Assessment of Preschool Children’s Exposure Levels to Organophosphate and Pyrethroid Pesticide: A Human Biomonitoring Study in Two Turkish Provinces

Pesticides are products developed to prevent, destroy, repel or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests. However, now they are one of the critical risk factors threatening the environment, and they create a significant threat to the health of children. Organophosphate (OP) and pyrethroid (PYR) pesticides are widely used in Turkey as well as all over the world. The main focus of this presented study was to analyze the OP and PYR exposure levels in urine samples obtained from 3- to 6-year-old Turkish preschool children who live in the Ankara ( n :132) and Mersin ( n :54) provinces. In order to measure the concentrations of three nonspecific metabolites of PYR insecticides and four nonspecific and one specific metabolite of OPs, liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) analyses were performed. The nonspecific PYR metabolite 3-phenoxybenzoic acid (3-PBA) found in 87.1% of samples ( n = 162) and the specific OP metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPY) found in 60.2% of samples ( n = 112) were the most frequently detected metabolites in all urine samples. The mean concentrations of 3-PBA and TCPY were 0.38 ± 0.8 and 0.11 ± 0.43 ng/g creatinine, respectively. Although due to the large individual variation no statistically significant differences were found between 3-PBA ( p = 0.9969) and TCPY ( p = 0.6558) urine levels in the two provinces, significant exposure differences were determined both between provinces and within the province in terms of gender. Risk assessment strategies performed in light of our findings do not disclose any proof of a possible health problems related to analyzed pesticide exposure in Turkish children.