All of the participants receive health care through Medi-Cal and the state's Comprehensive Perinatal Services and Child Health and Disease Prevention programs. Now one year into the study phase, an interdisciplinary research team is beginning to gather medical information on some of the infants born in the last six months. California uses about 200 million pounds of pesticides annually, more than all 50 states, and about 25 percent of the national total. Last year the EPA was tasked with reevaluating 39 organophosphate pesticides, a class of pesticides commonly used to treat many California crops, for their toxicity and potential health risks to children. Salinas Valley farmers use about 500,000 pounds of these pesticides each year to treat fruits and vegetables.
Infants are at risk of exposure to the pesticides through their mothers' breast milk.
Young children also drink, eat and breathe more per unit of body weight than adults. So if pesticides are in their environment, they may be exposed to higher levels than adults. Because children are developmentally immature, they may also be at higher risk for adverse health effects. Mounting toxicologic evidence suggests that repeated low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides may affect neurodevelopment and growth in developing animals, Eskenazi said. But few studies have tracked the health effects on human beings after birth.