Prenatal pesticide exposure linked with lower IQ

[cory777]

Source: Reuters

Babies exposed to pesticides before birth may have significantly lower intelligence scores by age 7 than children who were not exposed, three separate studies published on Thursday said.

Results from the studies -- two in New York and one in an agricultural community in California -- suggest prenatal exposure to pesticides can have a lasting effect on intelligence.

In one study, a team at the University of California Berkeley found that every tenfold increase in prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides corresponded with a 5.5 point drop in overall IQ scores in children by age 7.

"That difference could mean, on average, more kids being shifted into the lower end of the spectrum of learning, and more kids needing special services in school," Berkeley's Brenda Eskenazi, who led one of the three studies published online in Environmental Health Perspectives, said in a statement.

Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/04/21/idINIndia-56483720110421?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&ca=airt&dlvrit=70631

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[aquart]

1. Thank God Mom and Dad never got that house in the suburbs.

Oh, that's right. They had to spend the down payment on my surgery. Lucky for me.

[HankyDubs]

2. What's the matter with Kansas?

I think we just found the answer to that question.

[Tunkamerica]

3. That's an interesting idea but kansas was number 14 in the most convincing graph i saw for 2010

[PJPhreak]

7. I live in Kansas...

And That was my first thought as well!.

[KT2000]

4. You know what is wrong

with news like this? These findings come from environmental research which is separate from our public health and mainstream medicine. Business has been successful at separating this kind of research from anything that could change policy or treatments - mainly for fear of liability.
We have to work to make sure environmental research is integrated into practice and policy.

[SpiralHawk]

5. Combine this with the 2010 Presidents Report on Cancer, and you have a huge indictment

of chemicals and pesticides -- and industrial 'food.'

Gack. Big Ag (R) & Big Food (R) have led us deep deep deep into this cancerous soup in heedless pursuit of the ultimate Republicon Family Value: Mammon.

[DCKit]

6. It's hard to comprehend how neurotoxins could be bad for a fetus.

I'll wait for further studies. :sarcasm:

[Deep13]

8. It's true. I read about it in Duh! magazine. nt

[d_r]

9. household pesticide

My first thought was the exposure to rural children, and especially migrant farm working children, who are such a vulnerable population. Then I began to think about pesticides on food and the value of organic food. But here's the thing:

"Until it was banned for indoor residential use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2001, chlorpyrifos was one of the most widely used insecticides for residential pest control."

These were children exposed prenatally in 1999-2000 before the ban. Prenatal exposure was associated with lower IQ, exposure during infancy was not.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm still concerned about rural and migrant-farm working families exposed to pesticides on crops, and of us eating pesticide residue on food. But that is not what this study was about. This was about in-home pesticide, and I see no reason why that would be higher in rural areas, suburbs, or Kansas than in metropolitan areas, honestly.

[demigoddess]

10. I grew up in Kansas and remember when on a summer evening

the spraying trucks would come around and stray DDT or whatever to kill mosquitos. We would have open windows etc and the next day we would all go around and play in the yard on the grass etc. I think this explains all the republicans. It is the right age group. I thought it was something in the water.

[Odin2005]

11. That explains all the idiots in the high plains.