Alexander Barnett Poster

Adolescents are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of pesticide exposure compared to adults. However, non-occupational sources of exposure for adolescents are not well understood. We measured urinary TCPy as an indicator of chlorpyrifos exposure among Egyptian adolescents not working as pesticide applicators (n=49). Urinary metabolites were analyzed for 3 timepoints during April-August in 2016. Adolescents and their parents were asked questions about home usage of pesticides and household characteristics. The Wilcoxon signed-ranked test was used to compare changes in urinary metabolite levels before and during the pesticide application season. We also compared levels of urinary metabolites across responses to survey questions using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test to identify sources of elevated pesticide exposure. TCPy concentrations increased during the application season (+3.7 ng TCPy/mg-creatinine, p=0.02). Adolescents who reported sharing a bedroom with one or more people had higher TCPy urinary metabolites levels than those who did not share a bedroom (p=0.03), but this increase did not persist across application season. Home use of pesticides and other household characteristics did not significantly increase concentrations of TCPy. Despite not directly applying pesticides, adolescents had increased chlorpyrifos exposure during the application season.