You have full access to this open access article. The intersectional risks of children in United States immigrant communities include environmental exposures.
Pesticide exposures and their biological outcomes are not well characterized in this population group. DSBs were quantified in hair follicular cells by immunostaining of 53BP1, and exposure to 72 pesticides and pesticide degradation products were determined using silicone wristbands.
Cholinesterase activity was measured in blood samples. Acetylcholinesterase depression had the same seasonality and correlated with follicular DNA damage. Participants with organophosphate detections had increased follicular DNA damage compared to participants without organophosphate detection.
Follicular DNA damage did not correlate with organochlorine or pyrethroid detections and was not associated with the total number of pesticides detected in the wristbands. These results point to rural disparities in pesticide exposures and their outcomes in children from vulnerable immigrant communities.
They suggest that among the different classes of pesticides, organophosphates have the strongest genotoxic effects. Assessing pesticide exposures and their consequences at the individual level is key to environmental surveillance programs.
