Quantified Activity Patterns for Young Children in Beach Environments Relevant for Exposure to Contaminants

Alesia Ferguson, Ashok Dwivedi, Foluke Adelabu, Esther Ehindero, Mehdi Lamssali, Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi, Kristina Mena and Helena Solo-Gabriele
Additional contact information
Alesia Ferguson: Department of Built Environment, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
Ashok Dwivedi: Department of Built Environment, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
Foluke Adelabu: Department of Built Environment, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
Esther Ehindero: Department of Built Environment, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
Mehdi Lamssali: Department of Built Environment, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi: Department of Built Environment, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, NC 27411, USA
Kristina Mena: Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Evironmental Sciences, University of Texas Houston School of Public Health, Houston, TX 77030, USA
Helena Solo-Gabriele: Department of Civil Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: In a study to evaluate beach play activities, 120 children were videotaped to observe and quantify factors that could influence their exposure to contaminants in the beach environment. Children aged 1 to 6 years were followed by researchers with video cameras at beaches (two in Miami, Florida and two in Galveston, Texas) for approximately one hour each. Factors evaluated included time spent in various beach locations, various activities engaged in, and various surfaces contacted (including contacts by hand and mouth). Activities recorded in the videos were transcribed to text files to allow for quantitative analyses. Across all sexes, age groups, and beaches, Wading was the most common activity and Seawater was the most common location where children played. The left hand was found to not be in contact with objects most of the time, while the right hand, considered the most dominant hand in most cases, contacted Plastic-Toys the most. Although activity patterns collection through videotaping and videotranslation can be labor-intensive, once collected, they can be widely useful for estimates of exposures to all contaminants in the beach environment (e.g., microorganisms and chemicals) as well as UV exposure, with considerations for whether the contaminants are found in water, sand or both. These activity patterns were collected to potentially look at exposures following the Deepwater Horizon 2010 Spill.

Keywords: videotaping; videotranslation; children’s exposure activities; micro-level time series; micro activity patterns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3274/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3274/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3274-:d:521836

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().