Hair as a marker for pesticides exposure

Abstract

Rats were orally treated with mixtures of chlorinated pesticides. Hair was collected and analyzed for pesticide residues over a period of up to four weeks. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the recovered pesticides in hair were determined using gas chromatography with electron capture detector. Results suggest that hair can be used as a biomarker for the monitoring of organochlorinated pesticide residues at low parts per billion levels. Chlorinated pesticides were also detected in human hair of environmentally exposed and occupationally exposed individuals, which indicates that hair can be used for monitoring pesticides exposure.

Keywords:

• Organochlorine pesticides
• hair
• residue analysis
• biomarkers of exposure

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by RCMI grant #R003045, fellowships from Association of Minority Health Profession Schools, Inc. and Proctor and Gamble for C. Smith-Baker. The authors would like to thank Dr. Momoh Yakubu for helping with the rat experiments and Herb Nance for helping in instrumental analysis. The authors would like to thank Dr. Ashraf Mozayani of the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences for allowing the use of the ball mill. This work was also disclosed in the dissertation of Charlotte Smith-Baker, Texas Southern University Ph.D., 2009.