Which pesticides should be monitored in Latvian citizens? Hanlon method adaptation for chemical prioritization in HBM4LV study

Objective: Human biomonitoring is a tool used for the assessment of total exposure to chemicals. The approach takes into account exposure from any pathway and measures the detection or concentration of a pesticide directly in human samples – mainly urine. It is not feasible to measure all chemicals in the human body and therefore a prioritization strategy is crucial to determine chemicals which will be measured and evaluated in the study.
Methods and materials: In HBM4LV an adaption of the Hanlon method is used to score and categorize pesticides. Information on problem size (max 60 points), hazardous (max 30 points) and exposure (max 30 points) characteristics, national importance (max 15 points) and societal concern (max 15 points) are the components of the adapted Hanlon equation. Additionally, weights are applied. The substances are then ranked and discussed with experts from Human Biomonitoring Council to reach a consensus on chemicals that should be monitored in Latvian citizens.
Results: Seven pesticides have been evaluated so far. Previous research focused on Latvian citizen exposure to halogen containing pesticides suggests that Acetamiprid, Chlorporpham, Boscalid and Triclosan were detected in at least 15% of all samples. Additionally, the 3 most distributed pesticides are Glyphosate, Chlormequat chloride and MCPA so they were evaluated as well. After evaluation, Glyphosate (129.3 points), Acetamiprid (103.5 points) and MCPA (79.8 points) are of the most priority for inclusion in Latvian human biomonitoring program.
Conclusions: Our approach suggests a pesticide evaluation strategy for inclusion in a national human biomonitoring program. The modified Hanlon method takes into account also national importance and could be of use to other countries that use a prioritization strategy for evaluating chemical inclusion in a nation wide study/program.
Acknowledgements: This study is funded by State Research Program “Development of Human Biomonitoring Program for Latvia - HBM4LV”, project nr. VPP-VM-Sabiedrības_Veselība-2023/4-0001.