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

As a very young girl I remember feeling the ill effects of "bug sprays." As an Educational Consultant/Therapist since the opening of APOGEE Learning Enhancement Training Systems™ in 1983, I have consistently witnessed the ravages of insecticides, herbicides, and the now, all inclusive pesticides on the growth, development and well being of children. In 2005, after reading the research validating all of my own observations and concerns, I launched a campaign to bring my community into greater awareness, greater understanding, and to move to responsible action. This resulted in the, "Rockland County Non-Toxic Land Maintenance Act, June, 2008: Beyond Pesticides Daily News Blog » Blog Archive » Rockland Co. NY Legislature Passes Non-Toxic Landscape Act ~ http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=374

We as parents, as educators, as caring members of society, can no longer dismiss the need to protect our children from neurological insults, and compromised immune and digestive systems resulting from exposure to pesticides. This recent report certainly warrants our attention and action for change.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

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

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations | 19 August 2010

BERKELEY — 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, 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.

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.

Yet, the researchers pointed out that the pesticides they examined are widely used, and that the results from this study are a red flag that warrants precautionary measures.

"It's known that food is a significant source of pesticide exposure among the general population," said Eskenazi. "I would recommend thoroughly washing fruits and vegetables before eating them, especially if you're pregnant."

Organophosphate pesticides act by disrupting neurotransmitters, particularly acetylcholine, which plays an important role in sustaining attention and short-term memory.

"Given that these compounds are designed to attack the nervous system of organisms, there is reason to be cautious, especially in situations where exposure may coincide with critical periods of fetal and child development," said study lead author Amy Marks, who was an analyst at UC Berkeley's School of Public Health at the time of the study.

Many of these same UC Berkeley researchers are also finding that children with certain genetic traits may be at greater risk, a finding that is being published the same day in a separate EHP paper. That study found that 2-year-olds with lower levels of paraoxonase 1 (PON1), an enzyme that breaks down the toxic metabolites of organophosphate pesticides, had more neurodevelopmental delays than those with higher levels of the enzyme. The authors suggested that people with certain PON1 genotypes could be particularly vulnerable to pesticide exposure.

In the study on attention problems, researchers tested for six metabolites of organophosphate pesticides in mothers twice during pregnancy and in the children several times after birth. Together, the metabolites represent the breakdown products of about 80 percent of all the organophosphate pesticides used in the Salinas Valley.

The researchers then evaluated the children at age 3.5 and 5 years for symptoms of attention disorders and ADHD using maternal reports of child behavior, performance on standardized computer tests, and behavior ratings from examiners. They controlled for potentially confounding factors such as birthweight, lead exposure and breastfeeding.

Each tenfold increase in prenatal pesticide metabolites was linked to having five times the odds of scoring high on the computerized tests at age 5, suggesting a greater likelihood of a child having clinical ADHD. The effect appeared to be stronger for boys than for girls.

While a positive link between prenatal pesticide exposure and attention problems was seen for 3.5-year-olds, it was not statistically significant, a finding that did not surprise the researchers.

"Symptoms of attention disorders are harder to recognize in toddlers, since kids at that age are not expected to sit down for significant lengths of time," said Marks. "Diagnoses of ADHD often occur after a child enters school."

The UC Berkeley researchers are continuing to follow the children in the CHAMACOS study as they get older, and expect to present more results in the years to come.

The findings add to the list of chemical assaults that have been linked to ADHD in recent years. In addition to pesticides, studies have found associations with exposure to lead and to phthalates, which are commonly used in toys and plastics.

"High levels of the symptoms of ADHD by age 5 are a major contributor to learning and achievement problems in school, accidental injuries at home and in the neighborhood, and a host of problems in peer relationships and other essential competencies," said UC Berkeley psychology professor Stephen Hinshaw, one of the country's leading experts on ADHD, who was not part of this study. "Finding preventable risk factors is therefore a major public health concern."

