Assessment of Nonoccupational Exposure to DDT in the Tropics and the North: Relevance of Uptake via Inhalation from Indoor Residual Spraying ...

• Main Authors: Ritter, Roland, Scheringer, Martin, Macleod, Matthew, Hungerbühler, Konrad
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2011
• Subjects: Biomonitoring; DDT; Exposure science; Modeling; Persistent organic pollutants; Arctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000042397; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/42397

Ba c k g r o u n d: People who live in dwellings treated with indoor residual spraying (IRS) of DDT [1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane] for disease–vector control in the tropics and indig-enous populations in the Arctic who comsume marine mammals experience high nonoccupational exposure to DDT. Although the use of DDT in IRS is rising, the resulting nonoccupational expo-sure is poorly characterized. ob j e c t i v e s: We have provided a comparative assessment of exposure to DDT and its metabolites in the general population of the tropical and northern regions and in highly exposed populations in these regions. Me t h o d s: We compiled > 600 average or median DDT concentrations from the peer-reviewed literature, representing > 23,000 individual measurements in humans, food, air, soil, and dust. We use Monte Carlo sampling of distributions based on these data to estimate distributions of population- and route-specific uptake. We evaluate our exposure estimates by comparing them with ... : Environmental Health Perspectives, 119 (5) ...