Friday, January 17, 2025
1/17/2025
There is an urgent need for expanded biomonitoring capacity in rural Wisconsin. Over 25% residents live in rural areas and over 900,000 rely on drinking water from private wells. State agency testing efforts found over 47% of private wells sampled exceeding one or more health-based standards. Wisconsin has over 58,500 farms with a total of 8,759,841 acres of harvested cropland. By far Wisconsin’s largest crop yields are in corn and soybeans, crops with the heaviest application of pesticides in the US. Pesticide exposure is of great public health concern as it has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and certain types of cancers. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) proposes a longitudinal, community biomonitoring investigation among rural communities who are most at-risk for exposure to groundwater contaminants. DHS will leverage ongoing collaborations with University of Wisconsin’s State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH) and the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) program to conduct retrospective and prospective biomonitoring for pesticides and metals. Longitudinal analysis will allow for examining changes in exposure over time. Biomonitoring will focus on three regions in the state with known groundwater susceptibility to environmental exposures that present a risk to public health using Strategy A (Community Biomonitoring Investigations). Results from this project will be used to inform public health outreach, improve policies, and advance our understanding of environmental health in rural populations. A biomonitoring advisory board will be established at the onset of the project to ensure we are meeting the needs of the community and state goals with representatives from the local community and state agencies. SHOW will be used as the target population. SHOW is the only statewide representative cohort modeled after National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. For the retrospective sampling, a random sample of adults age 18 and over at the time of specimen collection will be drawn from 3 regions in Wisconsin—South Central, Central Sands, and Western—that include the greatest density of cultivated land. The final analytic retrospective sample will be 600 from SHOW’s 2008-2017 statewide representative cohort. The same selection criteria for the retrospective component will be used as described above to follow-up n=300 adults for prospective specimen and survey collection. The final prospective sample will be stratified by high/medium/low density of crop cover near residence (n=100 per strata). All lab specimens will be analyzed by the WSLH for a panel of pesticides and heavy metals. Throughout this project, we will share any communications materials to advisory board members and the SHOW participants on any health behavior changes related to lowering risk of exposure to pesticides and heavy metals. We will return results when there are health-based standards (along with NHANES comparison, when available), along with a flyer with suggested and affordable ways to reduce pesticide exposure. Regular engagement with the local community and the advisory board will be essential to the success of this project. We will report to CDC periodically on our monitoring and evaluation efforts.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).