Neurological Outcomes Among Pesticide Applicators

抑制乙酰胆碱酯酶的农药（即有机磷农药和氨基甲酸酯类农药）在美国和世界范围内被广泛使用。暴露于这些农药对神经和神经行为健康的长期影响尚未得到很好的表征。研究人员建议对爱荷华州和北卡罗来纳州（每个州350人）约700名农药施用者进行流行病学调查，以了解长期接触有机磷和氨基甲酸酯类农药与神经和神经行为健康结果之间的关系。研究参与者将从目前参加农业健康研究（AHS）的农药施用者中招募，这是一项联邦资助的来自爱荷华州和北卡罗来纳州的许可农药施用者的队列研究。有关个人接触多种农药的详细信息可从美国农业协会获得。已观察到施用者在累积农药暴露方面经历了很大的变化，使其适合于健康影响的调查。神经和神经行为健康结果将通过一系列经过验证的神经行为测试进行评估，这些测试已在先前对神经毒物暴露个体的调查中成功使用。该研究的主要目的是在控制已知协变量的影响的情况下，研究所有有机磷农药和氨基甲酸酯类农药的累积终生暴露量与周围和中枢神经功能选定测量值之间的关系。该提案的第二个目的是研究对氧磷酶、细胞色素P450和谷胱甘肽- s转移酶（OP农药效应的潜在遗传修饰因子）多态性对暴露于OP农药与神经和神经心理测量之间的关系的影响。

Acetylcholinesterase inhibiting pesticides (i.e., organophosphate (OP) and carbamate pesticides) are widely used in the US and worldwide. Long-term neurological and neurobehavioral health effects of exposure to these pesticides are not well characterized. The investigators propose an epidemiological investigation of associations between long-term organophosphate and carbamate pesticide exposure and neurological and neurobehavioral health outcomes among approximately 700 pesticide applicators in Iowa and North Carolina (350 per state). Study participants will be recruited from among pesticide applicators currently enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a federally funded cohort study of licensed pesticide applicators from Iowa and North Carolina. Detailed information about individual exposure to a wide range of pesticides is available from the AHS. Applicators have been observed to experience wide variation in cumulative pesticide exposure making them suitable for investigation of health effects. Neurological and neurobehavioral health outcomes will be assessed with a battery of validated neurobehavioral tests that have been used successfully in previous investigations of neurotoxicant exposed individuals. The Primary Aim of the proposed investigation is to examine associations between cumulative lifetime exposure to the sum of all OP and carbamate pesticides and performance on selected measures of peripheral and central neurological function while controlling for effects of known covariates. A Secondary Aim of the proposal is to examine the effect of polymorphisms of paraoxonase, cytochromes P450, and glutathione-S-transferases (potential genetic modifiers of OP pesticide effect) on the association between exposure to OP pesticides and neurological and neuropsychological measures.