Skip Navigation
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document
Use this QR code to view the newest version of this document

Your Environment. Your Health.

Publication Detail

Title: Environmental exposure to pyrethroid pesticides in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults and children: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2012.

Authors: Lehmler, Hans-Joachim; Simonsen, Derek; Liu, Buyun; Bao, Wei

Published In Environ Pollut, (2020 Dec)

Abstract: Pyrethroids are an important class of insecticides, and thousands of tons of these compounds are used in the United States every year. This study characterized exposures to pyrethroids and assessed demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors that modulate pyrethroid exposure using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007-2012, a nationally representative survey of the non-institutionalized population of the United States. Urinary levels of commonly used biomarkers of pyrethroid exposure, including 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA), 4-fluoro-3-phenoxybenzoic acid (F-PBA), and cis-dibromovinyl-dimethylcyclopropane carboxylic acid (DBCA), were determined by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The detection rate of 3-PBA, a nonspecific metabolite of several pyrethroids, was 78.1% in adults (N = 5233) and 79.3% in children (N = 2295). The detection rates of all other pyrethroid metabolites were <10%. The median urinary level of 3-PBA in adults was 0.47 μg/L (interquartile range, 0.14-1.22 μg/L). For children, the median urinary level was 0.49 μg/L (interquartile range, 0.17-1.29 μg/L). Age, gender, family income-to-poverty ratio (PIR), levels of physical activity, alcohol intake, and body mass index were associated with 3-PBA levels in adults. In children, age, gender, race/ethnicity, and PIR were associated with 3-PBA levels. 3-PBA levels also differed significantly across NHANES cycles, with higher levels observed in NHANES 2011-2012. Geometric mean 3-PBA levels in U.S. adults were 0.41 μg/L in NHANES 2007-2008, 0.41 μg/L in NHANES 2009-2010, and 0.66 μg/L in NHANES 2011-2012. In U.S. children, geometric mean 3-PBA levels were 0.40 μg/L in NHANES 2007-2008, 0.46 μg/L in NHANES 2009-2010, and 0.70 μg/L in NHANES 2011-2012. These results demonstrate that pyrethroid exposures remain a current environmental health concern and lay the foundation for further preclinical and epidemiological studies assessing human health risks associated with pyrethroids.

PubMed ID: 33254662 Exiting the NIEHS site

MeSH Terms: Adult; Child; Environmental Exposure/analysis; Humans; Insecticides*; Nutrition Surveys; Pesticides*; Pyrethrins*; United States

Back
to Top