Pesticides and Child’s Health in France

Abstract

Purpose of review: The use of pesticides is predominant in agriculture, inducing environmental contamination, and has been extended to the domestic sphere. In France, >500 pesticides were authorized for use in 2009; given their various toxicological properties, there are legitimate concerns about the possible consequences for child health. This review summarizes the recent French studies of good quality dealing with pesticides and child health. Recent findings: Three cohorts (mother-child, retrospective) and two case-control studies have been conducted in the last decade. Using various instruments for exposure assessment including biomarkers, they have suggested alterations of subclinical health parameters at birth, increased risk of otitis at age 2, and increased risk of several types of childhood cancer. However, there was no adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes at 6 years of age following prenatal exposure to pesticides. Summary: Both agricultural and domestic pesticides might be involved in such adverse health outcomes. Similar studies are lacking in Europe. Studies on fungicides and child health are scarce.

Urinary concentrations and determinants of pyrethroid metabolites in pregnant women from non-rural areas of Yunnan, China

“…Moreover, prenatal exposure to pesticides affects not only foetal development in utero, but also has a profound impact on offspring. Prenatal exposure to pesticides is associated with neurological and intellectual impairment [4][5][6] and an increased risk of leukemia and other cancers in children [7,8].…”

Characterization and distribution of pesticide use from 2015 to 2019, by health regions in the state of Rondônia (RO), Amazon, Brazil

“…Various health problems including cancer, diabetes mellitus, respiratory disorders, neurological disorders, reproductive syndromes (sexual/genital), and oxidative stress are caused by direct exposure to pesticides, handling pesticides or pesticide residues present in food (Mostafalou and Abdollahi, 2017;Chevrier and Béranger, 2018;Kalliora et al, 2018).…”

Literature landscape of neurodevelopment and pesticides: A scoping review of methodologies

“…Focused summaries of the evidence have been published (e.g. [ 1 , 8 , 10 , 15 , 19 , 31 , 36 , 37 , 39 , 45 ]), yet it is still challenging to do so in a cohesive and conclusive way. Initiatives to combine data from multiple existing cohorts is also ongoing, such as the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program, aiming to pool and curate the data to fill existing evidence gaps [ 40 ].…”