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Background: Recent meta-analyses demonstrate an association between self-reported residential pesticide use and childhood leukemia risk. Self-reports may suffer from recall bias and provide information only on broad pesticide categories. We compared parental self-reported home and garden pest treatments to pesticides measured in carpet dust. Methods: Parents of 277 children with leukemia and 306 controls in Northern and Central California (2001-2007) were asked about insect and weed treatments during the previous year. Carpet dust samples were analyzed for 47 pesticides. We present results for the 7 insecticides (carbaryl, propoxur, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, permethrin), 5 herbicides (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid [2,4-D], chlorthal, dicamba, mecoprop, simazine), and 1 synergist (piperonyl butoxide) that were present in home and garden products during the study period and were detected in =25% of carpet dust samples. We constructed linear regression models for the relative change in pesticide concentrations associated with self-reported treatment of pest types in cases and controls separately and combined, adjusting for demographics, housing characteristics, and nearby agricultural pesticide applications. Results: Several self-reported treatments were associated with pesticide concentrations in dust. For example, households with flea/tick treatments had 2.3 (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.4, 3.7) times higher permethrin concentrations than households not reporting this treatment. Households reporting treatment for ants/cockroaches had 2.5 (95% CI: 1.5, 4.2) times higher cypermethrin levels than households not reporting this treatment. Weed treatment by a household member was associated with 1.9 (1.4, 2.6), 2.2 (1.6, 3.1), and 2.8 (2.1, 3.7) times higher dust concentrations of dicamba, mecoprop, and 2,4-D, respectively. Weed treatments by professional applicators were null/inversely associated with herbicide concentrations in dust. Associations were generally similar between cases and controls and were consistent with pesticide active ingredients in these products during the study time period. Conclusions: Consistency between self-reported pest treatments, concentrations in dust, and pesticides in products lends credibility to the exposure assessment methods and suggests that differential recall by case-control status is minimal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Levels of pesticides and other compounds in carpet dust can be useful indicators of exposure in epidemiologic studies, particularly for young children who are in frequent contact with carpets. The high-volume surface sampler (HVS3) is often used to collect dust samples in the room in which the child had spent the most time. This method can be expensive and cumbersome, and it has been suggested that an easier method would be to remove dust that had already been collected with the household vacuum cleaner. However, the household vacuum integrates exposures over multiple rooms, some of which are not relevant to the child's exposure, and differences in vacuuming equipment and practices could affect the chemical concentration data. Here, we compare levels of pesticides and other compounds in dust from household vacuums to that collected using the HVS3. Methods: Both methods were used in 45 homes in California. HVS3 samples were collected in one room, while the household vacuum had typically been used throughout the home. The samples were analyzed for 64 organic compounds, including pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), using GC/MS in multiple ion monitoring mode; and for nine metals using conventional microwave-assisted acid digestion combined with ICP/MS. Results: The methods agreed in detecting the presence of the compounds 77% to 100% of the time (median 95%). For compounds with less than 100% agreement, neither method was consistently more sensitive than the other. Median concentrations were similar for most analytes, and Spearman correlation coefficients were 0.60 or higher except for allethrin (0.15) and malathion (0.24), which were detected infrequently, and benzo(k)fluoranthene (0.55), benzo(a)pyrene (0.55), PCB 105 (0.54), PCB 118 (0.54), and PCB 138 (0.58). Assuming that the HVS3 method is the "gold standard," the extent to which the household vacuum cleaner method yields relative risk estimates closer to unity by increasing random measurement error varies by compound and depends on the method used to calculate relative risk. Conclusion: The household vacuum cleaner method appears to be a reasonable alternative to the HVS3 for detecting, ranking, and quantifying the concentrations of pesticides and other compounds in carpet dust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]