Children’s low-level pesticide exposure and associations with autism and ADHD: a review

Abstract

Pesticides are chemicals that are designed specifically for the purpose of killing or suppressing another living organism. Human toxicity is possible with any pesticide, and a growing body of literature has investigated possible associations with neurodevelopmental disorders. Attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are two of these specific disorders that have garnered particular interest. Exposure to toxic chemicals during critical windows of brain development is a biologically plausible mechanism. This review describes the basic laboratory science including controlled pesticide dosing experiments in animals that supports a mechanistic relationship in the development of ADHD and/or ASD. Epidemiological relationships are also described for low-level pesticide exposure and ADHD and/or ASD. The available evidence supports the hypothesis that pesticide exposure at levels that do not cause acute toxicity may be among the multifactorial causes of ADHD and ASD, though further study is needed, especially for some of the newer pesticides.

Application of In Vitro Metabolism Activation in High-Throughput Screening

“…Compounds which have been classified as neurotoxic agents damage the brain or peripheral nervous system. They can induce neurological diseases, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease [98][99][100]. A reliable method to test compounds for neurotoxic characteristics is to perform HCS checking cell morphology, or neurite outgrowth [4,101,102].…”

Pesticides used in Europe and autism spectrum disorder risk: can novel exposure hypotheses be formulated beyond organophosphates, organochlorines, pyrethroids and carbamates? - A systematic review

“…Most epidemiological studies conducted between 2006 and 2018 about ASD were mainly focused on a few pesticide groups, probably because they have been the most widely used since the mid-XIX century. These groups comprised of the organochlorines (OCs), organophosphates (OPs), pyrethroids and carbamates (Roberts et al, 2019). Almost all were case-control studies conducted in California (USA).…”

“…Finally, numerous prospective birth-cohort studies conducted in the general population showed significant relationships between early exposure to pesticides and the onset of autistic behaviors or ASD-associated symptoms in healthy children (Eskenazi et al, 2007;Furlong et al, 2014;Brown et al, 2018;Sagiv et al, 2018). According to Roberts et al (2019), the results from the whole literature provided enough evidences that OCs, OPs, carbamates and pyrethroids may play a role in the ASD onset.…”

Increased Temporal Lobe Beta Activity in Boys With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder by LORETA Analysis

“…These differences suggest diverse mechanisms for ADHD between the sexes. Several studies have reported possible mechanisms of ADHD, including environmental toxicity (Roberts et al, 2019 ), genetic factors (Hawi et al, 2015 ; Mogavero et al, 2018 ), epigenetic regulation (Tran and Miyake, 2017 ), neurotrophic factors (Tsai, 2017 ), and socioeconomic status (Russell et al, 2016 ). In related studies, a higher theta/beta ratio (TBR) in electroencephalography (EEG) bands was observed in the central area in patients with ADHD (Chabot and Serfontein, 1996 ; Arns et al, 2012 ).…”