Ismail Ahmed A, Wang Kai, Olson James R, Bonner Matthew R, Hendy Olfat, Abdel Rasoul Gaafar, Rohlman Diane S
a Department of Occupational and Environmental Health , College of Public Health, University of Iowa , Iowa City , IA , USA.
b Community Medicine and Public Health Department, Faculty of Medicine , Menoufia University , Shebin El-Kom , Egypt.
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2017;80(10-12):542-555. doi: 10.1080/15287394.2017.1362612. Epub 2017 Sep 7.
Egyptian adolescents are hired as seasonal workers to apply pesticides to the cotton crop and may perform this occupation for several years. However, few studies examined the effects of repeated pesticide exposure on health outcomes The goal of this study was to determine the impact of repeated pesticide exposure on neurobehavioral (NB) performance and biomarkers of exposure (urinary metabolite) and effect (cholinesterase activity). Eighty-four adolescents from two field stations in Menoufia, Egypt, were examined four times: before and during pesticide application season in 2010 and again before and during application season in 2011. At each of the four time points, participants completed a questionnaire, performed an NB test battery, and were assessed for urinary levels of the chlorpyrifos metabolite TCPy (3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol) and blood cholinesterase activity. Following the study cohort over two consecutive pesticide application seasons revealed that TCPy levels significantly increased following exposure, and returned to baseline levels following the end of the application season. Blood butyryl cholinesterase activity exhibited a similar pattern. Although NB outcomes displayed learning and practice effects over time, deficits in performance were significantly associated with increased TCPy levels with reduction in the number of NB measures showing improvement over time. Biomarkers of exposure and effect demonstrated changes associated with pesticide application and recovery after application ended. Deficits in NB performance were correlated with elevated pesticide exposure. Data demonstrated that repeated pesticide exposure may exert a long-term adverse impact on human health.
埃及青少年受雇为季节性工人，负责给棉花作物喷洒农药，且可能从事这项工作数年。然而，很少有研究考察反复接触农药对健康结果的影响。本研究的目的是确定反复接触农药对神经行为（NB）表现、接触生物标志物（尿液代谢物）和效应生物标志物（胆碱酯酶活性）的影响。对来自埃及米努夫省两个田间站的84名青少年进行了四次检查：2010年农药施用季节之前和期间，以及2011年施用季节之前和期间。在这四个时间点的每一个，参与者都完成了一份问卷，进行了一组NB测试，并接受了尿液中毒死蜱代谢物TCPy（3,5,6-三氯-2-吡啶醇）水平和血液胆碱酯酶活性的评估。对研究队列连续两个农药施用季节的跟踪显示，接触后TCPy水平显著升高，施用季节结束后恢复到基线水平。血液丁酰胆碱酯酶活性呈现出类似的模式。尽管随着时间的推移，NB结果显示出学习和练习效应，但表现缺陷与TCPy水平升高显著相关，随着时间的推移，显示出改善的NB测量数量减少。接触和效应生物标志物显示出与农药施用及施用结束后的恢复相关的变化。NB表现缺陷与农药接触增加相关。数据表明，反复接触农药可能对人类健康产生长期不利影响。
