Combining modeling with biomonitoring data reveals pesticide exposure routes in pregnant Latina women in the Salinas Valley (Calif.).
Thomas McKone and his co-workers set out to answer a simple question: can the levels of pesticides in pregnant women in the Salinas Valley (Calif.) be correlated with the amounts of these chemicals used in surrounding farmlands? A simple statistical model suggested no direct correlation, but McKone and his colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, didn't stop there.
Few studies "include how much [of a contaminant] is actually reaching us as organisms and how this results in concentrations in our tissue and fluids," adds MacKay. This study provides "a shining example of the approach that should be taken for more substances, including pesticides and industrial chemicals. If that can be done, it will help the whole risk assessment process enormously."