Pesticide exposure in womb affects IQ
Children exposed to pesticides in the womb are more likely to have significant lower attention and memory at school age compared to babies with no exposure, new studies show.
Three new separate studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives involved over 400 children from urban and rural areas found that prenatal exposed to a widely used pesticide called organophosphates were associated with higher decrease of IQ in children.
Organophosphates or OPs are a widely used class of pesticides from those usually sprayed on fruit and vegetable crops to the insecticides used at homes.
For the studies, scientists from the University of California-Berkeley, and Mount Sinai measured pesticide residues in maternal urine, while the team at Columbia University studied the chemicals in the umbilical cord blood.
All the teams followed the studied children from the time before birth through ages 6 to 9 and measured their IQ using standard tests.
According to Berkeley study, every tenfold increase in prenatal exposure to organophosphates was associated with a 5.5 point drop in overall IQ scores in children by age 7.
In average the IQ tests score is around 100 in general population. However, experts say that even a 2 or 3 points IQ drop due to brain developmental disturbance can have an enormous impact.
“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,” said lead author Brenda Eskenazi from Berkeley.
Moreover, the study revealed that pesticide exposure after birth was not significantly linked with childhood IQ, suggesting exposure during fetal brain development was a more critical period than childhood exposure.
The Columbia study also showed that children who were in the highest 25 percent of exposure levels to Organophosphates scored 2.7 points lower on IQ tests than kids whose exposures were in the lowest quarter of the study.
“These studies are unusual in that they are the first to look at prenatal exposure at a low level - at levels that would occur in everyday life, and not levels that would poison us - and followed the children prospectively,” Eskenazi noted.
The three reports support the idea of reducing the use of chemical pesticides in farming industries and replacing them with natural and less harmful pest control strategies.
Experts also suggest families to lower their exposure to the toxic substances by avoiding crops treated with the chemicals and using organic foods instead.
In addition, “the important message here is to wash fruits and vegetables well, not to avoid them,” Eskenazi suggested.
Moreover, mothers-to-be can also reduce exposure to pesticides by using different methods of pest control inside the home, for instance, such as baits and traps rather than sprays, added scientists to the recommendations.
Source: presstv.ir
