Take-home route of pesticide exposure

Background: The family members of farmworkers can be chronically exposed to pesticides via the take-home exposure pathway. Objective: The aim of this review was to summarize the state of knowledge on exposure to pesticides via take-home pathway in farmworkers families. Methods: A literature review was conducted to identify articles of interest, resulting in a total of 47 selected articles. The articles were summarized based on the location of the study, population (sample size), pesticide analyzed, and type of sample. Results: The majority of studies were conducted in the United States, but there seems to be an increase of literature regarding the pesticide take-home pathway in developing countries. Most of the articles provided evidence that farmworkers’ families are exposed to pesticides at higher levels than nonfarmworkers families. The levels may depend on several factors such as seasonality, parental occupation, cohabitation with farmworkers, behavior at work, age, and gender. Discussion/Conclusion: the take-home pathway is an important contributor to overall residential exposures, but other pathways such as pesticide drift, indoor-residential applications, and dietary intake need to be considered. A more comprehensive exposure assessment approach is necessary to better understand both aggregate and cumulative exposures to pesticides.