By Claire Carson, Toxic Free NC/Superfund Research Center Intern
Several weeks ago, we visited the home of a farmworker, a teenage girl who was nearly four months pregnant. It was a sweltering afternoon, and we sat around the family’s kitchen table snacking on pickled pork rind dusted with chile and lime. When asked if she was taking care of herself during pregnancy, the girl replied that yes, instead of working a full day, she’d only work half days in the fields. I can only imagine the discomfort of working in the fields while pregnant, not to mention the hazards of doing so. Being around pesticides harms anyone at any age, but pesticide exposure presents a greater danger to pregnant women, who could jeopardize their child’s health in addition to their own.
It’s pretty easy to find research connecting prenatal pesticide exposure to all kinds of awful health risks. Many recent environmental health journals include studies on the effects of pesticides on a developing brain. Common pesticides can lead to an increased risk of leukemia, brain tumors, and lymphoma.They also affect brain function, leading to slower reflexes and mental development, as well as a greater risk of Autism and ADHD. Prenatal exposure leads to more miscarriages and birth defects in our population. Since these chemicals are designed to kill living organisms, it’s no surprise that they harm developing humans as well.
In fact, the organophosphate class of pesticides was designed to kill more than just the insects that eat our food; they were developed during World War II to be used as nerve agents (http://www.epa.gov/opp00001/about/types.htm). Chlorpyrifos, one of the most well known organophosphates, appears in numerous studies to determine how it affects the human nervous system. Last year, the New York Times drew attention to a UC-Berkeley study showing that higher exposure to Chlorpyrifos lowered a child’s IQ (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/pesticide-exposure-in-womb-affects-i-q/). Closer to home, Duke’s Dr. Ted Slotkin researches the effects of pesticides on brain development (http://sites.nicholas.duke.edu/superfund/?page_id=122), and has shown that prenatal Chlorpyrifos exposure leads to newborns with abnormally-shaped brains. After being banned from residential use, Chlorpyrifos remains in use in the fields, although use has declined over the past decade.
Even if she does not work in the fields, a pregnant farm worker can still run the risk of pesticide exposure. Standing in the backyard of that same home near Wilson, the pregnant girl’s mother swept her hand across their backyard of commercial sweet potato fields. A few years ago, when the fields were planted with tobacco, planes would spray pesticides that the wind carried through their house (Even though the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/worker.htm) specifically prohibits pesticide handlers from spraying pesticides in a way that causes direct human exposure). Had this girl been pregnant while the fields behind her house were planted with tobacco, her exposure would have been many times worse.
For most American mothers, shielding their kids from pesticides is a personal lifestyle choice. Expectant mothers can choose not to use insecticides and herbicides in their homes and gardens to limit prenatal exposure. Later, they can send their children to daycares and schools committed to using Integrated Pest Management (http://www.toxicfreenc.org/informed/factsheets/whatisIPM.html) instead of traditional insecticides. Most American mothers cannot 100% ensure their kids stay away from pesticides, but they do have a certain level of control over their kid’s exposure. Farmworker mothers don’t have any of this control– these women and their children breathe, eat, and live in pesticides every hour of every day. It’s incredibly unfair that farmworker women must risk the health of their future children in order in earn the money they need to live. Farmworkers already carry the burden of harvesting America’s food– why should they carry the burden of a higher risk of chronic illness as well?