Toxins in floor wipes

. */American Healthy Homes Survey: A National Study of Residential
Pesticides Measured from Floor Wipes/*
Stout DM et al.
Environ. Sci. Technol. 2009, 43, 4294--4300
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es8030243

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in collaboration
with the United States Environmental Protection Agency conducted a
survey measuring lead, allergens, and insecticides in a randomly
selected nationally representative sample of residential homes.
Multistage sampling with clustering was used to select the 1131 homes of
which a subset of 500 randomly selected homes included the collection of
hard surface floor wipes. Samples were collected by trained field
technicians between June 2005 and March 2006 using isopropanol wetted
wipes. Samples were analyzed for a suite of 24 compounds which included
insecticides in the organochlorine, organophosphate, pyrethroid and
phenylpyrazole classes, and the insecticide synergist piperonyl
butoxide. The most commonly detected were permethrin (89%),
*/chlorpyrifos/* (78%), chlordane (64%), piperonyl butoxide (52%),
cypermethrin (46%), and fipronil (40%). Mean and geometric mean (GM)
concentrations varied widely among compounds, but were highest for
trans-permethrin (mean 2.22 ng/cm2 and GM 0.14 ng/ cm2) and cypermethrin
(mean 2.9 ng/cm2 and GM 0.03 ng/cm2). Results show that most floors in
occupied homes in the U.S. have measurable levels of insecticides that
may serve as sources of exposure to occupants.

2. /*Pesticides linger in homes, whether we use them or not*/
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/pesticides-linger-in-homes-whether-we-use-them-or-not/

3. */Paraoxonase gene variants are associated with autism in North
America, but not in Italy: possible regional specificity in
gene-environment interactions/*

D'Amelio M et al.
Mol Psychiatry. 2005 Nov;10(11):1006-16.

Organophosphates (OPs) are routinely used as pesticides in agriculture
and as insecticides within the household. Our prior work on Reelin and
APOE delineated a gene-environment interactive model of autism
pathogenesis, whereby genetically vulnerable individuals prenatally
exposed to OPs during critical periods in neurodevelopment could undergo
altered neuronal migration, resulting in an autistic syndrome. Since
household use of OPs is far greater in the USA than in Italy, this model
was predicted to hold validity in North America, but not in Europe.
Here, we indirectly test this hypothesis by assessing
linkage/association between autism and variants of the paraoxonase gene
(PON1) encoding paraoxonase, the enzyme responsible for OP
detoxification. Three functional single nucleotide polymorphisms, PON1
C-108T, L55M, and Q192R, were assessed in 177 Italian and 107
Caucasian-American complete trios with primary autistic probands. As
predicted, Caucasian-American and not Italian families display a
significant association between autism and PON1 variants less active in
vitro on the OP diazinon (R192), according to case-control contrasts
(Q192R: chi2=6.33, 1 df, P<0.025), transmission/disequilibrium tests
(Q192R: TDT chi2=5.26, 1 df, P<0.025), family-based association tests
(Q192R and L55M: FBAT Z=2.291 and 2.435 respectively, P<0.025), and
haplotype-based association tests (L55/R192: HBAT Z=2.430, P<0.025).
These results are consistent with our model and provide further support
for the hypothesis that concurrent genetic vulnerability and
environmental OP exposure may possibly contribute to autism pathogenesis
in a sizable subgroup of North American individuals.

4. */Maternal residence near agricultural pesticide applications and
autism spectrum disorders among children in the California Central Valley/*

Roberts EM et al.
Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Oct;115(10):1482-9.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2022638&blobtype=pdf

BACKGROUND: Ambient levels of pesticides ("pesticide drift") are
detectable at residences near agricultural field sites. OBJECTIVE: Our
goal was to evaluate the hypothesis that maternal residence near
agricultural pesticide applications during key periods of gestation
could be associated with the development of autism spectrum disorders
(ASD) in children. METHODS: We identified 465 children with ASD born
during 1996-1998 using the California Department of Developmental
Services electronic files, and matched them by maternal date of last
menstrual period to 6,975 live-born, normal-birth-weight, term infants
as controls. We determined proximity to pesticide applications using
California Department of Pesticide Regulation records refined using
Department of Water Resources land use polygons. A staged analytic
design applying a priori criteria to the results of conditional logistic
regressions was employed to exclude associations likely due to multiple
testing error. RESULTS: Of 249 unique hypotheses, four that described
organochlorine pesticide applications--specifically those of dicofol and
endosulfan--occurring during the period immediately before and
concurrent with central nervous system embryogenesis (clinical weeks 1
through 8) met a priori criteria and were unlikely to be a result of
multiple testing. Multivariate a posteriori models comparing children of
mothers living within 500 m of field sites with the highest nonzero
quartile of organochlorine poundage to those with mothers not living
near field sites suggested an odds ratio for ASD of 6.1 (95% confidence
interval, 2.4-15.3). ASD risk increased with the poundage of
organochlorine applied and decreased with distance from field sites.
CONCLUSIONS: The association between residential proximity to
organochlorine pesticide applications during gestation and ASD among
children should be further studied.