Other co-authors of the paper on attention problems are Kim Harley, Asa Bradman, Katherine Kogut and Caroline Johnson at UC Berkeley's Center for Children's Environmental Health Research; Dana Boyd Barr at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health; and Norma Calderon at the Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas.

The authors of the PON1 paper include Nina Holland and Karen Huen at UC Berkeley's Center for Children's Environmental Health Research.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety helped fund this research.

And from Paul Tukey of SafeLawns.org

"OF MAJOR PERSONAL INTEREST TO ME was a study that hit on Aug. 17 linking exposure to pesticides in utero as a cause of ADHD. As a father of a son with severe ADHD, I’ve carried around that burden of guilt for almost 18 years. He was conceived during peak pesticide application season and to have this study come out after all these years is validation of my worst fears. Read this one and spread the word; it’s important: http://www.safelawns.org/blog/index.php/2010/08/yet-another-study-links-pesticide-exposure-to-adhd/. Direct link to article: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/life/health/certain-pesticides-linked-to-attention-problems-in-young-kids-study–101055084.html. "

Be informed - awareness - responsive action - change -

greater assurance for well being.

For additional information and recent research findings:

Beyond Pesticides - Pesticide-Induced Diseases

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/health/index.htm

Pesticides 101 - A Primer | Pesticide Action Network
http://www.panna.org/issues/pesticides-101-primer

A Wake-Up Story

www.Awakeupstory.org

A Wake-Up Story is a must-see video for every parent and anyone that cares about the health and development of children. Watch it. Share it. Join the movement.

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Toxic Assault On Our Children - Call to Action

Introducing:

A Chemical Reaction

SafeLawns.org - A Chemical Reaction
http://www.safelawns.org/chemical-reaction/

A Chemical Reaction, an award-winning documentary film, while being a heart-warming, inspirational, human-interest story about the origin of the natural lawn care movement in Canada and the U.S., is also a powerful tool for individuals and organizations interested in reducing and/or eliminating pesticides from the environment, especially around homes and schools.

Twelve years ago when I first became aware of the abuses of pesticides, I did not want to believe that there would be programs put into place that would allow these toxic chemicals to be applied to lawns, golf courses, playgrounds, sports fields and school grounds. The story put forward by Rachel Carson, in "Silent Spring" is not yet a closed chapter. Those of us who have personally lived the ravages and devastation of toxic chemicals know that was is put forth in the documented text, "Poisoned Profits" is an unfortunate reality that requires our attention and action.

Focused and persistent action with right intention does reap benefit: Rockland Co. NY Legislature Passes Non-Toxic Landscape Act - June, 2008 http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=374 - This indeed an example - think globally - act locally - and on May 19, 2010, Governor Paterson signed into law, the New York State Child Safe Playing Fields Act, which bans the use of chemical pesticides on school playing fields and playgrounds. APOGEE Learning: YES! YES! Our Voices Heard: http://apogeelearning.blogspot.com/2010/05/yes-yes-our-voices-heard.html These changes because WE the PEOPLE educated the policy makers and decision makers. We cannot assume that all those in government making decisions are "all knowing."

"Why does the toxic assault on our children´s environmental health continue?: because the evidence is routinely obscured by controversy deliberately generated by the companies that profit, abetted by government collusion, scientists-for-hire, lobbyists, lawyers and cynical public relations. " In, "Poisoned Profits," journalists Alice Shabecoff and Philip Shabecoff directly and definitively link industrial toxins to the current rise in childhood disease and death. In the tradition of Silent Spring, POISONED PROFITS: the Toxic Assault on Our Children is a landmark investigation, an eye-opening account of a country that prizes money over children's health.

With indisputable data, the Shabecoffs reveal that the children of baby boomers—the first to be raised in a truly “toxified world”—have higher rates of birth defects, asthma, cancer, autism and a frightening range of other neurological illnesses from ADHD to mental retardation, and other serious chronic illnesses compared to previous generations.

They reveal that one out of two pregnancies fails to come to term or results in a less than healthy child, that premature births and infertility are on the rise as this generation matures, while the ratio of male babies dwindles.

