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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Wake up to children's exposure to pesticides -Reena Gupta

Wake up to children's exposure to pesticides -Reena Gupta

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published Published on Feb 25, 2019   modified Modified on Feb 25, 2019
-The Hindu Business Line

Organophospates, despite being banned elsewhere, have a high presence in India’s food products

As parents, we are constantly striving to provide the right environment for our children. As a mother living in a metro, this writer is of the view that our kids are falling sick more often compared to the previous generation of children. Doctors are of the opinion that since our children are growing up in heavily polluted cities, they are more prone to asthma and other infections.

But there is another factor that young parents need to worry about — early exposure of children to pesticides.

A recent study published in PLOS Journal of Medicine establishes that prenatal exposure to organophosphates puts children at risk of reduced IQs, memory, attention deficits, and autism. Bruce Lanphear, one of the co-authors and a scientist at Simon Fraser University, said: “We found no evidence of a safe level of organophosphate pesticide exposure for children. Well before birth, organophosphate pesticides are disrupting the brain in its earliest stages, putting them on track for difficulties in learning, memory and attention, effects which may not appear until they reach school-age. Government officials around the world need to listen to science, not chemical lobbyists.”

According to Dr Whyatt of Columbia’s Center for Children Environment Health in US, “The problem is that when you have an exposure as ubiquitous as this then you get a distributional shifts in IQ, with fewer people in the brilliant range and more in the lower ranges of IQ.”

Organophosphates (OP) are a group of chemicals that were initially developed as human nerve agents during the 1930s and 1940s to be used by the Nazis during war. These were later adapted as insecticides.

OPs are ubiquitous — a group of pesticides which is rampantly used in agriculture, gardens, pest control in homes and offices. Once OPs are sprayed on food crops, they find their way into the food chain. OPs have been detected in ghee, butter, honey and soft drinks.

OPs have also been known to leech into water bodies close to agricultural fields. This varied exposure from different sources leads to bio accumulation in our bodies.

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The Hindu Business Line, 24 February, 2019, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/wake-up-to-childrens-exposure-to-pesticides/article26358209.ece


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