Personal and In-Home Exposures to Airborne Organophosphate Pesticides among Rural Residents of California’s Central Valley

High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Residents of agricultural communities may experience higher exposures to pesticides due to their proximity to agricultural operations. We applied a novel measurement approach, using Ultrasonic Personal Air Samplers (UPAS), to quantify particulate matter and organophosphate pesticides in air in California’s Central Valley. We collected 124 personal, 126 in-home, and 32 outdoor air samples with 66 adults from 37 rural households in 2023 and 2024. We detected chlorpyrifos, acephate, malathion, diazinon, and naled in air samples. We detected gas-phase chlorpyrifos in 63% of personal samples and 86% of homes─even though use of chlorpyrifos has been banned in California (with few exceptions) since January 2021─at 24 h average concentrations ranging up to 13 ng m –3 (personal) and 5.8 ng m –3 (in-home). We did not detect chlorpyrifos in outdoor air samples. Using linear mixed models, we found that higher indoor air temperatures and having more carpets/rugs were associated with higher indoor chlorpyrifos concentrations. The concentrations we measured were well below the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s health screening level of 510 ng m –3 for chronic exposure to chlorpyrifos in air; nevertheless, our results suggest that persistent chlorpyrifos in home environments continues to contribute to nondietary exposure among California residents.