An Anthropological Approach to the Evaluation of Preschool Children Exposed to Pesticides in Mexico

Abstract

In this comparative study, wE compensated for many of the known variables that influence children's growth and development by selecting two groups of 4-5-year-old Yaqui children who reside in the Yaqui Valley of northwestern Mexico. These children share silar geneic backgrounds, diets, water mineral contents, culural patterns, and social beviors. the major difference was their exposure to pesticides. Pesticides have been applied to the agricultural area of the valley since the late 1940s-iIn 199, igh levels of multiple pesticides were found in the cord blood of newborns and in breast milk. Building on anthropologicad methods for rapid rural appraisal of problems within the environment, a Rapid Assessment Tool for Preschool Children (RATPC) was developed to measure growth and development. The children of the agrarian region were compared to children living in the foothills, where pesticide use is avoidedd The RATPC measured varied aspects ofphycal growth and abiliies t perform, or function in, normal childhood activities. No dierences were found in g patterns. Functionally, the exposed children demonstratd decreases in stanina, goss ni e eye-hand coordination, 30minute memory, and the ability' to draw a person. The RATPC a pointe out areas in which more in-depth research on toxicoogy of pesticide would b vluable. Key wrd children,

Protective Efficacy of Coenzyme Q10 Against DDVP-Induced Cognitive Impairments and Neurodegeneration in Rats

“…Various recent epidemiological studies suggest that environmental toxicant including pesticides may contribute to the development of several neuronal disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson disease (Benoit and Lee 2000;Nelson 1995). Furthermore, pesticide exposure impairs learning and memory in children (Guillette et al 1998) and affects hippocampus-dependent spatial memory in rodents (Levin et al 2002;Terry et al 2003).…”

Comparison of pesticide exposure and physical examination, neurological assessment, and laboratory findings between full-time and part-time vegetable farmers in the Philippines

“…It is disturbing that there are still 9% of children below the age of 15 years who work with and therefore are directly exposed to pesticide in this study. Guillette et al [8] conducted a study on effects of pesticide exposure on preschool children in Mexico. Children who were exposed had less generalized physical endurance, decrease in ability to catch a ball, lesser fine eye-hand coordination, and difficulty grasping the concept of repeating numbers, of 30 min recall, and of ability to draw persons.…”

The Geochemistry of Pesticides

“…Recent evidence also suggests that many of the malformations and population declines that have been observed in amphibians over the past several decades may have been facilitated by exposure to pesticides at concentrations commonly encountered in the hydrologic system (e.g., Hayes, 2004;Hayes et al, 2002Hayes et al, , 2006Relyea, 2005c;Sparling et al, 2001). Documented or suspected effects in humans include cancer (Alavanja et al, 2004;Hardell and Eriksson, 1999;Patlak, 1996;President's Cancer Panel, 2010;Sanborn et al, 2004;Schreinemachers, 2000), immune system suppression (Repetto and Baliga, 1996), impaired neurological development (Colborn, 2006;Eskenazi et al, 2006;Grandjean et al, 2006), learning disorders (Guillette et al, 1998), attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (Bouchard et al, 2010;Winrow et al, 2003), Gulf War syndrome (Winrow et al, 2003), Parkinson's disease (Brown et al, 2006), Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia (Hayden et al, 2010), fetal death (Bell et al, 2001), earlier onset of puberty (Guillette et al, 2006;Wang et al, 2005), birth defects (Garry et al, 2002;Winchester et al, 2009), and shifts in sex ratios (Garry et al, 2002).…”