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P A N U P S
Pesticide Action Network Updates Service
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Birth Weights Higher After Pesticide Ban
April 16, 2004

A recent study in New York City reports a significant increase in infant birth
weights after two commonly used insecticides were banned for home use.
Chlorpyrifos, a pesticide manufactured by Dow Chemical, and diazinon, which is
produced by Syngenta, were widely used against cockroaches and other household
pests until most of these uses were banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (U.S. EPA) in 2001 and 2002.

The current study, published in the April issue of Environmental Health
Perspectives, looked at 314 mother-infant pairs and is part of an ongoing
project by Colombia University evaluating the effects of indoor air pollutants
on minority mothers and their newborns in New York City. Study authors had
reported earlier that pesticide residues were detected in virtually all
low-income pregnant mothers studied, noting a strong correlation between
dilapidated housing and pesticide exposures. In a previous study, the project
also reported associations between levels of chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord
plasma and low birth weight.

This study, which compares infants born before and after the insecticides were
banned for household use, demonstrated that, on average, babies born before the
ban weighed 6.6 ounces less than infants born after the ban - a difference
comparable to the effects of smoking on infant birth weight.

Robin M. Whyatt of Colombia Mailman School of Public Health, principal author of
the study remarked, "We were surprised to see such a significant association
between exposure to the pesticides and birth weight. There is no question that
this is an instance where regulation worked, the EPA imposed a ban, and there
was an immediate benefit."

All retail sales and indoor use of chlorpyrifos and diazinon ended in December
2001, and December 2002 respectively. U.S. EPA has estimated prior to the ban
that approximately 75% of U.S. diazinon and 50% of U.S. chlorpyrifos was used
for residential pest control. The ban did not affect use of the insecticides on
food crops, however. An estimated 10 million pounds of chlorpyrifos continue to
be used in agricultural settings, putting farmworkers, their families and
surrounding communities at the greatest risk of continued exposure. Consumers
are also at risk of exposure from residues in food and water.

The Columbia study combined interviews on pesticide exposure and use, data from
personal air monitors worn during pregnancy, and analysis of umbilical cord
plasma and infant blood. Levels of the banned insecticides were substantially
lower among infants born after January 2001, after the chlorpyrifos ban was in
place, while habits of using other pesticides did not appear to change over the
same period.

The study found combined exposures to diazinon and chlorpyrifos were common
among the mothers in the study before the ban, with both insecticides detected
simultaneously in 100% of the maternal personal air samples and in over a third
of cord blood samples. The study also reported a significant correlation between
the two insecticides in personal air and cord blood. Higher exposures (exposure
levels in the highest 25%) to the two pesticides combined was most closely
linked with lower infant birth weights. Prior to the bans, 34% of infants had
exposure levels of combined chlorpyrifos and diazinon; after chlorpyrifos was
banned in January 2001, only one infant had high combined exposure levels.

These study findings point to an immediate, positive health effect for infants
when use of chlorpyrifos and diazinon are curtailed. They also present proof
that pesticide exposures that U.S. EPA once determined to present "acceptable
risks" are, in fact, linked with unacceptable damage. U.S. EPA must both
strengthen its assessment of health risks of pesticide exposure during
pregnancy, and act immediately to ban agricultural uses of chlorpyrifos, to
protect agricultural workers, their children, and consumer health.

Prenatal Insecticide Exposures, Birth Weight and Length Among an Urban Minority
Cohort, Environmental Health Perspectives, April, 2004, (online March 22, 2004)
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2004/6641/abstract.html; Birth Weights Up After
EPA Pesticide Ban, Study Finds, Washington Post, March 25, 2004.
Contact: PANNA


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