring pesticides residues from their workplace into their homes through their clothes and shoes. This can be considered as a take-home pesticide exposure pathway. The objective of this study was to characterize the take-home pathway and evaluate intervention to minimize the amount of pesticides leaving the workplace. This study was conducted from 2003-2005 with agricultural workers, pesticide handlers and thinners, from an orchard in WA State. We looked at workplace factors that could contribute to the take-home exposure route for families through interviews with agricultural workers. We collected dust samples from agricultural workers' homes and commute vehicles. The dust samples were analyzed for organophosphorus (OP) pesticide residues. We investigated three workplace based interventions designed to minimize take home pesticides residues. The first year, 2003, served as the baseline year to determine the pre-intervention pesticide residues levels for three groups: organic orchard workers, pesticide handlers, and thinners. In 2004, we tested out three interventions to minimize take-home exposure for agricultural workers. In 2005, the study focused on cherry pickers and the intervention selected was the vacuuming of commute vehicles. This intervention had workers vacuumed their vehicles before leaving the workplace. Pesticide residue loads from the home and vehicle were used in the data analysis. The intervention group had lower geometric mean (GM) pesticide loadings than the control group for all three OP pesticides. The azinphosmethyl GM for those who vacuumed at least once during the study was significantly lower (p= 0.03) than those who did not vacuum their vehicles. More frequent vacuuming of the vehicles resulted in lower GM for most OP pesticide for house and vehicle dust. The vacuuming intervention shows promise in minimizing take-home pathway. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Family Insecticides Occupational Health Organophosphates Safety
• Keywords:
  Agricultural Industry Agricultural Safety Families Organophosphorus Pesticides Pesticides And Agricultural Chemicals Take-home Toxins
• Publisher:
  Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  9-10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20059776
• Citation:
  Health & safety in Western agriculture: research to practice, September 20-22, 2006, Pacific Grove, California. Davis, CA: Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, 2006 Sep; :9-10
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  University of Washington
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  Health & safety in Western agriculture: research to practice, September 20-22, 2006, Pacific Grove, California
• End Date:
  20270929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:5469e5d34647479152257c2a38ce05b285ca30ccf9344615f2811dac3acf2f8088ce15e003bc12a063f2ede865314ff56bc89339a5c66227b0b86813e102bec8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/223866/cdc_223866_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 267.37 KB ]