Biological monitoring for selected herbicide biomarkers in the urine of exposed custom applicators: Application of mixed-effect models

Metabolites and/or parent compounds of the herbicides atrazine, alachlor, metolachlor, cyanazine and the 2-ethylhexyl ester of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) were measured in the urine of 15 custom applicators who each provided from five to seven 24 h urine samples during a 6 week period (n = 87). Each applicator provided a pre-season urine sample and a reference population (n = 46) provided first-morning urine samples. Urinary biomarkers were measured by either immunoassay or gas chromatography. During the spraying season, the geometric mean amount of alachlor mercapturate equivalents (eq.), atrazine eq., 2,4-D and metolachlor mercapturate eq. excreted in 24 h was 17, 19, 110 and 22 nmol, respectively. Mixed-effect models were used to determine predictors of the amount of atrazine eq. and 2,4-D excreted in 24 h. The specific days of herbicide spraying associated with increased biomarker excretion varied for the two analytes, and included one or more days prior to urine collection. This confirms the importance of collecting covariate information on day(s) most relevant to the biomarker of interest. The within-worker variance component, expressed as a geometric standard deviation ((W)GSD range: 2.5-2.9), was substantially larger than the between-worker component ((B)GSD range: 1.3-1.5) for the modeled biomarkers. Alachlor mercapturate eq. and metolachlor mercapturate eq. were detected in more than half of the applicator pre-season urine samples. All biomarkers were detected infrequently in the reference population. Evaluation of non-spray exposure determinants was limited by inclusion of prior day spraying, adjustment for time and the small sample size.