Prenatal exposure to pesticides drops IQ

Pregnant women and unborn children exposed to pesticides have significantly lower intelligence scores as early as age 7. Three separate studies confirm it.

The studies from New York and California suggest that pesticides have a lasting effect on the babies born after maternal exposure.

One study from UC Berkeley found that every tenfold increase in prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides equaled a 5.5 drop in overall IQ. “That difference could mean, on average, more kids being shifted into the lower end of the spectrum of learning, and more kids needing special services in school,” Brenda Eskenazi of Berkeley said. She led one of the three studies published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

The other two studies are from Mount Sinai Medical Center and Columbia University. They studied the same thing: IQ decline after prenatal pesticide exposure. They tested samples of maternal urine or umbilical cord blood, respectively, to measure exposure. In both instances the IQ levels were significantly lower after seven years. They were looking for chlorpyrifos which was banned in 2001 because of its toxicity to brain cells.

The UC Berkeley team determined that it was on exposure during pregnancy. Exposure to the pesticides after birth did not have the same negative effect.

“It is vitally important that we continue to monitor the levels of exposure in potentially vulnerable populations, especially in pregnant women in agricultural communities, as their infants may continue to be at risk,” Dr. Robin Whyatt of Columbia concluded.

Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, Reuters