These children are victims of a (perhaps unwitting) crime; the perpetrators are the companies who manufacture and use poisonous products. Environmental exposures from conception to early life can set a person´s cellular code for life and can cause illness at any time from childhood until old age. "

FOR MORE Information: http://www.poisonedprofits.com/
Hipsqueak » » Poisoned for Profit: An interview with Alice Shabecoff: http://kids.blogs.chicago.timeout.com/2010/05/26/poisoned-for-profit-an-interview-with-alice-shabecoff/

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Keeping Natural Natural - Our Children Deserve No Less

Study: ADHD linked to pesticide exposure. This is why food/nutritional guidance, chemical/pesticide exposure, need be part of understanding behavior and development of children across the age span. Before "medicating" a child for attention, learning and behavior problems, become aware of contributing factors. Our children deserve no less.

APOGEE Learning™ has long recognized the need and significance of assessing a child's exposure to toxins, allergens, pesticides, that may be present in a home, a playground, a school, a park, a community. We cannot continue to compromise the health, well being, and learning potential of our children. Let us couple awareness with action for protection.

Study: ADHD linked to pesticide exposure

By Sarah Klein, Health.com
May 17, 2010 7:10 a.m. EDT

Is enough being done to protect us from chemicals that could harm us? Watch "Toxic America," a special two-night investigative report with Sanjay Gupta M.D., June 2 & 3 at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.

(Health.com) -- Children exposed to higher levels of a type of pesticide found in trace amounts on commercially grown fruit and vegetables are more likely to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder than children with less exposure, a nationwide study suggests.

Researchers measured the levels of pesticide byproducts in the urine of 1,139 children from across the United States. Children with above-average levels of one common byproduct had roughly twice the odds of getting a diagnosis of ADHD, according to the study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics.

Exposure to the pesticides, known as organophosphates, has been linked to behavioral and cognitive problems in children in the past, but previous studies have focused on communities of farm workers and other high-risk populations. This study is the first to examine the effects of exposure in the population at large.

Organophosphates are "designed" to have toxic effects on the nervous system, says the lead author of the study, Maryse Bouchard, Ph.D., a researcher in the department of environmental and occupational health at the University of Montreal. "That's how they kill pests."

The pesticides act on a set of brain chemicals closely related to those involved in ADHD, Bouchard explains, "so it seems plausible that exposure to organophosphates could be associated with ADHD-like symptoms."

Environmental Protection Agency regulations have eliminated most residential uses for the pesticides (including lawn care and termite extermination), so the largest source of exposure for children is believed to be food, especially commercially grown produce. Adults are exposed to the pesticides as well, but young children appear to be especially sensitive to them, the researchers say.

Detectable levels of pesticides are present in a large number of fruits and vegetables sold in the U.S., according to a 2008 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited in the study. In a representative sample of produce tested by the agency, 28 percent of frozen blueberries, 20 percent of celery, and 25 percent of strawberries contained traces of one type of organophosphate. Other types of organophosphates were found in 27 percent of green beans, 17 percent of peaches, and 8 percent of broccoli.

Although kids should not stop eating fruits and vegetables, buying organic or local produce whenever possible is a good idea, says Bouchard.

"Organic fruits and vegetables contain much less pesticides, so I would certainly advise getting those for children," she says. "National surveys have also shown that fruits and vegetables from farmers' markets contain less pesticides even if they're not organic. If you can buy local and from farmers' markets, that's a good way to go."

A direct cause-and-effect link between pesticides and ADHD "is really hard to establish," says Dana Boyd Barr, Ph.D., a professor of environmental and occupational health at Emory University. However, she says, "There appears to be some relation between organophosphate pesticide exposure and the development of ADHD."

This is the largest study of its kind to date, according to Barr, who researched pesticides for more than 20 years in her previous job with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but was not involved in the study.

