RoundUp the children

[Guest guest]

Pesticides - A Greater Threat to Children

March 7, 2006

 

Children are more vulnerable than adults to dangers of all kinds. We

invest in car seats, babysitters, and childproofing our homes knowing

that environments that seem safe for adults are wrought with potential

disaster for the very young. However, we do not adequately protect kids

from chemical pollution in our environment, even though it too may be

much more dangerous to children than to adults. A new scientific study

shows that children can be up to 164 times more sensitive than adults

to pesticides that frequently contaminate agricultural communities. The

findings strengthen an ongoing lawsuit alleging that the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) is not adequately protecting children from

pesticide exposures.

 

" The science is in: Children are born with lower levels of our bodies'

natural defenses against toxic pesticides, " said Dr. Gina Solomon,

M.D., a physician and senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense

Council (NRDC). " Yet EPA too often ignores the clear scientific

evidence and fails to protect the most vulnerable people from these

dangerous chemicals. "

 

According to a research team led by Professor Brenda Eskenazi at the

University of California, Berkeley, newborn children can be 65 to 164

times more vulnerable than adults to the common agricultural pesticides

chlorpyrifos (Lorsban) and diazinon. The new study was published in the

scientific journal Pharmacogenetics and Genomics in March 2006.

 

The Berkeley researchers worked with 130 Latina mothers and children in

the Salinas Valley agricultural region of California starting in 1998 .

Blood samples from both groups were analyzed for a key enzyme (known as

PON1) which normally helps the human body detoxify the class of

pesticides known as organophosphates. Higher levels of the enzyme help

protect people from being poisoned by these chemicals. The researchers

examined levels of PON1 to predict the women and children's

sensitivities to these pesticides.

 

The study found great variations among individuals in their PON1 levels

and concomitant sensitivity to organophosphates. Some of the women

studied were 14 times more sensitive to diazinon and 35 times more

sensitive to chlorpyrifos than other women. Some of the newborns were

26 times more sensitive to diazinon and 65 times more sensitive to

chlorpyrifos than other newborns. The researchers also found that the

newborns had consistently lower levels of the protective enzyme than

the mothers, making them about four times more sensitive. When the

scientists compared across the entire group, the most sensitive

newborns were 65 times more sensitive to diazinon and 131 to 164 times

more sensitive to chlorpyrifos than the average mother.

 

The results of the Berkeley study call into question EPA's practices to

protect children and the public in general from pesticide exposure. Due

to differences in chemical tolerance between individuals, regulators

apply " uncertainty factors " when determining the maximum levels of

pesticides that they think people can be exposed to without harm.

Regulators reduce recommended exposure levels by a factor of 10 to

account for the fact that some people are more sensitive than others.

The Food Quality Protection Act also mandates the addition of a " child

protection factor " reducing pesticide exposure levels by another factor

of 10 if data exist that show that children are more sensitive or if

key data are not available.

 

The Berkeley study indicates that both mothers' and children's

sensitivity to certain pesticides may be substantially greater than the

uncertainty factors used by EPA. NRDC and the Northwest Coalition for

Alternatives to Pesticides are using the study as further evidence in

their ongoing lawsuit charging that EPA fails to protect children from

pesticide exposure in foods including fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs,

meat, cereal grains and vegetable oils. The case is being heard by the

9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

 

EPA banned chlorpyrifos and diazinon for household use in December 2001

and December 2002 respectively largely because of hazards to children,

but it allowed continued use on agricultural crops. More than 1.78

million pounds of chlorpyrifos were used in California in 2004, the

most recent year for which data are available. The top uses were on

cotton, alfalfa, almonds and walnuts. More than 490,000 pounds of

diazinon were used in California in 2004, mostly on lettuce, peaches,

almonds, prunes and spinach. In 2001, the most recent year for which

EPA has reported data, about 20 percent of all foods for sale had

residues of one or more organophosphate pesticides. The highest

residues of chlorpyrifos tend to show up on apples from New Zealand,

grapes from Chile, tomatoes from Mexico and domestically grown soybeans

according to the University Of California report.

 

Chlorpyrifos has also recently been found to depress levels of the

nervous system enzyme cholinesterase in one out of ten farmworkers

studied in the state of Washington. " We're all exposed to pesticides in

the foods we eat, " said Margaret Reeves, Ph.D., senior scientist at the

Pesticide Action Network of North America. " But it's the farmworkers

and the fence line communities in agricultural areas that are hit the

hardest. " Altogether, these studies indicate that chemical-intensive

agriculture extracts a high price from rural residents--especially the

children.

 

Sources:

Furlong, Clement E., Nina Holland, Rebecca J. Richter, Asa Bradman,

Alan Ho and Brenda Eskenazi. 2006. " PON1 status of farmworker mothers

and children as a predictor of organophosphate sensitivity, "

Pharmacogenetics and Genomics 16:183-190.

 

NRDC Press Backgrounder. 2003. " NRDC Sues EPA (Again) for Failing to

Carry Out Pesticide Control Law. "

www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/030915a.asp

 

Farm Worker Pesticide Project, Columbia Legal Services, Farmworker

Justice Fund, and United Farm Workers. 2006. More Messages from

Monitoring: Year 2 of Washington State's Farm Worker Medical Tracking

Program.

http://www.fwpp.org/?page=MedicalMonitoring

Contact: Panna

 

 

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