The latest study proposes that exposure to even moderate amount of pesticides during pregnancy can affect on the birth size of babies. The study findings were based on the study of five hundred newborns in Valencia in years between 2003 and 2006. Researchers tested the umbilical cord blood of newborns for pesticide remains.
They found that those with higher levels of pesticide residues were inclined to be smaller at the time of birth. The chemical under consideration comprise DDT and three additional organochlorines, which is an older group of pesticides that are prohibited in US as well as in other developed countries.
But, the pesticides remain in environment for years. The diet is main possible source of pesticide exposure, with foods full of fat and oily fish, believes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Higher levels of DDT were also associated with reduction in head circumference, while another pesticide HCB was tied to shorter birth length.
One problem is that people are exposed to vast range of chemicals which are present in the environment, foods and household products. Therefore higher levels of pesticide could merely be an indicator of higher chemical exposure in general. Moreover, earlier studies on pesticide and birth size have come to contradictory endings, explained lead author Maria-Jose Lopez-Espinosa.
Their findings raise worries, particularly as women in the study seemed to have comparatively moderate exposure to pesticides during pregnancy. So the association between pesticides and infants’ birth size does not reflect intense exposures, added Lopez-Espinosa from the Center for Public Health Research in Valencia, Spain. The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.
While observing newborns, whose DDT level was above the midpoint, for the study group, researchers found that head circumference of infant was 0.1 inches smaller than infants with DDT level below the midpoint. When it came to HCB, each ten-fold rise in cord-blood levels was associated with a 0.2inch decline in birth length.