Bouchard and her colleagues analyzed urine samples from children ages 8 to 15. The samples were collected during an annual, nationwide survey conducted by the CDC, known as the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The researchers tested the samples for six chemical byproducts (known as metabolites) that result when the body breaks down more than 28 different pesticides. Nearly 95 percent of the children had at least one byproduct detected in their urine.

Just over 10 percent of the children in the study were diagnosed with ADHD. The kids were judged to have ADHD if their symptoms (as reported by parents) met established criteria for the disorder, or if they had taken ADHD medication regularly in the previous year.

One group of pesticide byproducts was associated with a substantially increased risk of ADHD. Compared with kids who had the lowest levels, the kids whose levels were 10 times higher were 55 percent more likely to have ADHD. (Another group of byproducts did not appear to be linked to the disorder.)

In addition, children with higher-than-average levels of the most commonly detected byproduct -- found in roughly 6 in 10 kids -- were nearly twice as likely to have ADHD.

"It's not a small effect," says Bouchard. "This is 100 percent more risk."

To isolate the effect of the pesticide exposure on ADHD symptoms, the researchers controlled for a variety of health and demographic factors that could have skewed the results.

Still, the study had some limitations and is not definitive, Bouchard says. Most notably, she and her colleagues measured only one urine sample for each child, and therefore weren't able to track whether the levels of pesticide byproducts were constant, or whether the association between exposure and ADHD changed over time.

Long-term studies including multiple urine samples from the same children are needed, Bouchard says. She suspects such studies would show an even stronger link between pesticide byproducts and ADHD.

EPA spokesman Dale Kemery said in a statement that the agency routinely reviews the safety of all pesticides, including organophosphates. "We are currently developing a framework to incorporate data from studies similar to this one into our risk assessment," Kemery said. "We will look at this study and use the framework to decide how it fits into our overall risk assessment."

Kemery recommended that parents try other pest-control tactics before resorting to pesticide use in the home or garden. Washing and peeling fruits and vegetables and eating "a varied diet" will also help reduce potential exposure to pesticides, he said.

"I would hope that this study raises awareness as to the risk associated with pesticide exposure," Bouchard says. "There's really only a handful of studies on this subject out there, so there's room for more awareness."

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Making the Link Between Chemicals and Learning Disabilities

A lone voice now joined in a chorus. A resounding echo now heard. Pesticides, herbicides, chemical insult and onslaught have compromised the growth and development of children. As an Educational Therapist in private practice since 1983, I have seen the devastating effects upon physical well being and upon auto immune system compromise in children, youth and adults across the age span. What is now making headlines is a perspective I held when I started my campaign in 1972, in regard to "learning disabilities." What was obvious then, but blatantly ignored, discounted, minimized, is now touted for our attention. No longer are there but a "few" counted with adverse reactions to chemical and pesticide insult. The ill effects are pervasive, documented and consequential. OUR CHILDREN deserve our enlightened awareness and action for change!! Rose Marie Raccioppi: http://www.apogeelearning.com

PANNA: Making the Link Between Chemicals and Learning Disabilities ~ Pesticide Action Network North America: http://www.panna.org/legacy/gpc/gpc_200308.13.2.09.dv.html

The Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) a new and important U.S. network working on environmental health issues, recently launched a nationwide Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative to raise awareness about the role of neuro-toxicants in the sharp increase in learning and developmental disabilities (LDDs) in children in the U.S. An estimated 12 million U.S. children (17% of youth under 18) are now affected by deafness, blindness, epilepsy, speech deficits, cerebral palsy, delays in growth and development, emotional or behavioral problems, or learning disabilities.(1)

Learning disabilities alone affect 5-10% of children in public schools.(1) Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) conservatively affects 3-6% of all U.S. school children.(2) Within the state of California, the number of children entered into the autism registry increased by 210% between 1987 and 1998. A few studies have suggested that the increase in autism over the past 10-12 years may be as much as tenfold.(3)

Some argue these increases reflect improved diagnostic techniques for conditions which scientists are still attempting to understand. For example, Asperger's Syndrome, one of the conditions considered an "autism spectrum disorder," was added to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual as recently as the early 1990s. In addition, LDDs and autism often manifest as complex sets of behaviors and symptoms, adding to difficulty of their diagnoses and the clinical response.

