Pesticides and attention problems...

Washington
Children whose mothers were exposed to certain types of pesticides while pregnant were more likely to have attention problems as they grew up, US researchers reported today. The study, published in Environmental Health Perspectives, adds to evidence that organophosphate pesticides can affect the human brain. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley tested pregnant women for evidence that organophosphate pesticides had actually been absorbed by their bodies, and then followed their children as they grew. Women with more chemical traces of the pesticides in their urine while pregnant had children more likely to have symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, at age 5, the researchers found. ''While results of this study are not conclusive, our findingssuggest that prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides mayaffect young children's attention,'' Amy Marks and colleagues wrotein the study, available at http://ehponline.org/article/info:doi/10.1289/ehp.1002234
August 2010