User:Ananya.srivatsan/Health effects of pesticides

Introduction

Pesticides are chemicals used to kill parasites that grow on crops. In an attempt to benefit the crops, humans are losing sight of the negative impacts that these pesticides are having on the health of people. In recent years, numerous studies show a positive correlation to long-term health conditions with the use of pesticides. Although pesticides are being used in agricultural fields, windblown erosion and spray drift have resulted in pesticides affecting a greater number of individuals among the population.

Health Effect of Pesticides

Pesticides aren’t only impacting the general population rather they are causing widespread disturbances in future generations. Many pregnant mothers with exposure to these harmful substances have given birth to children displaying signs of autism spectrum disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, prostate cancers, birth deformities, and many more.

Autism spectrum disorder is a disorder associated with the genetic makeup of an individual and draws upon characteristics that result in slower motor growth as well as an increased chance of a communication deficiency. It also encompasses impairments in social interactions the individual takes place. Motor control is below the average as people with autism spectrum disorder may focus their eye movements on different parts of the face when an individual is communicating with them. That being said, those with this disorder are likely to live a typical life as they are able to read, write, and live normally just with a few impairments when it comes to interactions.

Neurodegenerative diseases are most commonly associated with neural activity in the brain. The most common neurodegenerative diseases include but are not limited to Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis. Organophosphates, a compound found in many pesticides linked to these diseases, decreased prefrontal brain activation. This means that the cognitive processes and decision-making are inhibited from the average amount. Long-term planning is slowed down.

Pesticides have a great impact on developing cancers in those individuals that are exposed. Common cancer resulting as a consequence is prostate cancer. Organophosphates in most pesticides can trigger mutations in semiconservative helixes and essential damaging DNA, or they may disrupt hormones. All of these impairments can have the consequences of inflaming tissues and affecting the body on a genetic level by inhibiting or allowing a certain gene to turn on or off. In general, Many pesticides are carcinogenic, which are chemicals that are sources for causing cancers.

Case Study: Central Valley

Several Case studies were done in the Central Valley to determine if these health-related problems mentioned above were viable consequences for the pesticide contraction, especially in the Central Valley.

Agricultural Pesticide Applications in relation to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

ASD can be found through chromosome testing.

Autism is mainly a neurodevelopment impairment that affects one’s social interactions and responses to situations in such a setting. Since the early 1990s, the number of kids with ASD have only been increasing. Definite diagnosis of autism doesn’t occur until the child is exhibiting change in early childhood however motoring fetal development can also display certain signs. Many pesticides have been known to affect neurological processing which could play a possible explanation for the increase of an increase in neurological disorders. Most of the compounds related to the agricultural pesticides can easily spread by air drift into households eventually affecting people inside.

Since there was a greater level of pesticides found near homes in proximity to fields for agriculture, a study was done to detect if there was an association between the occurrence of ASD (autism spectrum disorders) and women in different semesters of pregnancy living close to agricultural sites. To test their hypothesis, scientists used data from the California Department of Developmental Services that identifies 6,975 average weight and birth infants as the control for their study. Scientists from the Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), used land polygon mapping from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation records to identify proximity to pesticide applications. The scientists found that mothers living close to 500m of an agricultural field with  the greatest “nonzero quartile of organochlorine poundage” compared to  mothers not in close proximity to fields with such organophosphate numbers have an increased number of ASD cases.

This possibly suggests that with the increase in the applied pesticides of organophosphates there was an increased risk of ASD. From this the study concluded that “The association between residential proximity to organochlorine pesticide applications during gestation and ASD among children should be further studied”.  A variety of statistics were used to support their claims though, including statistical difference testing as well as confidence intervals testing.

Primary Groups Involved

Aerial View of Central Valley

Many studies were conducted in order to determine the source that resulted in the spread of long-lasting consequences from pesticides, and the majority reported farmworkers.

Workers who are in direct contact with pesticides in the farmlands are highly susceptible to the negative consequences of pesticides. As recorded from a pilot study done by California’s Department of Health Services in 1997: “house dust samples for pesticide analysis were collected from eleven homes, five of which had at least one farmworker (FW) resident”.

These farmworkers are part of the greater “low-income communities” that have exhibited great amounts of damage from the spread of these pollutants. These “low-income communities" showcased conditions of a lower quality of health and overall life which was inwards connected with their living conditions.

The action of redlining highlighted these communities in the Central Valley and eventually resulted in an association between the uncleanliness of the environment to the location that these communities were placed. With the redlining centered in the Central Valley, several characteristics of grouping eventually escalated to including racial discrimination which officially defined the area of the type of community it was.