For years epidemiologists have seen hints of a link between pesticide exposure and autism. As of July 30, 2007, these days are over. Scientists working for the California Department of Health Services have found that pregnant women living near fields sprayed with the common insecticides dicofol and endosulfan were six-times more likely to give birth to children with “Autism Spectrum Disorders” (ASD) than women living many miles from treated fields.
Six-times higher risk – it is very rare for such a large and statistically significant difference to be found in a study of this kind. Plus, the authors report that the closer a mother lived to treated fields, and/or the more pounds of pesticides applied, the greater the risk.
These two insecticides are the last widely used organochlorines – the family of insecticides including DDT, chlordane, aldrin, and toxaphene, among others. Both are known endocrine disruptors, they are persistent in the environment, and bioaccumulate up food chains. Residues of these insecticides, in particular endosulfan, are common in conventional fruits and vegetables, especially imports. This study should compel the EPA to finally take decisive action to end exposures to these two insecticides.
Read the study (Environmental Health Perspectives)
The study, published online in the journal The Lancet, warns of the potential “silent pandemic” that may be a result of the exposure to an array of toxic chemicals in the environment.
Lead author of the study, Philippe Grandjean, of the Harvard School of Public Health, warned that there would be an enormous cost to society if childhood exposure to the many developmental disrupting chemicals was not regulated.
Grandjean warned that once the damage had been done to children’s developing brains, which were much more susceptible to the effects of small doses of chemicals, it was irreversible.
