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Federal ban on two insecticides benefits newborns

A federal ban on two insecticides has resulted in a significant reduction in their impact on newborns' birth weight and length, according to a March 23, 2004, news release from the National Institutes of Health. The study, which included a sample of 314 infants of African American and Dominican women in Washington Heights, Central Harlem, and the South Bronx, New York, is the first La demonstrate the benefits of the ban during pregnancy in human subjects. It measured the impact on fetal growth of two insecticides--chlorpyrifos and diazinon--whose use in households was banned by the federal government beginning in 2000. The insecticides had been among the most commonly used agents for residential pest control.

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Researchers measured the levels of the two insecticides in blood drawn from the umbilical cords after delivery, both before and after the ban, and correlated those levels with the babies' birth weight and length. All blood samples were frozen and stored at -70[degrees]C (-94[degrees]F) to ensure the stability of the pesticides. Subsequent analyses were performed on frozen samples at three different times--spring 2001, summer 2002, and fall 2002.

Researchers found that before January 2001, newborns with combined insecticide exposures in the highest 26th percentile had birth weights averaging almost 200 g (ie, almost one-half pound) less than infants with no detectable pesticide levels. The researchers also noted a highly significant inverse association between the combined exposures and newborn birth length. When they looked at the relationship between insecticide exposures and fetal growth after January 2001, however, the exposure levels had been reduced substantially, and the impact on weight and length no longer was apparent.

According to study investigators, the wide-spread use of the two pesticides makes them good candidates for this type of residential study. Chlorpyrifos, for example, was the most frequently used residential insecticide in New York City before the ban. Both compounds still are widely used in agriculture and continue to be found in the food supply.

First Human Study to Show Benefits to Newborns From Federal Ban on Home Use of Two Insecticides (news release, Bethesda, Md: National Institutes of Health, March 23, 2004) http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/mar2004/ niehs-23.htm (accessed 25 Match 2004).

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Federal ban on two insecticides benefits newborns

AORN Journal, July, 2004

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