The Hidden Cost of Bananas: Pesticide Effects on Newborns’ Health

Abstract

We study the effects of aerial fumigation of banana plantations on newborns' birth weight during the period 2015-2017 in Ecuador. We use mothers' addresses and information on the perimeter of the plantations to create an individual measure of newborns' exposure to pesticides. We use this measure to implement three independent identification strategies to address the endogeneity of exposure to aerial fumigations. First, we consider a difference-indifferences strategy that exploits seasonal variations in the use of pesticides across provinces.Second, we estimate a difference-in-differences model that considers geographical variations in the use of pesticides across comparable crops. Third, and finally, we estimate a maternal fixed effects model to examine the effect of pesticides on siblings who had a different residence during gestation and who were exposed to different levels of fumigations. Our first empirical model shows that newborns exposed to pesticides, when their first gestational trimester coincides with the periods of intensive fumigations of the plantations, have a birth weight reduction of between 38 and 89 grams. Moreover, exposure to pesticides increases the likelihood of low birth weight and low Apgar score at the first minute by around 0.35 and 0.33, respectively. The second model finds that newborns exposed to fumigated banana plantations have a birth weight deficit of between 29 and 76 grams, when compared to those exposed to other fumigated crops. Finally, the maternal fixed effect model shows that girl newborns exposed to pesticides have a birth weight deficit of 346 grams when compared to non-exposed siblings.

Mapping Potential Population‐Level Pesticide Exposures in Ecuador Using a Modular and Scalable Geospatial Strategy

“…In addition, export‐bound banana production dominates the agricultural sector in several regions of the Coast, and accumulation of pesticide residues from these plantations has been documented (Deknock et al., 2019). This raises concerns, as previous studies conducted in Ecuador have shown that environmental exposures to pesticides from banana plantations have a negative effect on birth weight (Calzada et al., 2021) and are linked to indicators of genotoxicity in farmers (Hutter et al., 2020).…”