Human health risk assessment on the consumption of fruits and vegetables containing residual pesticides: A cancer and non-cancer risk/benefit perspective.

Pesticide residues in food is a public health concern. This study aimed to evaluate health risk and benefit associated with chronic consumption of fruits and vegetables (F&V) containing residual pesticides in the province of Quebec, Canada. Based on a representative sample of Quebecers (n=4727, aged 1-79) enrolled in the Canadian nutrition survey, population's mean chronic dietary exposure through consumption of F&V was evaluated for 169 different pesticide active ingredients (PAI), including 135 for which toxicological reference values (TRV) were available in the literature.

Assessing Interventions to Manage West Nile Virus Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis with Risk Scenarios.

The recent emergence of West Nile virus (WNV) in North America highlights vulnerability to climate sensitive diseases and stresses the importance of preventive efforts to reduce their public health impact. Effective prevention involves reducing environmental risk of exposure and increasing adoption of preventive behaviours, both of which depend on knowledge and acceptance of such measures. When making operational decisions about disease prevention and control, public health must take into account a wide range of operational, environmental, social and economic considerations in addition to intervention effectiveness.

Biological monitoring of exposure to organophosphate pesticides in children living in peri-urban areas of the Province of Quebec, Canada.

Objective: This study was undertaken to assess the exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides in children from peri-urban areas of the Province of Quebec, Canada, through measurements of semi-specific alkylphosphate (AP) metabolites.

Methods: Eighty-nine children aged between 3 and 7 years were recruited via pamphlets sent to day-care centers. A first morning urine void was collected early in the spring of 2003 prior to summertime, which is the usual period of outdoor pesticide use.

A toxicokinetic model of malathion and its metabolites as a tool to assess human exposure and risk through measurements of urinary biomarkers.

A toxicokinetic model is proposed to predict the time evolution of malathion and its metabolites, mono- and dicarboxylic acids (MCA, DCA) and phosphoric derivatives (dimethyl dithiophosphate [DMDTP], dimethyl thiophosphate [DMTP], and dimethyl phosphate [DMP]) in the human body and excreta, under a variety of exposure routes and scenarios. The biological determinants of the kinetics were established from published data on the in vivo time profiles of malathion and its metabolites in the blood and urine of human volunteers exposed by intravenous, oral, or dermal routes. In the model, body and excreta compartments were used to represent the time varying amounts of each of the following: malathion, MCA, DCA, DMDTP, DMTP, and DMP.