Elsevier, Environmental Research, (147), p. 207-211, 2016
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2016.02.011
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Measuring chronic pesticide exposure is important in order to investigate the associated health effects.Traditional biological samples (blood/urine) are difficult to collect, store and transport in large epide-miological studies in settings such as rural Asia. We assessed the acceptability of collecting hair samplesfrom a rural Sri Lankan population and found that this method of data collection was feasible. We alsoassessed the level of non-specific metabolites (DAPS) of organophosphate pesticides in the hair samples.The median concentration (pg/mg) of each DAP was: diethyl phosphate: 83.3 (IQI 56.0, 209.4); diethylthiophosphate: 34.7 (IQI 13.8, 147.9); diethyl dithiophosphate: 34.5 (IQI 23.4, 55.2); and dimethylphosphate: 3 (IQI 3, 109.7). Total diethylphosphates were recovered in480% of samples and were positively correlated with self-reported pesticide exposure