A PILOT-STUDY TO COLLECT MICRO-ACTIVITY DATA OF 2-YEAR-OLD TO 4-YEAR-OLD FARM-LABOR CHILDREN IN SALINAS VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

A pesticide exposure assessment pilot study was conducted in Salinas V alley, California during September, 1993. The pilot study had two main purposes: 1) to develop general methodologies for videotaping micro-a ctivities of a population, and 2) to collect an initial database of ac tivity patterns of two- to four-year-old farm labor children. Tools to accurately determine exposure and dose through all three pathways (de rmal, ingestion, and inhalation) are needed to effectively assess and manage health risks posed by pesticides and other environmental pollut ants. Eight to ten hours of videotape data were collected for each of four Mexican-American farm labor children. In addition, the researcher s administered a day-after recall questionnaire to the caregivers of t he children to test (for the study sample) the hypothesis that recall questionnaires are inadequate for collecting detailed information rega rding dermal and hand-to-mouth exposures. The results of this study pr ovide the first detailed set of videotape data on farm labor children, a population at high risk to pesticide exposures. In addition, this i s the first project in the exposure assessment field to use direct obs ervation videotaping for collecting micro-activity data in order to qu antify dermal and ingestion exposure. The comparison of caregivers' re call of children's activities to actual videotapes from the pilot stud y supports the hypothesis that videotaping may greatly improve the acc uracy of activity information used to compute dermal and ingestion exp osures. However, as it was clear that the researchers' presence in som e cases altered the activities of the subjects, further experiments ne ed to be conducted to minimize interference of videotaping on exposure -related activities. This paper explains the selection of the study po pulation, the methods used to implement the pilot study, and the lesso ns learned. While the discussion focuses on four case studies in the M exican-American farm labor population, the data collection methods dev eloped and the lessons learned can be applied to other populations.