Neurological Outcomes Among Pesticide Applicators

乙酰胆碱酯酶抑制农药(即有机磷和氨基甲酸酯类农药)在美国和世界范围内被广泛使用。接触这些杀虫剂对神经和神经行为健康的长期影响还没有得到很好的表征。研究人员建议对爱荷华州和北卡罗来纳州约700名农药施用者(每个州350人)长期接触有机磷和氨基甲酸酯农药与神经和神经行为健康结果之间的关系进行流行病学调查。研究参与者将从目前登记参加农业健康研究(AHS)的农药施用者中招募，这是一项由联邦资助的队列研究，研究对象是来自爱荷华州和北卡罗来纳州的有执照的农药施用者。有关个人接触各种杀虫剂的详细信息，可从AHS获得。据观察，施用者在累积农药暴露方面经历了很大的变化，使其适合于调查对健康的影响。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，这些测试已在之前对神经毒物暴露者的调查中成功使用。这项拟议的研究的主要目的是在控制已知协变量的影响的同时，检查所有OP和氨基甲酸酯类杀虫剂的累积终身暴露与所选外周和中枢神经功能指标的表现之间的关系。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物)的多态对OP杀虫剂暴露与神经和神经心理指标之间的关联的影响。

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.