Health risk assessment of exposure to chlorpyrifos in pregnant women using deterministic and probabilistic approaches.

Since chlorpyrifos (CPF), a major organophosphorus pesticide, is widely used for agricultural and domestic purposes, thus, humans may be exposed to these toxic compounds through multiple sources. In recent years, significant concerns have been raised regarding the deleterious effects of exposure to CPF on human health, especially growing fetus. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the health risks of exposure to CPF among pregnant women living in Isfahan province, Iran, using deterministic and probabilistic approaches. The urinary concentration of 3, 5, 6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP), the most common metabolite of CPF, was measured as the biomarker of current exposure to CPF. For this purpose, spot urine samples were taken from 110 pregnant women and the urinary concentrations of TCP were quantified. The estimated daily intake and hazard quotient (HQ) for CPF exposure were measured according to the reference values set by World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) for acute and chronic exposure to CPF. Based on the results, TCP was detected in more than 70% of samples (3.8 ± 2.72 μg/L). The estimated daily intake for some participants was found to be higher than the suggested reference dose by USEPA for chronic exposure to CPF. Furthermore, the HQ>1 was obtained for 20% of the study population in Monte-Carlo analysis using USEPA chronic reference dose, indicating that chronic toxic effects are expected at least for a part of the target population. Based on the findings, proper measures should be taken to reduce the exposure of Iranian pregnant women to CPF and resultant health risks.

Introduction

Today, pesticides are an investible part of agriculture and allow us to considerably increase crop yields [1, 2]. The emission of pesticides into the environment has shown the adverse and unwanted effects on human health and ecosystem [3]. One of the major categories of pesticides which are extensively used in agriculture as well as for industrial and household purposes to control a large variety of pests is organophosphate pesticides (OPs) [4]. In recent years, the excessive use of OPs has raised concerns regarding their potential adverse effects on human health. Based on the estimates, more than $30 billion is annually spent on pesticides worldwide, of which one third is spent by developing countries [5-8]. Moreover, since a large part of the community (two-thirds of adults) [9, 10] in developing countries are employed in the agricultural sector, and unsafe handling, storage, and disposal of pesticides are high in these countries, thus people may be exposed to higher levels of pesticides, of special concern OPs, compared to those population of developed countries [5].

Because of their high toxicity, OPs have been classified by World Health Organization (WHO) as extremely toxic (toxicity class Ia and Ib) or moderately toxic (toxicity class II) substances for human health and recognized as highly toxic compounds by United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) [11, 12]. It is well known that the toxicity of OPs is based on their inhibitory effects on acetylcholinesterase [13]. In this regard, previous studies demonstrated that OPs can lead to acute toxicity by irreversibly inhibiting acetylcholinesterase, which plays a pivotal role in the functioning of the central nervous system (CNS) [14]. However, rather than acetylcholinesterase inhibition, chronic exposure to low-concentration of OPs might also be associated with deleterious biological impacts, leading to persistent behavioral and/or neurocognitive deficits [15].

Among OPs, chlorpyrifos (CPF) is an effective insecticide widely employed for agriculture and domestic purposes [16]. Human exposure to CPF can occur by inhalation of aerosols and vapors from spray drift, ingestion of food and contaminated house dust/soil residuals, as well as dermal absorption [17-19]. However, CPF is unstable in the blood and after absorption into the body is mainly excreted in the urine within hours or days in the form of 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP), diethylphosphate (DEP), and diethylthiophosphate (DETP) [5, 20, 21]. Mounting evidence shows human exposure to CPF could potentially be associated with several health risks. In this regard, preclinical studies have suggested that the potential effects of CPF on fetal growth can occur at doses that result in maternal toxicity and inhibition of red blood cell (RBC) acetylcholinesterase [22]. Accordingly, the reference values set by WHO and USEPA for acute and chronic exposure to CPF are 10, 100, 0.3, and 5 μg/kg/day, respectively [23].

The primary metabolite of CFP is the TCP and its urinary levels have been assumed to mirror the current exposure to CPF. Hence, biomonitoring studies have measured urinary TCP concentration as a biomarker to evaluate exposure to CPF [20, 24, 25]. Jaacks et al., have detected TCP in urine samples of nearly all studied pregnant women with geometric mean (95% CI) values of 3.17 (2.82–3.56) μg/g of creatinine [26]. Fortenberry et al. also evaluated urinary concentrations of TCP among pregnant women in Mexico City and found that intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) was 0.41 for uncorrected TCPY, and ranged from 0.29 to 0.32 for specific gravity-corrected TCP [5]. Of particular note, it has been suggested that CPF can cross through the placenta and blood-brain barrier, and thus may cause adverse health effects to developing fetuses. In accordance, Fortenberry et al., showed higher attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) index and increased attention problems among boys and girls in the highest TCP tertile compared to the lowest tertile, respectively [5]. In another study, Whyatt et al., demonstrated that by each log unit increase of chlorpyrifos concentration in cord plasma, birth weight, and birth length are decreased by 42.6 g and 0.24 cm, respectively [27]. The association of CPF with decreased birth length and birth weight has also been reported by Perera et al [28].

According to the mentioned notes, exposure to CPF can pose serious adverse effects, especially on growing fetus. Although data on the status of OP exposure and consumption in Isfahan city is limited, but a previous systematic review shows that Iranian people are at risk of high exposure to these chemicals [29]. During 2012–2014, about 11,000 tonnes of active ingredient of pesticides was annually used for pesticide formulation in Iran. The previous assessment identified that diazinon, chlorpyrifos, dichlorvos, metam sodium, paraquat, and dimethoate as six pesticide active ingredients that contribute >0.5% of the total chronic hazard potential, of which diazinon, chlorpyrifos and dichlorvos contributed, almost 90% [30].

However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no or the limited number of studies conducted in Iran to assess the exposure to CPF among pregnant women. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to assess health risks of exposure to CPF in a sample of Iranian pregnant women in Isfahan city using the deterministic and probabilistic approaches.

Materials and methods

Study design and population

This cross-sectional study is a part of an ongoing PERSIAN Birth Cohort survey on Iranian pregnant women. For this porpoise, 110 pregnant women living in Isfahan (Iran) were enrolled in this study to evaluate the risk of CPF exposure. The study was launched in 2019 and all the cases were in their first trimester of pregnancy. Participants of this study were informed about the methodology and purposes of the study and were enrolled voluntarily with a signed consent letter. The inclusion criteria were no history of chronic illnesses or long-term adherence to medicine and being resident in Isfahan province at least within the past 1 year. They were willing to give urine samples, and intended to give birth in health centers or hospitals in Isfahan city [31]. Subjects who did not fulfill inclusion criteria or collaborate in urine sample collection were excluded from the study. It should be mentioned that only 102 out of the 110 samples were analyzed because of the limited amounts of samples available for analysis. Furthermore, since the weight information of five participants was not available, they were excluded from the study. As a result, 97 participants were considered for the estimated daily intake (EDI) calculation.

CPF exposures

As mentioned earlier, the urinary levels of TCP were measured as a biomarker of CPF exposure. To this end, an approximate volume of 20 mL early morning urine was taken from each participant by trained healthcare workers, then transferred to the laboratory under refrigerated conditions (-20°C) and stored at -80°C for the next experiments.

For TCP analysis, 4 mL of each urine sample was transferred to a distinct 15 mL conical tube, mixed with 1–2 mL hydrochloric acid and heated at 70–80°C for 1.5 h in a steam bath. After the cooling of the samples down to room temperature, 1 mL of hexane was added to the obtained mixture and shacked for 2 min with a vortex shaker. Then, the hexane phase was collected and transferred to another vial and dried under a slow stream of nitrogen gas. Afterward, the dried vial was rehydrated with 1 mL of acetonitrile and 20 μL of this preparation was injected into LC/MS (Perkin Elmer, Flexar SQ 300 MS equipped by MS and Electrospray Ionization (ESI)). The column was Brownlee SPP C18 (150 mm, 4.6mm, 2.7um), the mobile phase was acetonitrile and HCOOH (90:10, v/v). In this study, the limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), and relative standard deviation (RSD) for the TCP were 6 ppb, 9.6 ppb, and 6.87, respectively.

Health risk characterization

Conventional risk characterization techniques

Here, an internal dose approach was employed to evaluate the exposure of pregnant women to CPF. In this regard, the following equation based on the urinary concentrations of investigated biomarkers was used to calculate the intake of parent pesticide [32]: where EDI is the estimated daily intake of the CPF (μg/kg/day), CU is the concentration of the TCP in urine (μg/L), V24h is the 24 h urinary volume (was reported 1.14 L for an adult woman in Iran) [33], MWP refers to the molecular weight of CPF (g/mol), MWmetabolite is the molecular weight of TCP (g/mol), FUE is the urinary excretion factor of the CPF (about 70% of CPF is excreted as TCP in urine) [25], and BW is the bodyweight of the study population [34]. The presence of TCP in the urine samples was assumed to because of CPF exposure [32].

Hazard Quotients (HQ) was employed to compare the EDI values obtained for CPF with its acceptable daily intake (ADI) value, and calculated as [32]: Indeed, HQ is a noncarcinogenic health risk due to exposure to the CPF. The HQ value greater than 1 indicates the possibility of adverse health effects, while no health risks are expected for HQ values lower than 1 [34].

Probabilistic risk characterization techniques and sensitivity analysis

Since the use of a single-point value for each parameter can increase the probability of uncertainty, thus it might be better to use a set of numbers instead of a single-point value in the risk assessment process [34]. For this purpose, in this study, the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), which is a very popular methodology for calculating the uncertainty by means of simulating the random numbers, was employed to reduce uncertainty in pesticide concentrations as well as variabilities in toxicity criteria and body weight [35]. MCS in this research was performed using Crystal Ball (11.1.2.4) software from Oracle. As a fact, the number of iterations used in the simulation process with MCS technique can also cause error; hence to obtain a reliable risk estimate, the number of iterations should be sufficient. Generally, although more iterations can produce reliable estimates, however too many iterations are assumed to be unnecessary and time-consuming. Based on the literature, the optimum number of iterations for MCS has been considered to be 5,000 to 10,000 [36]. Accordingly, in this study, the MCS model with 10,000 iterations was carried out to calculate HQ. To evaluate the probability functions for the HQ, the probable distributions of variables provided in Table 1 were used as input parameters. In addition, sensitivity analysis was also performed to discern the contribution of exposure variables for total risks.

Table 1

Distributions of parameters used in the risk assessment model generated with MCS.

Parameters	Unit	Distribution	Pregnant Women	Ref.
EDI	μg/kg/day	-	Calculated by Eq (1)	[32]
HQ	-	-	Calculated by Eq (2)	[32]
CU	μg/L	Normal	3.8 (2.72)	Present study
V24h	L/day	Normal	1.14 (0.48)	[33]
FUE	-	-	70%	[25]
ADI	μg/kg/day	Fixed value	CRfDWHO*: 10ARfDWHO*:100CRfDUSEPA*:0.3ARfDUSEPA*:5	[36]
MWP	(g/mol)	Fixed value	350.6	[20]
MWT	(g/mol)	Fixed value	198.4	[20]
BW	Kg	Normal	65.06 (13. 3)	Present study

* Chronic reference dose by WHO (CRfDWHO) and USEPA (CRfDUSEPA), Acute reference dose by WHO (ARfDWHO), and USEPA (ARfDUSEPA).

Ethics approval

The study received ethical clearance from the Ethics Committee of the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (Iran). All Participants enrolled voluntarily in the surveys, and they can withdraw from the study at any time. Information in both written and oral formats was provided to potential participants about the study protocol, measurements to be conducted and possible risks they may pose. Before beginning the interviews, participants who want to participate will sign the informed consent form that includes separate points for questionnaires, physical measurements, and biological sample collection; it provides general consent for all included measures [37].

Results and discussion

General characteristics of the study population

At the start of the survey, each participant received a questionnaire asking about individual details (e.g. age and weight) to fill within the study course. Based on the preliminary findings, the mean ± STD of participants’ age and weight were 29 ± 5 years and 65 ± 13 kg, respectively. The concentrations of TCP in 15% of the samples were lower than detection limit and the mean ± STD of TCP concentration in the urine samples was found 3.8 ± 2.72 μg/L. It was reported that indoor air, dust samples, solid food samples, and diet are the major source of exposure to 3,5,6-TCPyr [38], so different exposure level of individuals may leads to the different concentration of urinary TCP. Klimowska et al., studied the seasonal variation of 3,5,6-TCP and interestingly observed that the daily excretion of 3,5,6-TCPyr was the highest during the summer [38].

Previously, Lu et al. assessed longitudinal exposure of young urban/suburban children to OP pesticides and found that TCP had the highest detection frequency (91%) among the investigated OP metabolites with a concentration of 5.1 ± 5 μg/L. They also reported that the urinary concentration of OP metabolites vary with seasonal changes which might be attributed to the consumption of fresh/seasonal products throughout the year [39]. In another study, Klimowska et al., evaluated the urinary levels of eight insecticide metabolites in 24-h urine samples. Based on their results, 3, 5, 6-TCPyr had the detection frequency of 97.3% with the median concentration of 2.32 μg/L. Furthermore, they calculated the highest exposure levels for chlorpyrifos metabolite as 6.27 μg/L [38].

Determination of the EDI of CPF

For comparing with the guideline values (μg/kg/day) set by WHO and USEPA, we have also calculated the EDI of CPF for participants. As shown in Fig 1, the determined EDI for all participants is lower than the values suggested by WHO (for acute and chronic exposure) and USEPA (for acute exposure). However, by comparing with the value set by USEPA for chronic exposure, the EDI values for some participants were calculated higher than that standard value for chronic exposure to CPF.

Fig 1

Calculated EDI for TCP considering the targeted population groups.

Moreover, in this study, HQ criteria was employed to assess health risks from chlorpyrifos exposure [23]. The HQ values determined for both acute and chronic exposure to chlorpyrifos is summarized in Table 2.

Table 2

Estimated Daily Intake of the CPF and Hazard quotient values of chlorpyrifos exposure levels in pregnant women (n = 80).

Simulation approach		50%	95%	Mean (STD)
	EDI (μg/kg/day)	0.146	0.392	0.174 (0.127)
Deterministic approach	HQ (CRfDWHO: 10)	0.015	0.039	0.017
	HQ (ARfDWHO:100)	0.001	0.004	0.002
	HQ (CRfDUSEPA:0.3)	0.486	1.307 *	0.581
	HQ (ARfDUSEPA:5)	0.029	0.078	0.035
Probabilistic approach	HQ (CRfDWHO: 10)	0.01	0.05	0.02 (0.02)
	HQ (ARfDWHO:100)	0.00	0.01	0.00 (0.00)
	HQ (CRfDUSEPA:0.3)	0.44	1.83 *	0.58 (0.54)
	HQ (ARfDUSEPA:5)	0.03	0.11	0.03 (0.03)

* HQ values > 1 have been bolded.

As shown in Fig 1, the HQ values (HQ<1), according to the acute (100 μg/kg/day) and chronic (10 μg/kg/day) values set by WHO and the acute (5 μg/kg/day) guideline value of the USEPA, obtained in this study did not suggest health risks for the mean, 50%, and 95% exposed groups. However, HQ values (HQ>1) according to the chronic guideline value (0.3 μg/kg/day) of the USEPA were obtained 1.3076, indicating that 5% of the target population are at risk of chronic health effects. In agreement, Marasinghe et al. also showed that only a subgroup of pregnant mothers may pose the health risk of chlorpyrifos exposure [20]. Likewise, Atabila et al., also assessed the health risk of exposure to chlorpyrifos among applicators on rice farms in Ghana and showed that the median exposed and the 5% highly exposed groups are at high risk of acute adverse health effects due to the exposure to chlorpyrifos. The HQ values in Atabila et al. study was found 1.5 to 5 and 2.7 to 9 for the median and the 5% highly exposed groups, respectively that are higher than those values obtained in our study. Such a difference can be due to the differences in the study population and methodologies [23].

In another study, Atabila et al., monitored chlorpyrifos exposure among applicators on rice farms in Ghana and performed risk assessments and showed HQ < 1 for the acute and chronic exposure based on the guideline values by WHO, suggesting no acute or chronic health risks. However, HQ > 1 for acute and chronic exposure was obtained according to the USEPA guideline values, indicating health risks for the 5% highly exposed groups and median [25].

Probabilistic health risk assessment and sensitivity analyses

Compared to the deterministic analysis, the MCS as a probabilistic risk approach may provide better estimates in health risk assessments [40]. In fact, in deterministic evaluation only point values are included in the analysis, but in the probabilistic determination, like MCS, variability and heterogeneity in measurements and population as well as in other study parameters are also applied [40]. In this regard, numerous studies have used MCS for evaluating the potential risks of exposure to a variety of toxic compounds. Non-carcinogenic hazard quotients (HQs) were calculated, after MCS according to the different ADI recommended by WHO and USEPA, and are shown in Fig 2.

Fig 2

Cumulative distribution of the HQ of CPF using the guideline values suggested by A: Chronic Reference Dose (CRfDWHO), B: Acute Reference Dose (ARfDWHO), C: Chronic Reference Dose (CRfDUSEPA), D: Acute Reference Dose (ARfDUSEPA) (The result of Crystal Ball, HQ defined as a forecast, the trial number was 10,000).

The value for HQ 95% based on the USEPA guideline value for chronic exposure (0.3 μg/kg/day) was obtained higher than 1 (Table 2), showing that chronic exposure to CPF can result in adverse health effect. The values obtained by other guideline values were lower than 1. As shown in Fig 2C nearly 20% of the targeted population were exposed to the adverse effect of CPF exposure.

Sensitivity analysis was also performed in this study to determine the influence of each parameter on the calculated health risk [40]. As shown in Fig 3, TCP concentration showed the biggest effect on HQ value in a sensitivity analysis.

Fig 3

Sensitivity analysis of noncarcinogenic risk for pregnant women (the result of Crystal Ball, the trial number was 10,000).

Despite that this is the first study that assessed the health risk of CPF on Iranian pregnant women using deterministic and probabilistic approaches, but there are some limitations including small sample size, lack of study population 24 h urine volume and using another study’s information [33].

Conclusion

Taken together, based on data presented in this research, the urinary concentrations of TCP among Iranian pregnant women are at a safe level as HQ<1 according to the WHO guideline values. However, by using the USEPA reference values for HQ calculation, it was found that 20% of the study population is at risk of chronic health risks due to exposure to CPF. These findings imply that proper preventive measures should be taken to reduce the exposure of pregnant women living in Isfahan to CPF and related health risks.