Research has shown that exposures to certain neurotoxicants such as pesticides (particularly organophosphates and pyrethroids), lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and solvents can disrupt neurological development and can lead to learning disabilities. Even a relatively small exposure to a toxic chemical during a window of vulnerability can have a permanent impact, one that might not occur if the same exposure happened at another time.(4)

The vast majority of chemicals in use today have never been examined for their impacts on the developing brain. Given the vulnerability of the developing brain to chemical exposures, scientists have raised concerns that this lack of information may be affecting many children and preventing us from recognizing the true magnitude of the public health threat.(5)

For example, despite the fact that organophosphate and pyrethoid pesticides are common and 90% of U.S. children have detectable residues of at least one organophosphate pesticide in their bodies,(6) little is known about their effects on the developing brain. In the laboratory, a single low-level exposure to an organophosphate pesticide or a pyrethroid at day 10 of life causes permanent changes in the brain and hyperactivity of rodents.(7) The effects of combined multiple and cumulative exposures experienced by children in the course of their daily lives remains virtually unstudied.

Neuro-developmental toxicants that have been studied, including lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, alcohol, and nicotine, have demonstrated the vulnerability of the developing brain to environmental agents at exposure levels much lower than those having a similar affect on an adult. Scientific understanding of the effects of these toxicants has emerged slowly, and the regulatory response has lagged even further. Meanwhile generations of children have been exposed to these chemicals at levels that may have caused irreversible damage. Evidence of this is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recent consideration of lowering even further the screening threshold of lead, from 10 microgm/dl blood to 5 microgm/dl blood, since impacts have now been documented at these lower levels.(8)

Most support groups for learning and developmental disabilities focus on filling the need for diagnosis and services. The Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI ) bring a coordinated focus on preventing exposure to neurotoxicants to the ongoing work of national learning and disabilities groups. Together with scientists and health groups, LDDI works to raise public awareness, inform lawmakers and support specific legislation to eliminate dangerous neurotoxicants from our environment.

The American Association of Mental Retardation, the Arc of the United States, the Autism Society, Developmental Delay Resources, the National Institute for Literacy, the Epilepsy Foundation, the Asperger Syndrome Coaltion, Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA), and U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), along with almost forty other groups and individuals have already joined LDDI.

LDDI has also formed a small group to focus on Criminal Justice, and will examine the role of environmental contaminants-recognized as risk factors for learning and developmental disabilities-found in disproportionate number in those in the juvenile and criminal justice system. This subgroup has been joined by Communities Against Violence Network, the National Association of Women Judges, and others.

Individuals and groups can sign on to the LDDI Resolution on Environmental Contributors to LDDs and read a summary of the neurotoxicants highlighted in the recent biomonitoring reports released by the CDC and the Environmental Working Group, on the CHE website, http://www.cheforhealth.org.

For more information, please contact Elise Miller at the Institute for Children's Environmental Health, 1646 Dow Road, Freeland, WA 98249, email emiller@iceh.org, phone (360) 331 77904, fax (360) 331-7908, or Frieda Nixdorf at the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, CHE, c/o Commonweal, PO Box 316, Bolinas, CA 94924, website http://www.cheforhealth.org, email info@cheforhealth.org.

