Prenatal pesticide exposure linked to attention problems in preschool-aged children

Children who were exposed to organophosphate pesticides while still in their mother's womb were more likely to develop attention disorders years later, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's School of Public Health.

The new findings, to be published Aug. 19 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), are the first to examine the influence of prenatal organophosphate exposure on the later development of attention problems. The researchers found that prenatal levels of organophosphate metabolites were significantly linked to attention problems at age 5, with the effects apparently stronger among boys.

tractor spraying pesticides on fieldA tractor sprays pesticides on a food crop. A new UC Berkeley study finds a link between prenatal exposure to pesticides and attention problems at age 5.

Earlier this year, a different study by researchers at Harvard University associated greater exposure to organophosphate pesticides in school-aged children with higher rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.

"These studies provide a growing body of evidence that organophosphate pesticide exposure can impact human neurodevelopment, particularly among children," said the study's principal investigator, Brenda Eskenazi, UC Berkeley professor of epidemiology and of maternal and child health. "We were especially interested in prenatal exposure because that is the period when a baby's nervous system is developing the most."

The researchers followed more than 300 children participating in the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS), a longitudinal study led by Eskenazi that examines environmental exposures and reproductive health. Because the mothers and children in the study are Mexican-Americans living in an agricultural community, their exposure to pesticides is likely higher and more chronic, on average, than that of the general U.S. population.