Skip to main content
PMC home page
Occupational and Environmental Medicine logoLink to Occupational and Environmental Medicine
. 2004 Nov;61(11):945–951. doi: 10.1136/oem.2003.011742

Use of a crop and job specific exposure matrix for estimating cumulative exposure to triazine herbicides among females in a case-control study in the Central Valley of California

H Young 1, P Mills 1, D Riordan 1, R Cress 1
PMCID: PMC1757837  PMID: 15477289

Abstract

Aims: To determine if a job exposure matrix (JEM) could be developed using the California Department of Pesticide Regulation Pesticide Usage Database in conjunction with crop, time, and county specific self reported work history and to determine if this was a feasible method to obtain exposure estimates to triazine herbicides.

Methods: Agricultural work histories were gathered from women enrolled in a population based case-control study of ovarian cancer cases and random controls. The work histories were used in conjunction with the database to construct job exposure matrices which took into account weightings for job type, work location, and crop.

Results: Cumulative exposure estimates were determined for 98 study subjects. Mean exposure estimates were similar for cases and controls. The exposure estimates were robust and insensitive to varying job weight assumptions. The estimates from the original weights were highly correlated with those constructed using the conservative and maximum weights. Estimates from all three schemes produced similar multivariate age adjusted odds ratios comparing cases and controls. There was a high degree of agreement in categorised quartiles of exposure between the original and conservative, and original and maximum weights.

Conclusions: The exposure estimate from the JEM provides a ranking of exposure within the study population that can be utilised as an "exposure score" with which to compare groups. Although it is not an absolute exposure measurement, it does offer a substantial advance over dichotomous categories based on self report of herbicide use, particularly when subjects are unlikely to recall specific names and dates of use of herbicides.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (84.1 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bell E. M., Hertz-Picciotto I., Beaumont J. J. A case-control study of pesticides and fetal death due to congenital anomalies. Epidemiology. 2001 Mar;12(2):148–156. doi: 10.1097/00001648-200103000-00005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bell E. M., Hertz-Picciotto I., Beaumont J. J. Case-cohort analysis of agricultural pesticide applications near maternal residence and selected causes of fetal death. Am J Epidemiol. 2001 Oct 15;154(8):702–710. doi: 10.1093/aje/154.8.702. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brouwer D. H., Brouwer E. J., van Hemmen J. J. Estimation of long-term exposure to pesticides. Am J Ind Med. 1994 Apr;25(4):573–588. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700250411. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Donna A., Crosignani P., Robutti F., Betta P. G., Bocca R., Mariani N., Ferrario F., Fissi R., Berrino F. Triazine herbicides and ovarian epithelial neoplasms. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1989 Feb;15(1):47–53. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.1882. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dosemeci Mustafa, Alavanja Michael C. R., Rowland Andrew S., Mage David, Zahm Shelia Hoar, Rothman Nathaniel, Lubin Jay H., Hoppin Jane A., Sandler Dale P., Blair Aaron. A quantitative approach for estimating exposure to pesticides in the Agricultural Health Study. Ann Occup Hyg. 2002 Mar;46(2):245–260. doi: 10.1093/annhyg/mef011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gunier R. B., Harnly M. E., Reynolds P., Hertz A., Von Behren J. Agricultural pesticide use in California: pesticide prioritization, use densities, and population distributions for a childhood cancer study. Environ Health Perspect. 2001 Oct;109(10):1071–1078. doi: 10.1289/ehp.011091071. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kauppinen T. P., Mutanen P. O., Seitsamo J. T. Magnitude of misclassification bias when using a job-exposure matrix. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1992 Apr;18(2):105–112. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.1604. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Krieger R., Blewett C., Edmiston S., Fong H., Gibbons D., Meinders D., O'Connell L., Ross J., Schneider F., Spencer J. Gauging pesticide exposure of handlers (mixer/loaders/applicators) and harvesters in California agriculture. Med Lav. 1990 Nov-Dec;81(6):474–479. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. London L., Myers J. E. Use of a crop and job specific exposure matrix for retrospective assessment of long-term exposure in studies of chronic neurotoxic effects of agrichemicals. Occup Environ Med. 1998 Mar;55(3):194–201. doi: 10.1136/oem.55.3.194. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Menzie C. M. Fate of pesticides in the environment. Annu Rev Entomol. 1972;17:199–222. doi: 10.1146/annurev.en.17.010172.001215. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Miligi L., Settimi L., Masala G., Maiozzi P., Alberghini Maltoni S., Seniori Costantini A., Vineis P. Pesticide exposure assessment: a crop exposure matrix. The Working Group on Pesticide Exposure Assessment. Int J Epidemiol. 1993;22 (Suppl 2):S42–S45. doi: 10.1093/ije/22.supplement_2.s42. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mills P. K. Correlation analysis of pesticide use data and cancer incidence rates in California counties. Arch Environ Health. 1998 Nov-Dec;53(6):410–413. doi: 10.1080/00039899809605729. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Nanni O., Ricci M., Lugaresi C., Amadori D., Falcini F., Buiatti E. Iterative use of a priori exposure matrices to improve the characterization of chemical exposures in agricultural work studies. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1993 Jun;19(3):191–199. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.1482. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Reynolds Peggy, Von Behren Julie, Gunier Robert B., Goldberg Debbie E., Hertz Andrew, Harnly Martha E. Childhood cancer and agricultural pesticide use: an ecologic study in California. Environ Health Perspect. 2002 Mar;110(3):319–324. doi: 10.1289/ehp.02110319. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Sanderson W. T., Talaska G., Zaebst D., Davis-King K., Calvert G. Pesticide prioritization for a brain cancer case-control study. Environ Res. 1997;74(2):133–144. doi: 10.1006/enrs.1997.3759. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Stewart P. A., Prince J. K., Colt J. S., Ward M. H. A method for assessing occupational pesticide exposures of farmworkers. Am J Ind Med. 2001 Nov;40(5):561–570. doi: 10.1002/ajim.1122. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Zweig G., Gao R., Popendorf W. Simultaneous dermal exposure to captan and benomyl by strawberry harvesters. J Agric Food Chem. 1983 Sep-Oct;31(5):1109–1113. doi: 10.1021/jf00119a045. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Occupational and Environmental Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES