Exposure assessment as a component of observational health studies and environmental risk assessment.

Abstract

Assessing pesticide and nonpesticide exposures in agricultural settings is a daunting task. This is especially the case when such assessments are undertaken as a component of health studies to evaluate cancer risk. In this review, key exposure assessment issues are outlined and discussed in the context of pesticide-specific health risk assessments and three recent studies of large, geographically defined farmer and farm family populations. The specific topics addressed include the assessment of cumulative exposures to both older and more recently registered pesticides, the role of biomarker studies in exposure assessment, and uses of data on nonroutine high-exposure events.