Keywords
intestinal parasitic nematodes; microbial risk assessment; dose-response (D-R) models; intestinal helminth infections; censored data
Location
Session H1: Environmental Modeling, Software, and Data to Support Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessments (QMRAs)
Start Date
16-6-2014 2:00 PM
End Date
16-6-2014 3:20 PM
Abstract
The human health risks associated with multimedia exposure pathways of Ascaris lumbricoides (A. lumbricoides) are poorly understood including use of surface water contaminated with untreated wastewater in agriculture, consumption of uncooked raw vegetables irrigated with polluted stream-water, and incidental ingestion of fecally contaminated water by recreators. We analyzed a total of 65 water samples for the presence of helminthes collected from 5 monitoring locations in Salta City over a 13-month period on the Arias-Arenales river in the northwestern region of Salta province in Argentina. The average density of A. lumbricoides in the surface water was 5 eggs/liter. A. lumbricoides was detected in 35 of the 65 samples with a maximum concentration of 28 eggs/L. The risk of infection from accidental recreational ingestion of water was highest in children (1.31 x 10-4) compared to the adults (6.47 x 10-5) and secondary recreators (6.50 x 10-6) whereas the annual probability of mean infection risk from incidental consumption of surface water in children was 2.62% followed by 1.33% in adults, and least in secondary recreators i.e. 0.13%. Consumers of wild water-cress (assumed mean single exposure raw consumption of 100 grams/person) collected from Arenales river had the highest single exposure mean infection risk compared to consumers of other raw vegetables in the community due to the higher grams of consumption and higher contamination per gram. We observed that the annual mean Ascaris infection risk (4 x 10-4in β-Poisson and 2 x 10-2 in β-binomial D-R) from accidental ingestion of irrigation water by growers, assuming 75 days of active irrigation exposure, was higher using β-binomial D-R than the recommended annual tolerable risk level of 1.2 x 10-3 per person per year for wastewater use in agriculture. This research also showed the impact of using different D-R models in human health risk assessment. Application of conditional D-R models led to higher risk estimates resulting in higher estimates of extreme risks. The concentration of the infectious nematode in the surface water and the rates of accidental ingestion of contaminated water were the key drivers in the risk estimates and had the greatest effect on the total uncertainty of the estimated risks in all of the scenarios.
Included in
Civil Engineering Commons, Data Storage Systems Commons, Environmental Engineering Commons, Hydraulic Engineering Commons, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons
QMRA of intestinal nematode infection via multimedia exposure pathways
Session H1: Environmental Modeling, Software, and Data to Support Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessments (QMRAs)
The human health risks associated with multimedia exposure pathways of Ascaris lumbricoides (A. lumbricoides) are poorly understood including use of surface water contaminated with untreated wastewater in agriculture, consumption of uncooked raw vegetables irrigated with polluted stream-water, and incidental ingestion of fecally contaminated water by recreators. We analyzed a total of 65 water samples for the presence of helminthes collected from 5 monitoring locations in Salta City over a 13-month period on the Arias-Arenales river in the northwestern region of Salta province in Argentina. The average density of A. lumbricoides in the surface water was 5 eggs/liter. A. lumbricoides was detected in 35 of the 65 samples with a maximum concentration of 28 eggs/L. The risk of infection from accidental recreational ingestion of water was highest in children (1.31 x 10-4) compared to the adults (6.47 x 10-5) and secondary recreators (6.50 x 10-6) whereas the annual probability of mean infection risk from incidental consumption of surface water in children was 2.62% followed by 1.33% in adults, and least in secondary recreators i.e. 0.13%. Consumers of wild water-cress (assumed mean single exposure raw consumption of 100 grams/person) collected from Arenales river had the highest single exposure mean infection risk compared to consumers of other raw vegetables in the community due to the higher grams of consumption and higher contamination per gram. We observed that the annual mean Ascaris infection risk (4 x 10-4in β-Poisson and 2 x 10-2 in β-binomial D-R) from accidental ingestion of irrigation water by growers, assuming 75 days of active irrigation exposure, was higher using β-binomial D-R than the recommended annual tolerable risk level of 1.2 x 10-3 per person per year for wastewater use in agriculture. This research also showed the impact of using different D-R models in human health risk assessment. Application of conditional D-R models led to higher risk estimates resulting in higher estimates of extreme risks. The concentration of the infectious nematode in the surface water and the rates of accidental ingestion of contaminated water were the key drivers in the risk estimates and had the greatest effect on the total uncertainty of the estimated risks in all of the scenarios.
