Household insecticide use and urinary 3-phenoxybenzoic acid levels in an elder population: a repeated measures data

Pyrethroids are associated with adverse health consequences, even at low-dose exposures. However, there is limited evidence on pyrethroids exposure levels among vulnerable elder population and on their exposure sources.

We tried to determine pyrethroids exposure levels among Korean elders and their exposure sources.

We measured levels of 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA), a pyrethroids metabolite, in urines repeatedly collected from 1239 Korean rural and urban elders; we also explored exposure sources for pyrethroids using questionnaire data.

Our participants had high levels of 3-PBA with 446 (36.0%) of elders with 3-PBA level over 2 ng/mL of 95th percentile of the German representative populations. After adjustment for sex, age, smoking status, visit episode, and surveyed season using linear mixed effect models, household insecticide spray use was significantly associated with 3-PBA level (β = 0.03 and p = 0.02) and the association was apparent only for females (β = 0.03 and p = 0.03). In the analyses for nonlinear relationships using generalized additive mixed models, there was a J-shape change in 3-PBA level by insecticide spray use (p < 0.01 both in total population and in females).

Household insecticide spray was a predominant exposure source for pyrethroids at community level among Korean elders, warning more stringent control for frequently exposed environmental factors for pyrethroids including insecticide spray.