Build A Kinder Earth

In 1997, the US Environmental Protection Agency conducted an experiment in Minnesota to test methods of measuring children’s pesticide exposures. In the study, 102 samples were collected from homes with children in both urban and rural areas of Minnesota.

Samples collected by researchers included air, tap water, food, beverages, soil, dust, blood, urine, and hair (1). These samples were then analyzed for harmful substances such as pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals, etc. This information was then used by the Minnesota Department of Health in the Comparative Risk Project where childrens’ health risks to pesticides and other chemicals were further analyzed.
Here is a summarized version of results from the Comparative Risks of Multiple Chemical Exposures Final Report for the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources:
“Generally, the children’s exposures to noncarcinogens did not approach harmful levels. Whether chemical exposures were considered separately, or combined in a variety of ways, nearly all exposures were at levels that a child’s body is expected to safely metabolize and eliminate. Children’s total cancer risk from all exposures to carcinogens ranged from 2/100,000 to 7/10,000.
Benzene was the single chemical that contributed a large share of each child’s overall risk.”

Read the whole document at http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/children/lcmrrpt.pdf

Several things to keep in mind in regards to this study are that it was only conducted over a period of 4-6 days, was comprised of a sample including only a small portion of Minnesota children, and that it tended to used samples from households that reported frequent pesticide use. Any of these factors could contribute to an underestimate or overestimate of childrens’ health risks when exposed to pesticides.

While this study does not indicate a great possibility of health risks for children, a recent study believes there may be some correlation between parental exposure to pesticides and childhood brain cancer. This study analyzed more than 800 fathers and more than 500 mothers that lived in residential areas in four different states by comparing those that were exposed to pesticides with those that weren’t. According to the study, children who live in homes where their parents use pesticides are twice as likely to develop brain cancer than children that live in residences in which no pesticides are used (2).

Though this does not prove that brain cancer or other childhood health problems are caused by pesticides, it does indicate that there is a possible correlation between the two.

1.http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/children/exposurestudy.html
2.http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/pesticides-linked-to-child-brain-cancer