A French study suggests that children’s exposure to certain insecticides may cause neurocognitive delay.
According to a study carried out by Jean-François Viel and Cécile Chevrier, two researchers from Inserm, exposure to pyrethroids contained in several insecticides would have in young children a direct link with the deterioration of their intellectual capacities.
This discovery could once again revive the debate on the use of certain phytosanitary substances.
Studying mothers and children
The works were divided into two phases. As a first step, urine samples from 287 mothers were analyzed at 6e and 19e month of pregnancy in order to measure the concentrations of pyrethroid metabolites. Six years later, the two psychologists went to meet the children. One of the two assessed the child’s neurocognitive performance (verbal comprehension and working memory) using the WISC scale. The other characterized the child’s environment, taking into account confounding factors (education, tobacco, weight, place of residence, etc.) which may have a role in intellectual development.
The results of this work show that two metabolites present in high levels in the urine of children (3 PBA and cis-DCBA) are strongly associated with much lower scores on the WISC test and therefore with a significant drop in cognitive performance. On the other hand, no correlation could be established between the three other metabolites and a possible delay. The study of maternal urine also failed to establish a link between in utero exposure to insecticide metabolites and an impact on children’s neurocognitive scores.
A daily confrontation with metabolites?
Pyrethroids are part of a family of insecticides used in various fields: agricultural (insecticides on fruits and vegetables), veterinary (antiparasitic products) or even domestic (anti-lice shampoos and products against insects). One can imagine that children are confronted many times during their first years with these products, in food in particular.
On the other hand, the two psychologists agree in saying that other more advanced studies must definitively conclude to the responsibility of these insecticides in the neurocognitive delay. Scientists in fact stress in their publication that urinary metabolites degrade rapidly, and that the dosages carried out are therefore only representative of acute exposure of children to insecticides.
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