Studies Link Pesticide Exposure to Kids' IQ

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/EnvironmentalHealth/26048?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&userid=322971

By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: April 21, 2011

The relationship between prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides and impaired cognition in children has received support from three observational studies conducted in primarily low-income populations.

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"While the three studies are somewhat different in design, the range of specific data obtained, timing of data collection, and populations examined, they provide strikingly similar conclusions relative to the prenatal vulnerability of children for adverse neurological outcomes from exposure to organophosphate pesticides," Rodney Dietert, PhD, an immunotoxicologist at Cornell University, commented in an email to ABC News and MedPage Today.

He noted that the levels of pesticide exposure "were not excessive."

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For each standard deviation increase in exposure (4.61 picograms per gram plasma), full-scale IQ declined by 1.4% (0.94 to 1.8 points) and working memory declined by 2.8% (1.6 to 3.7 points).

The associations appeared to be linear, with no evidence of a threshold effect.

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