What Would Rachel Say?

Pesticides lurk in daycare centers
Millions of children get exposed to pesticides while attending daycare,
concludes the first nationwide study of insecticide residues in U.S.
daycare centers. Environmental Science & Technology
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/sep/science/pt_daycare.html

Refers to on-line publication of the article whose authors include EPA,
HUD and CPSC folks and whose abstract is below:

Pesticide Measurements from the First National Environmental Health
Survey of Child Care Centers Using a Multi-Residue GC/MS Analysis Method
Nicolle S. Tulve,  Paul A. Jones, Marcia G. Nishioka, Roy C. Fortmann,
Carry W. Croghan, Joey Y. Zhou, Alexa Fraser, Carol Cave, and Warren
Friedman

Abstract:
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration
with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, characterized the environments of young
children (<6 years) by measuring lead, allergens, and pesticides in a
randomly selected nationally representative sample of licensed
institutional child care centers. Multi-stage sampling with clustering
was used to select 168 child care centers in 30 primary sampling units
in the United States. Centers were recruited into the study by telephone
interviewers. Samples for pesticides, lead, and allergens were collected
at multiple locations in each center by field technicians. Field
sampling was conducted from July through October 2001. Wipe samples from
indoor surfaces (floors, tabletops, desks) and soil samples were
collected at the centers and analyzed using a multi-residue GC/MS
analysis method. Based on the questionnaire responses, pyrethroids were
the most commonly used pesticides among centers applying pesticides.
Among the 63% of centers reporting pesticide applications, the number of
pesticides used in each center ranged from 1 to 10 and the frequency of
use ranged from 1 to 107 times annually. Numerous organophosphate and
pyrethroid pesticides were detected in the indoor floor wipe samples.
Chlorpyrifos (0.004-28 ng/cm2), diazinon (0.002-18 ng/cm2),
cis-permethrin (0.004-3 ng/cm2), and trans-permethrin (0.004-7 ng/cm2)
were detected in >67% of the centers. Associations exist between
residues measured on the floor and other surfaces for several pesticides
(p-values range from <0.0001 to 0.002), but to a lesser degree between
floor and soil and other surfaces and soil. Regional analyses indicate
no differences in mean level of pesticide loading between the four
Census regions (0.08 < p < 0.88). Results show that there is the
potential for exposure to pesticides in child care centers.
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/asap/abs/es061021h.html