Co-detection of azoxystrobin and thiabendazole fungicides in mold and mildew resistant wallboards and in children

Wenxin Hu; Yun-Chung Hsiao; Nikolas Morrison-Welch; Sophia Lamberti; Chih-Wei Liu; Weili Lin; Stephanie M Engel; Kun Lu; Mark J Zylka

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27980

Co-detection of azoxystrobin and thiabendazole fungicides in mold and mildew resistant wallboards and in children

Heliyon. 2024 Mar 13;10(6):e27980. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27980. eCollection 2024 Mar 30.

Authors

Wenxin Hu^{1

2}, Yun-Chung Hsiao³, Nikolas Morrison-Welch^{1

2}, Sophia Lamberti^{1

2}, Chih-Wei Liu³, Weili Lin⁴, Stephanie M Engel⁵, Kun Lu³, Mark J Zylka^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ UNC Neuroscience Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
² Department of Cell Biology & Physiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
³ Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.
⁴ Biomedical Research Imaging Center and Department of Radiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
⁵ Department of Epidemiology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁶ Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA.

Abstract

The study measured the levels of azoxystrobin (AZ) and thiabendazole (TBZ) in wallboards and metabolite levels of these fungicides in children. The paper covering of wallboard samples contained a higher concentration of AZ and TBZ than the gypsum core, and similar amounts (w/w) of these two fungicides were present in the samples. These data suggest that commercial products containing a 1:1 (w/w) amount of AZ and TBZ, such as Sporgard® WB or Azo Tech™, were applied to the wallboard paper. This is the first detection of TBZ in mold-and-mildew resistant wallboards. The TBZ metabolite, 5OH-TBZ, was detected in 48% of urine samples collected from children aged 40-84 months, and was co-detected with AZ-acid, a common AZ metabolite, in 37.5% of the urine samples. The detection frequency of 5OH-TBZ was positively associated with the detection frequency of AZ-acid. These findings suggest that certain types of wallboards used in homes and commercial buildings may be a potential source of co-exposure to AZ and TBZ in humans.

Keywords: Azoxystrobin; Exposure pathway; Thiabendazole; Wallboard.

Grants and funding

P50 HD103573/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States