Pesticide exposure at conception increases birth defect risk

Dr. Martha Grout — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:48:00 +0000

April 6, 2009br /br /Researchers analyzed all 30.1 million births in the United States between 1996 and 2002 and found that birth defect rates were highest among women who’d conceived between April and July. Pesticide exposure might help explain why, according to a new study reported in the journal Acta Pediatrica.br /br /During those same months, surface-water concentrations of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals generally increase. Some of the chemicals tracked in the study, such as the weed killer atrazine, are suspected of causing harm to developing embryos.br /br /a href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0cOzDp89I/AAAAAAAAACo/daP9GjuJFdQ/s1600-h/pesticidespraying.jpg”img style=”float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 142px; height: 102px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CpmH6pmUk9A/Sd0cOzDp89I/AAAAAAAAACo/daP9GjuJFdQ/s200/pesticidespraying.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”"id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322441375171081170″ //a”While our study didn’t prove a cause and effect link, the fact that birth defects and pesticides in surface water peak during the same four months makes us suspect that the two are related,” lead researcher Dr. Paul Winchester, of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, noted in a written statement.br /br /”What we are most excited about,” he said, “is that if our suspicions are right and pesticides are contributing to birth defect risk, we can reverse or modify the factors that are causing these lifelong and often very serious medical problems.”br /br /strongDr. Grout’s Comment:/strongbr /br /In WWI, mustard gas and other poisons were used to kill human beings by way of destroying their nervous system. Then chemists got the bright idea that a less potent formulation would kill just bugs and thus the pesticide industry was born.br /br /The California Birth Defects Monitoring Program reports that three out of every four women are exposed to pesticides around the home – from pet flea collars to what the neighbors spray. They also observed that pregnant women exposed to household gardening pesticides had a modest risk increase for oral clefts, neural tube defects, heart defects, and limb defects.br /br /During the first trimester of pregnancy, the baby’s nervous system is rapidly developing. It’s common sense to avoid pesticides especially at that time. Pesticides are also implicated in breast cancer. And many people with a href=”http://www.arizonaadvancedmedicine.com/articles/multiple_chemical_sensitivity.html”multiple chemical sensitivities/a report that a close encounter with pesticides seems to have triggered their illness.div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4769404502414351890-5792063928522521816?l=arizonaadvancedmedicine.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

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Pesticide exposure at conception increases birth defect risk