April 22, 2011
Contact: Barbara Haumann (802-275-3820; bhaumann@ota.com)
BRATTLEBORO, VT. (April 22, 2011)—Three independent, newly-published studies found that children whose mothers are exposed to common agricultural pesticides are more likely to experience a range of deleterious effects in their cognitive development, including lower IQ, as well as impaired reasoning and memory. Organic agriculture prohibits the use of these pesticides, and all other toxic and persistent chemicals.
“Less pesticide exposure during the maternal life stage means less risk to your babies for a variety of diseases that will only manifest years later. Since women eat more during their pregnancy, one significant way to reduce their pesticide exposure is to eat organic foods,” said Dr. Chensheng (Alex) Lu of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Lu led previous research that found that pesticide residues, which show up in the urine of children eating conventionally produced fruits and vegetables, disappeared from children’s urine when they switched to organic produce.