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April 30th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda MONDAY, April 30 (HealthDay News) — A new, small study links
maternal exposure to a commonly used insecticide to unusual changes in the
brain structures of young children, although the research doesn’t
definitely prove that the pesticide is at fault.
The findings raise more questions about the safety of the insecticide,
known as chlorpyrifos, which is used to treat farm products in the United
States but has been almost entirely banned in homes. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency says exposure to the insecticide in
children through food is “below the level of concern.”
“People should wash their fruits and vegetables very carefully before
eating, and pregnant women should not be working in agricultural settings
where there might be an occupational exposure,” said study lead author
Virginia Rauh, deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children’s
Environmental Health at Columbia University.
Chlorpyrifos is widely used to kill insects on farms. “It is used on
corn, many types of fruits, many types of leafy green vegetables and
cotton,” Rauh said. “It’s also used for a variety of other commercial
purposes — as a spray to control pests on golf courses, road medians,
Christmas tree farms and at various other places.” People are often
exposed through insecticide residue on fruits and vegetables, Rauh said.
Previous research has linked indoor residential exposure in pregnant
mothers to lower birth weights. “We found evidence that there was poorer
cognitive [mental] development and potentially more behavior problems in
kids who were exposed,” Rauh said.
In the new study, the researchers used MRI machines to scan the brains
of 40 children aged 5 to 11 years. The mothers of 20 of them had high
levels of exposure to the insecticide while they were pregnant with the
children.
The mothers of the other 20 kids had low levels of exposure. The brains
of the kids with high exposure were more likely to have certain enlarged
structures in the brain. They also had thinning in some parts of the
brain.
Rauh acknowledged that the study doesn’t prove a direct
cause-and-effect link between the insecticide and the differences in the
brains between the children. One possibility is that the mothers of the
children had different diets or were exposed to other chemicals in their
homes or workplaces, but Rauh said they share one similarity: Most came
from a low-income section of Manhattan and almost all were poor.
The findings are worrisome because the differences in brain structure
appear to be harmful, she said. “An abnormal enlargement would not
necessarily be a good thing.”
In addition, there are links between the sizes of parts of the brain
and problems with behavior and thinking, she said.
At the moment, Rauh said, she and her colleagues are studying whether
they can link exposure to the insecticide to long-lasting changes in
behavior in kids at ages 9 and 10.
Dr. Bruce Lanphear, a professor of health sciences who studies
environmental risks at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British
Columbia, praised the study but acknowledged it doesn’t prove the
insecticide is harmful. However, he said, “even though this paper is not
the final word, it builds on existing studies that basically say [author]
Rachel Carson was right: Widespread exposure to toxins is likely to cause
fairly severe disease.”
He asked: “Are we willing to sacrifice our children’s brains for
profits? That’s the choice we’re making, whether we know it or not.”
Study lead author Rauh said one way to avoid pesticides is to eat
organic food, but it’s expensive. It’s smart to wash produce carefully,
she said, and use less-toxic ways to control pests around the house, such
as bait traps.
Stephanie Engel, an associate professor of epidemiology at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, put it this way: “The general
lesson here is that the dangers that chemicals pose to child development
are not always understood. These children were exposed during a period
when chlorpyrifos was deemed safe for residential use. So it just makes
good sense for pregnant women to be cautious about the chemicals they use
during pregnancy. Even ones that we are told are ‘safe’ may later turn out
to be harmful.”
The study appears online April 30 in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.
More information
For more about the insecticide chlorpyrifos, try the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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