Comparison of pesticides and other compounds in carpet dust samples collected from used vacuum cleaner bags and from a high-volume surface sampler

Epidemiologic studies of the association between residential pesticide use and cancer risk require an assessment of past pesticide exposures. Pesticid e levels in carpet dust are believed to reflect long-term pesticide use. Re cent epidemiologic studies have found collection of dust samples using the high-volume surface sampler (HVS3) to be expensive and cumbersome. We compa red the levels of pesticides and other compounds in dust obtained from subj ects' personal used vacuum cleaner bags to that collected by the HVS3 to se e if this simpler method could replace the HVS3 in epidemiologic research. We visited the homes of 15 subjects, took the used bags from their vacuums, and collected carpet dust samples with the HVS3. The samples were analyzed for 42 target compounds: 26 pesticides, 10 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon s (PAHs), and six polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners using GC/MS in s elected ion monitoring mode. The two methods agreed in detecting the presen ce of the target compounds between 80% and 100% of the time. Neither sampli ng method was consistently more sensitive. The median target compound conce ntrations were similar, and a paired t-test showed no significant differenc es. For many compounds, the concentrations of compounds in the HVS3 samples were higher than those in the used bag samples at the upper end of the con centration ranges. However, the Spearman rank correlation coefficients were 0.85 or higher for most compounds, indicating that homes would be ranked s imilarly using both methods. Overall, there appears to be no clear differen ce in the quality of the pesticide, PAH, or PCB concentration data for the two dust collection methods.