Residential proximity to organophosphate and carbamate pesticide use during pregnancy, poverty during childhood, and cognitive functioning in 10-year-old children

Abstract

Background Low-income communities and communities of color have been shown to experience disproportionate exposure to agricultural pesticides, which have been linked to poorer neurobehavioral outcomes in infants and children. Few studies have assessed health impacts of pesticide mixtures in the context of socioeconomic adversity. Objectives To examine associations between residential proximity to toxicity-weighted organophosphate (OP) and carbamate pesticide use during pregnancy, household- and neighborhood-level poverty during childhood, and IQ scores in 10-year-old children. Methods We evaluated associations between both nearby agricultural pesticide use and poverty measures and cognitive abilities in 10-year-old children (n = 501) using data from a longitudinal birth cohort study linked with data from the California Pesticide Use Reporting system and the American Community Survey. Associations were assessed using multivariable linear regression. Results Children of mothers in the highest quartile compared to the lowest quartile of proximal pesticide use had lower performance on Full Scale IQ [β = −3.0; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = (−5.6, −0.3)], Perceptual Reasoning [β = −4.0; (−7.6, −0.4)], and Working Memory [β = −2.8; (−5.6, −0.1)]. Belonging to a household earning an income at or below the poverty threshold was associated with approximately two point lower scores on Full Scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension, and Working Memory. Living in the highest quartile of neighborhood poverty at age 10 was associated with approximately four point lower performance on Full Scale IQ, Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, and Working memory. Conclusions Residential proximity to OP and carbamate pesticide use during pregnancy and both household- and neighborhood-level poverty during childhood were independently associated with poorer cognitive functioning in children at 10 years of age.

Residential proximity to agricultural fumigant use and IQ, attention and hyperactivity in 7-year old children

“…In this cohort, we previously reported associations between Full-scale IQ at 7-years of age and prenatal OP insecticide use within 1 km of maternal residences during pregnancy (Gunier et al, 2016; Rowe et al, 2016) and also with other potentially neurotoxic pesticides including carbamates, neonicotinoids, pyrethroids and maneb (Gunier et al, 2016). A study utilizing California PUR data observed higher odds of autism spectrum disorder (OR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.0 – 2.5) with any use of OP insecticides within 1.5 km of their residence during the prenatal period (Shelton et al, 2014).…”

“…A study using PUR data showed that methyl bromide use within a 7 × 7 square mile area (∼8 kilometer radius) around monitoring sites explained 95% of the variance in methyl bromide air concentrations, indicating a direct relationship between nearby agricultural use and potential community exposure (Li et al, 2005). Several epidemiologic studies have used PUR data and observed associations between higher nearby agricultural pesticide use during pregnancy and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes including birth defects (Carmichael et al, 2014; Rull et al, 2006; Yang et al, 2014), autism (Roberts et al, 2007; Shelton et al, 2014) and cognitive function (Gunier et al, 2016; Rowe et al, 2016). …”

A Review of Consequences of Poverty on Economic Decision-Making: A Hypothesized Model of a Cognitive Mechanism

“…Working memory is the ability ‘to hold information in mind and mentally work with, while this information is not accessible by a sensory apparatus at that moment’ ( Diamond, 2013 , p. 142). The majority of research on working memory and poverty has been conducted on children, revealing that living in poverty causes significantly worse working memory ( Tine, 2014 ; Pavlakis et al, 2015 ; Rowe et al, 2016 ). From a biological perspective, this may be the result of reduced hippocampal development often associated with low socioeconomic status ( Pavlakis et al, 2015 ).…”

Association between Pesticide Profiles Used on Agricultural Fields near Maternal Residences during Pregnancy and IQ at Age 7 Years

“…Our findings also imply that studies investigating the neurodevelopmental effects of current-use agricultural pesticide exposures should analyze the pesticide mixtures as a whole, rather than using the more conventional single pollutant models typically applied [12,13,41,62,63], as such methods are unable to control for the influence of other covarying pesticides. …”

“…We selected FSIQ as our outcome since our previous studies show consistent associations between FSIQ and prenatal urinary DAPs [11] and prenatal residential proximity to reported agricultural pesticide use [12,41]. A single bilingual psychometrician conducted all assessments.…”