Doctors Ask EPA to Help Fight Pesticide Exposure in Farmworkers

A young female farm worker picking fruit in Washington's Yakima Valley came to see Dr. Matthew Keifer after pesticides being sprayed in an adjacent orchard wafted onto her. She arrived with red, swollen eyes and itchy, irritated skin -- classic symptoms of exposure to Paraquat, a common weedkiller that can cause kidney, heart, and liver problems.

Keifer suspected the Paraquat had made her sick, but proving those suspicions was impossible: For many pesticides, no tests exist that would show, definitively, whether or not a person been has exposed to the chemical. Had a test existed, Keifer's patient would have been able to to file a workers compensation claim that, if successful, would have covered the costs of her medical care and given her paid time off while she recovered. Instead, she went without.

"If a person's illness is judged to be work-related, they enter into a care system with excellent financial support and have access to referrals," Keifer says. "If not, they'll be stuck out there in limbo, usually without care."

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Prenatal Pesticide Exposure Tied to Birth Size

Reuters, June 14, 2011
Researchers found that among nearly 500 newborns whose umbilical cord blood was tested for pesticide residues, those with higher levels tended to be smaller at birth.

The chemicals in question include DDT and three other organochlorines -- an older group of pesticides that are now banned or restricted in the U.S. and other developed countries, after research linked them to cancer and other potential health risks.

However, the pesticides persist in the environment for years. In the U.S., diet is the main potential source of exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- with fatty foods, like dairy products and oily fish, topping the list.

In the new study, researchers found that for each 10-fold increase in any of the four pesticides in newborns' cord blood, birth weight dipped by roughly 2 to 4 ounces.

Higher levels of DDT were also linked to a decrease in head circumference, while another pesticide -- hexachlorobenzene (HCB), once used as a fungicide -- was tied to a shorter birth length.

The findings, reported in the journal Pediatrics, do not prove that the pesticides themselves hindered fetal growth.

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Drastically Decrease Your Exposure to BPA by Eating Less Packaged Food

One of the best ways to avoid exposure to the toxic plastics chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) might simply be to cut packaged foods from your diet, says a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Plastic bags, containers, cups, wraps, and other types of food packaging often contain not only BPA, but other harmful plastics chemicals. But by eating only fresh, non-packaged foods, you can reduce your blood levels of these chemicals by up to 90 percent in just three days.

Scientists from both the Breast Cancer Fund and the Silent Spring Institute conducted their study on five families. The families were instructed to remove all packaged foods from their diets for three days, and instead eat only organic foods stored in glass or stainless steel containers. Measured before, during, and after the study, urinary BPA levels dropped an average of 60 percent after just three days. Those with the highest initial levels of BPA saw a 75 percent drop after just three days of non-exposure.

The team also evaluated levels of DEHP; a type of phthalate used in food packaging, and found that after three days of non-exposure, participants' levels dropped an average of 50 percent. Those with the highest initial levels of DEHP saw an astounding 90 percent drop, which indicates that simply removing packaged foods from one's diet, even for just a few days, can virtually eliminate some of these dangerous toxins from the body.

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Exposure to Pesticides in Womb Linked to Learning Disabilities

By Liz Szabo

For related articlesand more information, please visit OCA's Appetite for a Change page, Environmental Resource page, and our Health Resource page.

Babies exposed to high levels of pesticides while in the womb may suffer from learning problems, a new study suggests.

The study focused on a chemical called permethrin, one of the pyrethroid pesticides, commonly used in agriculture and to kill termites, fleas and household bugs, says lead author Megan Horton of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health. Most of the pregnant women in this New York-based study were exposed by spraying for cockroaches.

Permethrin - among the most commonly detected pesticides in homes - is being used more often today as older organophosphorous pesticides are phased out because of concerns that they harm brain development, says Horton, whose study is being published today in Pediatrics.

Researchers measured 348 pregnant women's exposures by asking them to wear backpack air monitors, Horton says. Researchers followed the women and their children for three years.

Children exposed to the highest pesticide levels before birth were three times as likely to have a mental delay compared to children with lower levels, the study says. Children with the highest prenatal exposures also scored about 4 points lower on an intelligence test, the Bayley Mental Developmental Index. That test has a mean score of 100, with most people's scores falling within 15 points of that range.

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