Studies Highlight the Developmental Impacts of Pesticides

Two New EHP Studies Highlight the Developmental Impacts of Pesticides

A team of scientists funded by the U.S. government studied the impact of proximity to pesticide applications and the risk of childhood cancer in a sophisticated, nation-wide study that included records on over 25 million children up to 14 years old.

The team found elevated risk for several types of childhood cancers as a function of living in areas with intensive pesticide use.  Elevated cancer risk was found for Hodgkin lymphoma, Wilms' tumor, renal carcinomas, Ewing's sarcoma, thyroid cancers, and malignant melanoma.

Moreover, there was "a remarkably consistent dose-response effect seen for counties having greater than 60% of the total county acreage devoted to farming."

Danish scientists studied male reproductive development among children born to women working during pregnancy in the greenhouse industry in Denmark.  Sons of mothers working in greenhouses in the high-pesticide exposure group had triple the risk of cryptorchidism (a malformation of male genitals), compared to boys raised in Copenhagen.  The sons of women working in greenhouses  suffered from a variety of  reproductive abnormalities and/or problems and various reproductive system hormone imbalances.

The authors point out that these adverse developmental effects occurred despite the very strict worker-safety protocols in place in the Danish greenhouse industry

Sources:
S.E. Carozza et al., "Risk of Childhood Cancers Associated with Residence in Agriculturally Intense Areas in the U.S," and

H.R. Andersen et al., "Impaired Reproductive Development in Sons of Women Occupationally Exposed to Pesticides during Pregnancy," Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 116, No. 4, April 2008.