Pesticide Exposure - HH-RA.org

Bibliography Tag: pesticide exposure

Vermeulen et al., 2020

Vermeulen, R., Schymanski, E. L., Barabasi, A. L., & Miller, G. W.; “The exposome and health: Where chemistry meets biology;” Science, 2020, 367(6476), 392-396; DOI: 10.1126/science.aay3164.

ABSTRACT:

Despite extensive evidence showing that exposure to specific chemicals can lead to disease, current research approaches and regulatory policies fail to address the chemical complexity of our world. To safeguard current and future generations from the increasing number of chemicals polluting our environment, a systematic and agnostic approach is needed. The “exposome” concept strives to capture the diversity and range of exposures to synthetic chemicals, dietary constituents, psychosocial stressors, and physical factors, as well as their corresponding biological responses. Technological advances such as high-resolution mass spectrometry and network science have allowed us to take the first steps toward a comprehensive assessment of the exposome. Given the increased recognition of the dominant role that nongenetic factors play in disease, an effort to characterize the exposome at a scale comparable to that of the human genome is warranted. FULL TEXT

Topping et al., 2020

Topping, C. J., Aldrich, A., & Berny, P.; “Overhaul environmental risk assessment for pesticides;” Science, 2020, 367(6476), 360-363; DOI: 10.1126/science.aay1144.

SUMMARY:

Environmental risk assessment (ERA) of pesticides does not account for many stressors that have intensified in recent years, such as climate change, habitat destruction, and increasing landscape homogeneity, the combination of which can aggravate effects of pesticides in nature. We describe how several assumptions underlying ERA may not hold in modern intensive agricultural landscapes, and the interaction among assumption violations may account for observed declines in biodiversity. Using European contexts to exemplify these global concerns, we review how regulatory ERA for pesticides has fallen out of step with scientific knowledge and societal demands for sustainable food production and suggest systematic and recently feasible changes for regulation. FULL TEXT

Escher et al., 2020

Escher, B. I., Stapleton, H. M., & Schymanski, E. L.; “Tracking complex mixtures of chemicals in our changing environment;” Science, 2020, 367(6476), 388-392; DOI: 10.1126/science.aay6636.

ABSTRACT:

Chemicals have improved our quality of life, but the resulting environmental pollution has the potential to cause detrimental effects on humans and the environment. People and biota are chronically exposed to thousands of chemicals from various environmental sources through multiple pathways. Environmental chemists and toxicologists have moved beyond detecting and quantifying single chemicals to characterizing complex mixtures of chemicals in indoor and outdoeor environments and biological matrices. We highlight analytical and bioanalytical approaches to isolating, characterizing, and tracking groups of chemicals of concern in complex matrices. Techniques that combine chemical analysis and bioassays have the potential to facilitate the identification of mixtures of chemicals that pose a combined risk. FULL TEXT

Perro and Adams, 2017

Perro, Michelle and Adams, Vincanne, “What’s Making Our Children Sick? How Industrial Food Is Causing an Epidemic of Chronic Illness, and What Parents (and Doctors) Can Do About It,” Chelsea Green Publishing, 2017.

SUMMARY:

With chronic disorders among American children reaching epidemic levels, hundreds of thousands of parents are desperately seeking solutions to their children’s declining health, often with little medical guidance from the experts. What’s Making Our Children Sick? convincingly explains how agrochemical industrial production and genetic modification of foods is a culprit in this epidemic. Is it the only culprit? No. Most chronic health disorders have multiple causes and require careful disentanglement and complex treatments. But what if toxicants in our foods are a major culprit, one that, if corrected, could lead to tangible results and increased health? Using patient accounts of their clinical experiences and new medical insights about pathogenesis of chronic pediatric disorders—taking us into gut dysfunction and the microbiome, as well as the politics of food science—this book connects the dots to explain our kids’ ailing health.

What’s Making Our Children Sick? explores the frightening links between our efforts to create higher-yield, cost-efficient foods and an explosion of childhood morbidity, but it also offers hope and a path to effecting change. The predicament we now face is simple. Agroindustrial “innovation” in a previous era hoped to prevent the ecosystem disaster of DDT predicted in Rachel Carson’s seminal book in 1962, Silent Spring. However, this industrial agriculture movement has created a worse disaster: a toxic environment and, consequently, a toxic food supply. Pesticide use is at an all-time high, despite the fact that biotechnologies aimed to reduce the need for them in the first place. Today these chemicals find their way into our livestock and food crop industries and ultimately onto our plates. Many of these pesticides are the modern day equivalent of DDT. However, scant research exists on the chemical soup of poisons that our children consume on a daily basis. As our food supply environment reels under the pressures of industrialization via agrochemicals, our kids have become the walking evidence of this failed experiment. What’s Making Our Children Sick? exposes our current predicament and offers insight on the medical responses that are available, both to heal our kids and to reverse the compromised health of our food supply.

