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Pesticide chlorpyrifos associated with childhood developmental delays | Exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos is associated
with early childhood developmental delays, according to a study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Findings of the study,
"Chlorpyrifos Exposure and Urban Residential Environment Characteristics as Determinants of Early Childhood Neurodevelopment," are online in the American Journal of Public Health. The study examined the association between exposure to the pesticide and mental and physical impairments in children in low-income areas of New York City neighbourhoods in the South Bronx and Northern Manhattan. Chlorpyrifos was commonly used in these neighbourhoods until it was banned for household use by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2001. It is still used as an agricultural pesticide on fruits and vegetables. "This study helps to fill in the gaps about what is known about the effect of the pesticide chlorpyrifos on the development of young children by showing that there is a clear-cut association between this chemical and delayed mental and motor skill development in children even when there are other potentially harmful environmental factors present," said Gina Lovasi, PhD, lead author and Mailman School of Public Health assistant professor of epidemiology. Dr. Lovasi conducted the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Health & Society Scholar at the Mailman School. As in previous research in the
same study population, published in Pediatrics in 2006, this study controlled
for gender, gestational age at birth, ethnicity, maternal education, maternal
intelligence quotient, and exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy. What
this study adds is that building dilapidation and community-level factors such
as percentage of residents living in poverty do not explain the association. After
controlling for these factors, the research indicates that high chlorpyrifos exposure
(greater than 6.17 pg/g in umbilical cord blood at the time of birth) was associated
with a 6.5-point decrease in the Psychomotor Development Index score and a 3.3-point
decrease in the Mental Development Index score in 3-year-olds. "These associations
remained statistically significant and similar in magnitude after accounting for
dilapidated housing and neighborhood characteristics," noted Dr. Lovasi. Of the
266 children included as study participants, 47 percent were male, 59 percent
were Hispanic of Dominican descent and 41 percent were Black. In addition, children
living in neighborhoods with the highest levels of poverty also had lower test
scores-a finding that was not affected by pesticide exposure. Young children have
greater exposure to pesticides than adults, since they tend to play on the floor
or in the grass areas where pesticides are commonly applied and to place their
hands and objects in their mouths. Pregnant women exposed to pesticides can also
expose their unborn children to the chemicals.
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