Women with more chemical traces of the pesticides in their urine while pregnant had children more likely to have symptoms of ADHD -- a tenfold increase in pesticide metabolites in the mother's urine correlated to a 500% increase in the chances of ADHD symptoms by age 5.
- A different team found children with high levels of organophosphate traces in the urine were almost twice as likely to develop ADHD.
- Studies have also linked exposure to Parkinson's, an incurable brain disease.
Organophosphates are designed to attack the nervous systems of bugs by affecting message-carrying chemicals called neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, which is important to human brain development.
Study links pesticides to attention problems
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67I17B20100819
(Reuters) - Children whose mothers were exposed to certain types of pesticides while pregnant were more likely to have attention problems as they grew up, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.