Effect of agricultural pesticide on precocious puberty in urban children: an exploratory study

Abstract

Background: The incidence of precocious puberty has increased throughout the 20th century. The association between precocious puberty and endocrine disrupting chemicals including agricultural pesticides has been a subject of global study, but human data are lacking. Purpose: We investigated the relationship between agricultural pesticides and the development of precocious puberty.Methods: We enrolled 60 female subjects at Severance Children’s Hospital from December 2015 to January 2017. Of them, 30 were diagnosed with precocious puberty, while the other 30 prepubertal girls were enrolled as normal controls. We investigated their clinical characteristics and analyzed the urinary levels of 320 different agricultural pesticides.Results: Agricultural pesticide was detected in one of 30 patients with precocious puberty (3.3%) versus 2 of 30 girls in the normal control group (3.3% vs. 6.7%, <i>P</i>=0.554). Dinotefuran, a neonicotinoid-class insecticide, was detected in the samples of all 3 positive subjects.Conclusion: Our results showed no relationship between agricultural pesticides and the development of precocious puberty. Larger sample sizes and robustly controlled variables are necessary to further investigate this topic.

Exposure to non-persistent pesticides and puberty timing: a systematic review of the epidemiological evidence

“…Furthermore, Rodríguez-López et al (41) found higher urinary dimethylphosphate (DMP) and DEDTP levels in girls with alterations in serum LH levels, and Graham et al (35) observed increased age at menarche in girls living in farming areas environmentally exposed to non-endocrine-disrupting pesticides in comparison to non-exposed girls. In other studies, Suh et al (40) found no difference in the urinary levels of 320 compounds (including non-persistent pesticide metabolites) between 30 girls experiencing precocious puberty and 30 prepubertal controls, while Guillette et al (37) found no difference in breast Tanner stage between peripubescent girls living in agricultural vs non-agricultural areas. The exposure of boys to non-persistent pesticides was associated with delayed sexual maturation in two studies (45,46), whereas the exposure of male adolescents was found to have a puberty-promoting effect by another two (38,42), and one investigation found no significant difference in sexual maturation between boys living on and off farms (39).…”

“…It should be noted that the GRADE framework has been applied successfully to rate evidence from intervention studies within the field of clinical medicine, and evidence from observational studies has generally been classified as low. The exposure of girls to non-persistent pesticides was associated with puberty acceleration in three studies (36,44,47) and with delayed sexual maturation in three studies (35,43,45), with one study reporting no association with precocious puberty (40). In the Danish birth cohort study, breast development was earlier in girls born to women occupationally exposed to a mixture of pesticides during pregnancy, and they had higher androstenedione levels and lower aromatase levels at school age (47).…”

“…Descriptive data (a) Give characteristics of study participants (e.g. demographic, clinical, social) and information on exposures and potential confounders Regarding the quality of evidence, seven studies (35,36,37,38,39,40,41) were classified as 'very low', five (42,43,44,45,46) as 'low', and one (47) as 'moderate'. The main reasons for downgrading the quality were risk of bias due to inadequate control of plausible confounders and imprecision due to the small sample size.…”

“…However, the appearance of secondary sexual characteristics such as breast buttons in girls, increased testicular size in boys, and pubic hair development in both sexes provide relevant information, with the Tanner scale as gold standard reference. This scale was used to assess sexual maturation in all except five studies in this review (35,36,40,41,44). It was administered by clinicians in all of these studies except for two, in which the scale was self-assessed by participants (42,43).…”

Frequency of urinary pesticides in children: a scoping review

“…Indoor concentrations of dichlorobenzene surpassed the risk of cancer over a lifetime from 10 −3 in 9% of the residences and 10 −4 in 22% of them (68). Suh et al demonstrated no relationship between agricultural pesticides and the development of precocious puberty (69). Van Wendel de Joode et al found that after adjustment for potential confounders, higher urinary TCPy concentrations were associated with poorer working memory in boys, poorer visuomotor coordination, and increased prevalence of parentreported cognitive problems/inattention due to children living near banana plantations who were exposed to pesticides that may affect their neurodevelopment (70).…”