Mesnage, 2019

Mesnage, Robin, “Effects of dietary exposures to pesticide residues on the gut microbiome,” 2019, Presented 10/30/2019 at the London Microbiome Meeting 2019, Great Hall, King’s College London Strand Campus.

SUMMARY:

The gut microbiota: a major player in the toxicity of environmental pollutants?

FULL TEXT

Tsiaoussis et al., 2019

Tsiaoussis, J., Antoniou, M. N., Koliarakis, I., Mesnage, R., Vardavas, C. I., Izotov, B. N., Psaroulaki, A., & Tsatsakis, A.; “Effects of single and combined toxic exposures on the gut microbiome: Current knowledge and future directions;” Toxicology Letters, 2019, 312, 72-97; DOI: 10.1016/j.toxlet.2019.04.014.

ABSTRACT:

Human populations are chronically exposed to mixtures of toxic chemicals. Predicting the health effects of these mixtures require a large amount of information on the mode of action of their components. Xenobiotic metabolism by bacteria inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract has a major influence on human health. Our review aims to explore the literature for studies looking to characterize the different modes of action and outcomes of major chemical pollutants, and some components of cosmetics and food additives, on gut microbial communities in order to facilitate an estimation of their potential mixture effects. We identified good evidence that exposure to heavy metals, pesticides, nanoparticles, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, and non-caloric artificial sweeteners affect the gut microbiome and which is associated with the development of metabolic, malignant, inflammatory, or immune diseases. Answering the question ‘Who is there?’ is not sufficient to define the mode of action of a toxicant in predictive modeling of mixture effects. Therefore, we recommend that new studies focus to simulate real-life exposure to diverse chemicals (toxicants, cosmetic/food additives), including as mixtures, and which combine metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metabolomic analytical methods achieving in that way a comprehensive evaluation of effects on human health. FULL TEXT

Chiu et al., 2018

Chiu, Y. H., Williams, P. L., Gillman, M. W., Gaskins, A. J., Minguez-Alarcon, L., Souter, I., Toth, T. L., Ford, J. B., Hauser, R., Chavarro, J. E., & Team, Earth Study; “Association Between Pesticide Residue Intake From Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables and Pregnancy Outcomes Among Women Undergoing Infertility Treatment With Assisted Reproductive Technology;” JAMA Internal Medicine, 2018, 178(1), 17-26; DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.5038.

ABSTRACT:

IMPORTANCE:

Animal experiments suggest that ingestion of pesticide mixtures at environmentally relevant concentrations decreases the number of live-born offspring. Whether the same is true in humans is unknown. Objective: To examine the association of preconception intake of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables (FVs) with outcomes of infertility treatment with assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

DESIGNT, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:

This analysis included 325 women who completed a diet assessment and subsequently underwent 541 ART cycles in the Environment and Reproductive Health (EARTH) prospective cohort study (2007-2016) at a fertility center at a teaching hospital. We categorized FVs as having high or low pesticide residues using a validated method based on surveillance data from the US Department of Agriculture. Cluster-weighted generalized estimating equations were used to analyze associations of high- and low-pesticide residue FV intake with ART outcomes.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:

Adjusted probabilities of clinical pregnancy and live birth per treatment cycle.

RESULTS:

In the 325 participants (mean [SD] age, 35.1 [4.0] y; body mass index, 24.1 [4.3]), mean (SD) intakes of high- and low-pesticide residue FVs were 1.7 (1.0) and 2.8 (1.6) servings/d, respectively. Greater intake of high-pesticide residue FVs was associated with a lower probability of clinical pregnancy and live birth. Compared with women in the lowest quartile of high-pesticide FV intake (<1.0 servings/d), women in the highest quartile (>/=2.3 servings/d) had 18% (95% CI, 5%-30%) lower probability of clinical pregnancy and 26% (95% CI, 13%-37%) lower probability of live birth. Intake of low-pesticide residue FVs was not significantly related to ART outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:

Higher consumption of high-pesticide residue FVs was associated with lower probabilities of pregnancy and live birth following infertility treatment with ART. These data suggest that dietary pesticide exposure within the range of typical human exposure may be associated with adverse reproductive consequences. FULL TEXT

Curl et al., 2019

Curl, C. L., Porter, J., Penwell, I., Phinney, R., Ospina, M., & Calafat, A. M.; “Effect of a 24-week randomized trial of an organic produce intervention on pyrethroid and organophosphate pesticide exposure among pregnant women;” Environment International, 2019, 104957; DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.104957.

