CORRELATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CARBARYL MEASUREMENTS WITH SERUM AND URINARY 1-NAPHTHOL MEASUREMENTS IN A FARMER APPLICATOR AND HIS FAMILY

In exposure or risk assessments, both environmental and biological mea surements are often used. Environmental measurements are an excellent means for evaluating regulatory compliance, but the models used to est imate body burden from these measurements are complex. Unless all poss ible routes of exposure (i.e., inhalation, dermal absorption, ingestio n) are evaluated, exposure to a toxicant can be underestimated. To cir cumvent this problem, measurements of the internal dose of a toxicant in blood, serum, urine, or tissues can be used singularly or in combin ation with environmental data for exposure assessment. In three separa te laboratories, carbaryl or its primary metabolite, 1-naphthol, was m easured in personal air, dermal samples, blood serum, and urine from f armer applicators and their families. The usefulness of both environme ntal and biological data has been demonstrated. For the farmer applica tor, the environmental levels of carbaryl would have been sufficient t o determine that an exposure had occurred. However, biological measure ments were necessary to determine the absorbed dose of each member of the applicator's family. In addition, a correlation between serum and urinary 1-naphthol measurements has been shown; therefore, either matr ix can be used to accurately evaluate occupational carbaryl exposure.