PAEP Poster - "Pesticides - Who Needs Em?"

Dr. Margaret Sanborn's 2003 Canadian Study Confirms Berkley Study that Children are More Susceptible to Pesticides even in the Womb.   One of Dr. Sanborn's more disturbing findings was that about 1/3 of Canadian children DO NOT possess the genetic make-up to detoxify common pesticides. Additionally Dr. Sanborn found that Maternal use of pesticides in the home during pregnancy was an accurate predictor for childhood Leukemia.
Below you will find a list of Dr. Sanborn's findings:
Reproductive Effects: The developing fetus has a critical period between 3-8 weeks gestation when major organs are being formed. This is the period when pesticides appear to have their strongest effect; it is also a time when women may be unaware they are pregnant.   

• A California Study showed that maternal pesticide exposure from 3-8 weekis  [gestation]  was associated with an increase in miscarriages due to major birth defects
• The Ontario Farm Family Health Study documented a 40-50% increase in early spontaneous abortions in farm women exposed to 2,4-D or atrazine type herbicides before conception.
• Research done in Montreal has shown that fetuses exposed to pesticides by maternal home and garden use during pregnancy have a 2 to 5 times [that is to say 200% to 500% greater] risk of developing acute lymphocytic leukemia by age 9.
• The risk of leukemia is highest if the child has one of two genetic subtypes which cause an inability to break down pesticides. This genetic subtype is not a rare occurrence; in the Montreal study it was present in 35.5% of children. In other words, about one-third of Canadian children are born with a specific inability to detoxify commonly used pesticides, and a corresponding increased vulnerability to adverse health effects including cancer. Cancer in Canadian children under age 15 has doubled over the past 25 years.

Dr. Margaret Sanborn is a rural family physician, Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at McMaster University, and a member of the Ontario College of Family Physicians Environmental Health Committee. (Excerpt: EHANS)