Occurrence of Phenylpyrazole and Diamide Insecticides in Lactating Women and Their Health Risks for Infants

To
investigate the exposure of infants to phenylpyrazole and diamide
insecticides during lactation, we collected 3467 breast milk samples
of lactating women from 100 cities of 24 provinces in China and prepared
100 pooled samples together city-by-city. Among phenylpyrazole insecticides,
fipronil and its metabolites (63–100%) were widely detected
in breast milk, with total detection concentrations ranging from 178
to 2947 ng/L (median: 921 ng/L). Among diamide insecticides, chlorantraniliprole
and flubendiamide were detected in breast milk, but their detection
frequencies (20–85%) and concentration levels (nondetected
to 89.9 ng/L) were far lower than those of total fipronils. The average
estimated daily intake of infants exposed to total fipronils through
breast milk is 209 ng/kg-bw/day by upper-bound scenario evaluation,
which is higher than the acceptable daily intake (200 ng/kg-bw/day).
This study indicates that infants have far higher exposure levels
to fipronil than adults, while exposure levels to other types of phenylpyrazoles
and diamide insecticides are low.