Maternal Exposure to Pesticide Chemicals Increase the Risk of Autism in Children: Study

Mothers' exposure to chemical pesticides during pregnancy increases the risk of autism in children, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of California Davis MIND Institute investigated the impacts of pesticide chemicals like organophosphates, pyrethroids and carbamates on maternal health and chances of having children with developmental disorders. Their study involved nearly 1,000 women and children with autism from the Northern California-based Childhood Risk of Autism from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) Study. The experts also noted women's residential locations at the time of conception and during pregnancy period to note their level of exposure to harmful chemical pesticides.

Of all the participants in the study, almost one-third of the women lived within 1.25 to1.75 kilometers of an agricultural area that used pesticides extensively. These participants had two-thirds increased possibility of having children with autistic spectrum disorder and developmental delays. In addition, it was observed that the risk rate for autism increased with continuous exposure to organophosphates and chlorpyrifos during second trimester of pregnancy. The prenatal exposure to Carbamates was directly linked to developmental delays in children.

Fetal brain is extremely sensitive to neurotoxin chemicals in pesticides and its ingestion in early pregnancy interferes with structural development of the brain, neuronal signaling and activation in areas related to behavior and learning.

"In that early developmental gestational period, the brain is developing synapses, the spaces between neurons, where electrical impulses are turned into neuro-transmitting chemicals that leap from one neuron to another to pass messages along. The formation of these junctions is really important and may well be where these pesticides are operating and affecting neurotransmission," said Irva Hertz-Picciotto - study author, professor and vice chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at University of California Davis MIND Institute - in a news release.

The health hazards of these chemicals are irreversible. The authors, therefore, recommend families with expectant mothers to reconsider their decision to live in places that are close to agricultural lands with heavy pesticide exposure.

More information is available online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.