Cargando…

Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014

BACKGROUND: 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is one of the most extensively used herbicides in the United States. In 2012, 2,4-D was the most widely used herbicide in non-agricultural settings and the fifth most heavily applied pesticide in the US agricultural sector. The objective of this stu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Freisthler, Marlaina S., Robbins, C. Rebecca, Benbrook, Charles M., Young, Heather A., Haas, David M., Winchester, Paul D., Perry, Melissa J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8830015/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35139875
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-021-00815-x
_version_ 1784648189670850560
author Freisthler, Marlaina S.
Robbins, C. Rebecca
Benbrook, Charles M.
Young, Heather A.
Haas, David M.
Winchester, Paul D.
Perry, Melissa J.
author_facet Freisthler, Marlaina S.
Robbins, C. Rebecca
Benbrook, Charles M.
Young, Heather A.
Haas, David M.
Winchester, Paul D.
Perry, Melissa J.
author_sort Freisthler, Marlaina S.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is one of the most extensively used herbicides in the United States. In 2012, 2,4-D was the most widely used herbicide in non-agricultural settings and the fifth most heavily applied pesticide in the US agricultural sector. The objective of this study was to examine trends in 2,4-D urinary biomarker concentrations to determine whether increases in 2,4-D application in agriculture are associated with increases in biomonitoring levels of urine 2,4-D. METHODS: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) with available urine 2,4-D biomarker measurements from survey cycles between 2001 and 2014 were utilized. Urine 2,4-D values were dichotomized using the highest limit of detection (LOD) across all cycles (0.40 μg/L or 0.4 ppb). Agricultural use of 2,4-D was estimated by compiling publicly available federal and private pesticide application data. Logistic regression models adjusted for confounders were fitted to evaluate the association between agricultural use of 2,4-D and urine 2,4-D level above the dichotomization threshold. RESULTS: Of the 14,395 participants included in the study, 4681 (32.5%) had urine 2,4-D levels above the dichotomization threshold. The frequency of participants with high 2,4-D levels increased significantly (p < .0001), from a low of 17.1% in 2001–2002 to a high of 39.6% in 2011–2012. The adjusted odds of high urinary 2,4-D concentrations associated with 2,4-D agricultural use (per ten million pounds applied) was 2.268 (95% CI: 1.709, 3.009). Children ages 6–11 years (n = 2288) had 2.1 times higher odds of having high 2,4-D urinary concentrations compared to participants aged 20–59 years. Women of childbearing age (age 20–44 years) (n = 2172) had 1.85 times higher odds than men of the same age. CONCLUSIONS: Agricultural use of 2,4-D has increased substantially from a low point in 2002 and it is predicted to increase further in the coming decade. Because increasing use is likely to increase population level exposures, the associations seen here between 2,4-D crop application and biomonitoring levels require focused biomonitoring and epidemiological evaluation to determine the extent to which rising use and exposures cause adverse health outcomes among vulnerable populations (particularly children and women of childbearing age) and highly exposed individuals (farmers, other herbicide applicators, and their families). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12940-021-00815-x.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8830015
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-88300152022-02-11 Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014 Freisthler, Marlaina S. Robbins, C. Rebecca Benbrook, Charles M. Young, Heather A. Haas, David M. Winchester, Paul D. Perry, Melissa J. Environ Health Research BACKGROUND: 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is one of the most extensively used herbicides in the United States. In 2012, 2,4-D was the most widely used herbicide in non-agricultural settings and the fifth most heavily applied pesticide in the US agricultural sector. The objective of this study was to examine trends in 2,4-D urinary biomarker concentrations to determine whether increases in 2,4-D application in agriculture are associated with increases in biomonitoring levels of urine 2,4-D. METHODS: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) with available urine 2,4-D biomarker measurements from survey cycles between 2001 and 2014 were utilized. Urine 2,4-D values were dichotomized using the highest limit of detection (LOD) across all cycles (0.40 μg/L or 0.4 ppb). Agricultural use of 2,4-D was estimated by compiling publicly available federal and private pesticide application data. Logistic regression models adjusted for confounders were fitted to evaluate the association between agricultural use of 2,4-D and urine 2,4-D level above the dichotomization threshold. RESULTS: Of the 14,395 participants included in the study, 4681 (32.5%) had urine 2,4-D levels above the dichotomization threshold. The frequency of participants with high 2,4-D levels increased significantly (p < .0001), from a low of 17.1% in 2001–2002 to a high of 39.6% in 2011–2012. The adjusted odds of high urinary 2,4-D concentrations associated with 2,4-D agricultural use (per ten million pounds applied) was 2.268 (95% CI: 1.709, 3.009). Children ages 6–11 years (n = 2288) had 2.1 times higher odds of having high 2,4-D urinary concentrations compared to participants aged 20–59 years. Women of childbearing age (age 20–44 years) (n = 2172) had 1.85 times higher odds than men of the same age. CONCLUSIONS: Agricultural use of 2,4-D has increased substantially from a low point in 2002 and it is predicted to increase further in the coming decade. Because increasing use is likely to increase population level exposures, the associations seen here between 2,4-D crop application and biomonitoring levels require focused biomonitoring and epidemiological evaluation to determine the extent to which rising use and exposures cause adverse health outcomes among vulnerable populations (particularly children and women of childbearing age) and highly exposed individuals (farmers, other herbicide applicators, and their families). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12940-021-00815-x. BioMed Central 2022-02-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8830015/ /pubmed/35139875 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-021-00815-x Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Freisthler, Marlaina S.
Robbins, C. Rebecca
Benbrook, Charles M.
Young, Heather A.
Haas, David M.
Winchester, Paul D.
Perry, Melissa J.
Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014
title Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014
title_full Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014
title_fullStr Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014
title_full_unstemmed Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014
title_short Association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-D and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2014
title_sort association between increasing agricultural use of 2,4-d and population biomarkers of exposure: findings from the national health and nutrition examination survey, 2001–2014
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8830015/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35139875
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12940-021-00815-x
work_keys_str_mv AT freisthlermarlainas associationbetweenincreasingagriculturaluseof24dandpopulationbiomarkersofexposurefindingsfromthenationalhealthandnutritionexaminationsurvey20012014
AT robbinscrebecca associationbetweenincreasingagriculturaluseof24dandpopulationbiomarkersofexposurefindingsfromthenationalhealthandnutritionexaminationsurvey20012014
AT benbrookcharlesm associationbetweenincreasingagriculturaluseof24dandpopulationbiomarkersofexposurefindingsfromthenationalhealthandnutritionexaminationsurvey20012014
AT youngheathera associationbetweenincreasingagriculturaluseof24dandpopulationbiomarkersofexposurefindingsfromthenationalhealthandnutritionexaminationsurvey20012014
AT haasdavidm associationbetweenincreasingagriculturaluseof24dandpopulationbiomarkersofexposurefindingsfromthenationalhealthandnutritionexaminationsurvey20012014
AT winchesterpauld associationbetweenincreasingagriculturaluseof24dandpopulationbiomarkersofexposurefindingsfromthenationalhealthandnutritionexaminationsurvey20012014
AT perrymelissaj associationbetweenincreasingagriculturaluseof24dandpopulationbiomarkersofexposurefindingsfromthenationalhealthandnutritionexaminationsurvey20012014