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND: Introduction of an organic diet can significantly reduce exposure to some classes of pesticides in children and adults, but no long-term trials have been conducted.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of a long-term (24-week) organic produce intervention on pesticide exposure among pregnant women.

METHODS: We recruited 20 women from the Idaho Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program during their first trimester of pregnancy. Eligible women were nonsmokers aged 18-35 years who reported eating exclusively conventionally grown food. We randomly assigned participants to receive weekly deliveries of either organic or conventional fruits and vegetables throughout their second or third trimesters and collected weekly spot urine samples. Urine samples, which were pooled to represent monthly exposures, were analyzed for biomarkers of organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid insecticides.

RESULTS: Food diary data demonstrated that 66% of all servings of fruits and vegetables consumed by participants in the “organic produce” group were organic, compared to <3% in the “conventional produce” group. We collected an average of 23 spot samples per participant (461 samples total), which were combined to yield 116 monthly composites. 3-Phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA, a non-specific biomarker of several pyrethroids) was detected in 75% of the composite samples, and 3-PBA concentrations were significantly higher in samples collected from women in the conventional produce group compared to the organic produce group (0.95 vs 0.27mug/L, p=0.03). Another pyrethroid biomarker, trans-3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropane carboxylic acid, was detected more frequently in women in the conventional compared to the organic produce groups (16% vs 4%, p=0.05). In contrast, we observed no statistically significant differences in detection frequency or concentrations for any of the four biomarkers of OP exposure quantified in this trial.

DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this is the first long-term organic diet intervention study, and the first to include pregnant women. These results suggest that addition of organic produce to an individual’s diet, as compared to conventional produce, significantly reduces exposure to pyrethroid insecticides. FULL TEXT

Picchi, 2019

Aimee Pichhi, “Cheerios, Nature Valley cereals contain Roundup ingredient, study finds,” CBS News, June 13, 2019.

SUMMARY:

CBS This Morning coverage of the EWG report on glyphosate residues in cereals. Full Video

Nougadère et al., 2012

Nougadère, Alexandre, Sirot, Véronique, Kadar, Ali, Fastier, Antony, Truchot, Eric, Vergnet, Claude, Hommet, Frédéric, Baylé, Joëlle, Gros, Philippe, & Leblanc, Jean-Charles, “Total diet study on pesticide residues in France: Levels in food as consumed and chronic dietary risk to consumers,” Environment International, 2012, 45, 135-150. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2012.02.001.

ABSTRACT:

Chronic dietary exposure to pesticide residues was assessed for the French population using a total diet study (TDS) to take into account realistic levels in foods as consumed at home (table-ready). Three hundred and twenty-five pesticides and their transformation products, grouped into 283 pesticides according to their residue definition, were sought in 1235 composite samples corresponding to 194 individual food items that cover 90% of the adult and child diet. To make up the composite samples, about 19,000 food products were bought during different seasons from 2007 to 2009 in 36 French cities and prepared according to the food preparation practices recorded in the individual and national consumption survey (INCA2). The results showed that 37% of the samples contained one or more residues. Seventy-three pesticides were detected and 55 quantified at levels ranging from 0.003 to 8.7mg/kg. The most frequently detected pesticides, identified as monitoring priorities in 2006, were the post-harvest insecticides pirimiphos-methyl and chlorpyrifos-methyl—particularly in wheat-based products—together with chlorpyrifos, iprodione, carbendazim and imazalil, mainly in fruit and fruit juices. Dietary intakes were estimated for each subject of INCA2 survey, under two contamination scenarios to handle left-censored data: lower-bound scenario (LB) where undetected results were set to zero, and upper-bound (UB) scenario where undetected results were set to the detection limit. For 90% of the pesticides, exposure levels were below the acceptable daily intake (ADI) under the two scenarios. Under the LB scenario, which tends to underestimate exposure levels, only dimethoate intakes exceeded the ADI for high level consumers of cherry (0.6% of children and 0.4% of adults). This pesticide, authorised in Europe, and its metabolite were detected in both cherries and endives. Under the UB scenario, that overestimates exposure, a chronic risk could not be excluded for nine other pesticides (dithiocarbamates, ethoprophos, carbofuran, diazinon, methamidophos, disulfoton, dieldrin, endrin and heptachlor). For these pesticides, more sensitive analyses of the main food contributors are needed in order to refine exposure assessment.

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