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EPA Researchers Recognized for Contributions Toward Understanding Children’s Exposure to Chemicals in Everyday Environments
Posted: May 5, 2009
Scientists from the EPA’s National Exposure Research Laboratory were honored recently with Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards for research contributions focused on understanding children’s exposure to chemicals in everyday environments. The awards are given by the Science Advisory Board, a non-governmental body of experts who provide independent advice, peer review, and consultation to the EPA.
“This research contributes to improved understanding of why, how, where, and when children are exposed to chemicals in their everyday environment,” said Larry Reiter, Ph.D., Director of the National Exposure Research Laboratory in the EPA Office of Research and Development. “These results strengthen the EPA’s capability to better protect children and other susceptible populations from potentially harmful exposures in their everyday environments.”
Children face different chemical exposure risks than adults because of their behaviors and biological make-up. Kids explore their environments by crawling on floors, carpets, grass, dirt, and by touching and mouthing objects they find along the way. It is probable that part of their environment contains chemical residues, including those from common household products such as cleaning products and pesticides.
The EPA studies recognized with Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards are part of a strategically-designed research program to support executive and congressional mandates to protect children from environmental health risks. These studies make a substantial contribution toward addressing the concerns of Congress and the public for increased research on children’s exposures and risks to chemicals in the environment. The results of this research equip EPA and the scientific community with new and improved methods, measurements and models to better understand and estimate children’s exposures to chemicals in the environment under real-world conditions. Below are highlights of the studies that were recognized.
- EPA researchers detected and measured over 40 chemicals in the largest study to date of children’s aggregate exposures to chemicals in homes and child care centers. Results from this study provide new real-world measurement data and information about children’s exposure to chemicals commonly found in households and child care centers (in dust, food, air and on surfaces). This research provides knowledge about the environmental sources and most important exposure routes, thus improving researchers’ understanding of, and ability to estimate, children’s exposures, as well as develop effective exposure reduction strategies. (Morgan, et al.)
- Pesticide measurements were conducted by EPA researchers in a nationally-representative sample of U.S. child care centers, to produce the first set of data on pesticide occurrence in environments where many children spend time. The study was conducted in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. (Tulve, et al.)
- EPA researchers and scientific colleagues at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, developed new approaches and methods for measuring children’s exposure to pesticides via dermal contact. Results of this research provide preliminary data to reduce uncertainty associated with estimating skin exposures to residue-contaminated surfaces. (Hubal, et al.)
- EPA researchers applied modeling tools in health effects studies to predict children’s exposures to air pollutants at their schools. (Mukerjee, et al.)
- EPA researchers used a newly-developed human exposure model to assess the potential health risks to children from contact with Chromated Copper Arsenate (CCA)-treated wood in playsets and home decks as well as CCA-contaminated soils around these structures. The model is now being used by industry to estimate potential exposures to other preservatives in wood products. (Zartarian, et al.)
"The results of this research give EPA the tools necessary to more accurately determine chemical exposure risk among children and develop strategies that can reduce exposure and protect human health," Reiter explained.
The publications authored by these EPA scientists and the focus of the Scientific and Technological Achievement Awards are specified below.
Hubal, E.A., Nishioka, M.G., Ivancic, W.A., Morara, M., Egeghy, P.P. 2008. Comparing surface residue transfer efficiencies to hands using polar and nonpolar fluorescent tracers. 2008. Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 42, no. 3, p. 934-9.
Hubal, E.A., Egeghy, P.P., Leovic, K.W., Akland, G.G. 2006. Measuring Potential Dermal Transfer of a Pesticide to Children in a Child Care Center. Environmental Health Perspectives, vol. 114, no. 2, p. 264-269.
Hubal, E.A., Suggs, J.C., Nishioka, M.G., Ivancic, W.A. 2005. Characterizing residue transfer efficiencies using a fluorescent imaging technique. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, vol. 15, no. 3, p. 261-270.
Morgan, M.K., Sheldon, L.S., Thomas, K.W., Egeghy, P.P., Croghan, C.W., Jones, P.A., Chuang, J.C., Wilson, N.K. 2008. Adult and children's exposure to 2,4-D from multiple sources and pathways. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, Nature Publishing Group, London, UK, vol. 18, no.5, p. 486-494.
Morgan, M.K., Sheldon, L.S., Croghan, C.W., Jones, P.A., Chuang, J.C., Wilson, N.K. 2007. An observational study of 127 preschool children at their homes and daycare centers in Ohio: Environmental pathways to cis- and trans-permethrin exposure. Environmental Research, vol. 104, no. 2, p. 266-274.
Morgan, M.K., Sheldon, L.S., Croghan, C.W., Jones, P.A. 2005. Exposures of preschool children to chlorpyrifos and its degradation product 3,5,6-Trichloro-2-Pyridinol in their everyday environments. Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology, vol. 15, no. 4, p. 297-309.
Smith, L., Mukerjee, S., Gonzales, M., Stallings, C., Neas, L., Norris, G., and Özkaynak, H. 2006. Use of GIS and ancillary variables to predict volatile organic compound and nitrogen dioxide levels at unmonitored locations. Atmospheric Environment, vol. 40, no. 20, p. 3773-3787.
Tulve, N.S., Jones, P.A., Nishioka, M.G., Fortmann, R.C., Croghan, C.W., Zhou, J.Y., Fraser II, A., Cave, C., Friedman, W. 2006. Pesticide measurements from the first National Environmental Health Survey of child care centers using a multi-residue GC/MS analysis method. Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 40, no. 20, p. 6269–6274.
Zartarian, V., Xue, J., Özkaynak, H., Dang, W., Glen, G., Smith, L., Stallings, C. 2006. A probabilistic arsenic exposure assessment for children who contact chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated playsets and decks, Part 1: Model methodology, variability results, and model evaluation. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 515-531.
Zartarian, V., Xue, J., Özkaynak, H., Dang, W., Glen, G., Smith, L., Stallings, C. 2006. A probabilistic arsenic exposure assessment for children who contact chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated playsets and decks, Part 2: Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, p. 533-534.