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Integrating NHANES and toxicity forecaster data to compare pesticide exposure and bioactivity by farmwork history and US citizenship

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Farmworkers in the United States, especially migrant workers, face unique barriers to healthcare and have documented disparities in health outcomes. Exposure to pesticides, especially those persistent in the environment, may contribute to these health disparities.

Objective

Quantify differences in pesticide exposure bioactivity by farmworker category and US citizenship status.

Methods

We queried the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) from 1999-2014 for pesticide exposure biomarker concentrations among farmworkers and non-farmworkers by citizenship status. We combined this with toxicity assay data from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast). We estimated adverse biological effects that occur across a range of human population-relevant pesticide doses.

Results

In total, there were 844 people with any farmwork history and 23,592 non-farmworkers. Of 12 commonly detectable pesticide biomarkers in NHANES, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (OR = 3.76, p = 1.33 × 10−6) was significantly higher in farmworkers than non-farmworkers. Farmworkers were 1.15 times more likely to have a bioactive pesticide biomarker measurement in comparison to non-farmworkers (adjusted OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 0.87, 1.51). Non-U.S. citizens were 1.39 times more likely to have bioactive pesticide biomarker concentrations compared to people with U.S. citizenship (adjusted OR 1.39, 95% CI: 1.17, 1.64). Additionally, non-citizens were significantly more exposed to bioactive levels of β-hexachlorocyclohexane (BHC) (OR = 8.10, p = 1.33 × 10−6), p,p-DDE (OR = 2.60, p = 0.02), and p,p’-DDT (OR = 7.75, p = 0.01).

Impact statement

Farmworkers are a vulnerable population due to social determinants of health and occupational exposures. Here, we integrate US population chemical biomonitoring data and toxicity outcome data to assess pesticide exposure by farmwork history and citizenship. We find that farmworkers and those without US citizenship are significantly more likely to be exposed to concentrations of pesticides which are bioactive in toxicological assays. Thus, farmworkers employed in the US but who are not citizens could be at increased risk of harm to their health due to pesticides. These findings are important to shape evidence-based policies in regulatory science to promote worker safety.

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Fig. 1: Comparison of chemical biomarker concentrations, converted to molarity units, in NHANES participants and concentrations for bioactivity in vitro from ToxCast.
Fig. 2: Volcano plot depicting the outcomes of the regression model of odds of having a measurement of a chemical at a bioactive concentration by history of farmwork or US citizenship.

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Data availability

The NHANES and ToxCast datasets analyzed during the current study are available from the CDC, https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/, and the EPA, https://www.epa.gov/chemical-research/exploring-toxcast-data.

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Acknowledgements

Authors have no acknowledgements to address in this section.

Funding

The researchers included on this study were supported by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Education Research Center (Grant# T42 OH 008455), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology Program (Grant# T32 ES007062), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Program (Grant # DGE-1256260), and the National Institutes of Health (R01 ES028802, P30 ES017885, R01AG072396).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Michigan School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Chanese A. Forté & Justin A. Colacino

  2. The University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Michigan Institute of Computational Discovery and Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Chanese A. Forté

  3. The University of Michigan School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Jess A. Millar

  4. The University of Michigan Medical School, Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Jess A. Millar

  5. The University of Michigan School of Public Health, Department of Nutritional Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Justin A. Colacino

  6. The University of Michigan College of Literature, Sciences, and the Arts, Program in the Environment, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Justin A. Colacino

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Contributions

JC and CF contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by CF. Analysis was performed by JM and CF. The first draft of the manuscript was written by CF and all authors commented on subsequent versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Justin A. Colacino.

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Forté, C.A., Millar, J.A. & Colacino, J.A. Integrating NHANES and toxicity forecaster data to compare pesticide exposure and bioactivity by farmwork history and US citizenship. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-023-00583-5

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