Notes

Parrill M. 1996. Research implications for health and human services. In: Learning Disabilities, Lifelong Issues (Cramer S, Ellis W, eds). Baltimore, MD: Paul W. Brookes Publishing.
Goldman L, Genel M, Bezman R, Slanetz P. 1998. Diagnosis and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents. J Am Med Assoc 279(14):1100-1107.
Schettler, T, J Stein, F Reich, and M Valenti. 2000. In Harm--s Way: Toxic threats to child development, Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Ibid.
CHE Partnership Call Notes, Autism, April 23, 2003, http://www.cheforhealth.org/update/Apr2303Notes.html.
Schettler, Ted, Developmental disabilities--impairment of children--s brain development and function: the role of environmental factors, on CHE science website http://www.protectingourhealth.org/newscience/learning/2003-02peerreviewlearningbehavior.htm, adapted from Schettler T. Toxic threats to neurologic development of children. Environ Health Perspectives, 2001 Dec; 109 Suppl 6:813-6.
Ahlbom J, Fredriksson A, Eriksson P. 1995. Exposure to an organophosphate (DFP) during a defined period in neonatal life indusces permanent changes in brain muscarinic receptors and behaviour in adult mice. Brain Res 677:13-19.
Lanphear BP, Dietrich K, Auinger P, Cox C. 2000. Cognitive deficits associated with blood lead concentrations <10 microg/dL in U.S. children and adolescents. Public Health Reports 115(6):521-9.
Herbicides Implicated in Birth Defects

A study published in July 2003 in Environmental Health Perspectives connects herbicides with a variety of birth defects and corroborates earlier findings that the chlorophenoxy herbicides widely used in grain farming are a significant health risk.

The July study found that babies born in high wheat-producing counties were twice as likely to have circulatory/respiratory and musculoskeletal birth defects than babies born to parents in farming counties where little wheat was produced. Even more significant, baby boys born in high-wheat counties and conceived during April or June -- when herbicide applications peak -- were nearly five times as likely to have birth defects than boys conceived during other times of the year in counties with low wheat production.

The epidemiologic study, performed by Dr. Dina Schreinemachers, a researcher with the Environmental Protection Agency in North Carolina, examined records of more than 43,000 births from 1995 to 1997 in 147 rural counties in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. Researchers compared rural counties in these states where most U.S. spring and durum wheat is produced, with farming areas in the same states that did not produce wheat. In the four wheat-producing states, more than 85% of the wheat acreage was treated with chlorophenoxy herbicides such as 2,4-D and 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxyacetic acid, or MCPA. Other crops in the area were treated with herbicides other than chlorophenoxy compounds.

In 1996, an earlier study also found birth defects higher in western Minnesota, where chlorophenoxy herbicides are applied to wheat. That study, however, also implicated certain fungicides as a possible cause. A number of studies have connected chlorophenoxy herbicides and cancer, including one done in 2002 by Dr. Schreinemachers that observed increasing cancer mortality from several types of cancers in areas with increased in wheat acreage. Just last year in 2002, a study by Dr. Warren Porter connected chlorophenoxy herbicides with reduced fertility and miscarriages in laboratory mice. In that widely publicized study, researchers spiked the drinking water of laboratory mice with a common household lawn and garden weed killer, and discovered a 20% increase in failed pregnancies in mice, at doses seven times lower than the maximum allowable rate for U.S. drinking water.

The National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have funded an ongoing study to track 90,000 herbicide applicators and their spouses to look for possible health effects of pesticides.

Sources: Dina M. Schreinemachers, Birth Malformations and Other Adverse Perinatal Outcomes in Four U.S. Wheat-Producing States, Environmental Health Perspectives Volume 111 Number 9, July, 2003 abstract on line: http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2003/5830/abstract.html; Garry, V.F., D. Schreinemachers, M.E. Harkins and J. Griffith, 1996, "Pesticide Appliers, Biocides, and Birth Defects in Rural Minnesota," Environmental Health Perspectives, 104: 394-399; Maria Fernanda Cavieres, James Jaeger and Warren Porter, "Development Toxicity of a Commercial Herbicide Mixture in Mice: I. Effects on Embryo Implantation and Litter Size," Environmental Health Perspectives, Volume 110, Number 11, page 1081, November 2002; Pesticides and Birth Defects: A Minnesota Study, Global Pesticide Campaigner, Volume 6, Number 2, June 1996, Low Doses of Common Weedkiller Damage Fertility, PANNA, October 11, 2002, http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20021011.dv.html.

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