Abstract P040: Home Proximity to Flower Plantations and Higher Systolic Blood Pressure
People residing near agricultural plantations have greater risk of pesticide exposure, primarily due to pesticide drift after fumigation. Overall pesticide exposure and pyrethroid pesticides have been associated with increased blood pressure. We previously found that decreases in acetylcholinesterase activity (reflecting organophosphate pesticide exposure) were associated with home proximity to flower plantations. We also found that lower acetylcholinesterase activity was associated with lower blood pressure, which is plausible because higher acetylcholine concentration can decrease blood pressure by vasodilation via muscarinic receptor stimulation; likely a different mechanism of blood pressure alteration than those seen by other pesticides). We here evaluated the hypothesis that proximity of homes to fresh-cut flower plantations increases blood pressure independently of acetylcholinesterase activity among boys and girls living in a rural county in Ecuador with one of the highest concentrations of flower plantations in the country.
METHODS: Geographic coordinates of homes and flower plantations were collected using global positioning system receivers. Physical examinations and parental home surveys were performed on 288 children aged 4-9 years in the study of Secondary Exposure to Pesticides among Infants, Children and Adolescents (ESPINA).
RESULTS: The mean home distance to the nearest flower plantation edge was 450m (SD=352) and the median plantation area within a 150m radius from each house was 1049m2 (25th-95Th percentile=492-3172) among those with non-zero values. The mean SBP was 93.2 mmHg (SD=8.3). Proximity of homes to the nearest flower plantation edge was associated with a systolic blood pressure (SBP) increase of 2.45 mmHg per 1000m (95% CI: 5.02-0.00) after adjusting for age, gender, race, heart rate, height-for-age, income, maternal education, flower worker cohabitation, and examination date. Addition of erythrocytic acetylcholinesterase activity and hemoglobin concentration strengthened the association (3.02 mmHg per kilometer, 95% CI: 5.64-0.09). Increasing flower plantation area within a 150 meter radius from each home was associated with SBP increases of 3.25 per 10,000m2. Addition of acetylcholinesterase activity and hemoglobin strengthened this association (3.41mmHg per 10,000m2, 95% CI: 0.23-6.59).
CONCLUSIONS: Proximity of homes to flower plantations and greater extensions of flower plantations within a 150m radius from the home were associated with systolic blood pressure increases independent of organophosphate pesticide (cholinergic) pathways. This supports the hypothesis that pesticide drifts from agricultural plantations may be sufficient to effect physiologic changes on children living in agricultural communities.
- © 2012 by American Heart Association, Inc.