Author: Admin

Leading Experts Call for Immediate Action as Mounting Evidence Links Air Pollution to Autism, Reduced IQ in Children

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 21, 2019

Washington, D.C.—Today, leading environmental health experts released an article in the American Journal of Public Health citing mounting evidence linking air pollution to neurodevelopmental disorders in children, like autism, ADHD, memory deficiencies and reduced IQ. The authors called on government officials to take swift action to reduce toxic air pollution and protect children’s brain development.

“An increasing body of studies strongly suggests that air pollution exposure can have long term impacts on brain development in children,” said Melanie Marty, a co-author of the paper and former chair of U.S. EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee. “It’s not just cardiovascular and respiratory disease in adults we need to consider – air pollution must be limited to protect the health of our children’s developing brains.”

The paper, which focused on combustion-related air pollutants from burning of fossil fuel, agricultural waste, and from wildfires, includes specific recommendations for federal and local government officials to protect children, chief among them a call to strengthen and enforce the fuel efficiency standards already in place.

“If these recommendations are taken seriously, fewer children will face the challenge of living with neurodevelopmental disorders and more people will be able to fully participate in society across their life span,” the authors wrote.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Trump has a long record of ignoring science on the dangers of a multitude of toxic chemicals. An investigation by the New York Times in December found that the Trump administration had rolled back, or was in the process of rolling back, 21 federal protections related to air pollution and emissions.

“Low-income communities are particularly susceptible to a host of toxic chemicals, including air pollution,” said Devon C. Payne-Sturges, the paper’s lead author and former Assistant Director for U.S. EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research. “The most effective way to ensure we’re protecting children’s brain development, regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity, is to limit these toxic air pollutants as a group.”

 

Read the full paper here.

New Scientific Paper: Broad Class of Pesticides Puts Children at Risk for Reduced IQ, Learning Disabilities

New Scientific Paper: Broad Class of Pesticides Puts Children at Risk for Reduced IQ, Learning Disabilities

Leading Scientists Call for EPA to Ban All Organophosphate Pesticides and Urge Comprehensive Steps to Protect Children

Washington, D.C. — Today, leading toxics experts released a scientific paper in the journal PLOS Medicine warning of the dangers widely-used agricultural pesticides pose to children’s health and development. The authors found that exposure to organophosphate pesticides, even at low levels previously considered safe, can lead to cognitive problems in children, like reduced IQ, developmental delays and increased risk of learning disabilities.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under President Trump is ignoring clear science behind the danger of such pesticides. EPA scientists and scientific advisors have reported strong evidence that supports a ban on the organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos, leading a federal appeals court to rule in August that the EPA must ban chlorpyrifos, but the Trump Administration just announced last month that it will appeal the court’s ruling. Based on a review by its own scientists, the EPA originally proposed to ban chlorpyrifos in 2016, which was subsequently reversed in 2017 under President Trump. The court’s decision to order the chlorpyrifos ban was due to “scientific evidence that its residue on food causes neurodevelopmental damage to children.”

“Children deserve to be healthy and safe from exposure to toxic chemicals. We have compelling evidence from dozens of human studies that exposures of pregnant women to very low levels of organophosphate pesticides put children and fetuses at risk for developmental problems that may last a lifetime.” said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the paper’s lead author, director of the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center and co-director of Project TENDR (Targeting Environmental Neuro-Development Risks). “Current U.S. EPA policy is failing to protect children and fetuses here in the U.S. from these dangerous chemicals. By law, the EPA cannot ignore such clear findings: It’s time for a ban not just on chlorpyrifos, but all organophosphate pesticides.”

The paper provides an up-to-date review of the science available on risks to children from low-level prenatal exposures to not just chlorpyrifos, but the full class of organophosphate pesticides. These pesticides were developed initially as a nerve gases before World War II. More than 40 organophosphate pesticides are now considered hazardous to human health by the U.S. EPA or the World Health Organization.

“We found no evidence of a safe level of organophosphate pesticide exposure for children. Well before birth, organophosphate pesticides are disrupting the brain in its earliest stages, putting them on track for difficulties in learning, memory and attention, effects which may not appear until they reach school-age,” said Bruce Lanphear, one of the paper’s co-authors and a physician-scientist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia. “Government officials around the world need to listen to science, not chemical lobbyists, and protect our children from chlorpyrifos and all organophosphate pesticides.”

The authors also lay out a set of recommendations that, if implemented, could result in substantial reductions in the pesticide burden to individuals. Besides eliminating use of these pesticides in agriculture, the recommendations call for removing them from non-agricultural uses and products, proactively monitoring sources of drinking water, and establishing a program for reporting of pesticide use and illnesses. Additional recommendations are for greater medical education on the risks from organophosphate pesticides so that health providers understand how to treat pesticide poisonings and can educate their patients on ways to avoid pesticide exposures; and for agricultural entities to train their workers using appropriate languages in the proper handling and application of pesticides, and to increase the use of less toxic alternatives and move towards sustainable pest control measures.

“Exposure of children and pregnant women to these toxic pesticides can have significant and long-lasting effects,” said Jeanne Conry, past president the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and president-elect of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. “Health care professionals are on the front line of responding to organophosphate pesticide exposure, but the only way to make sure families aren’t exposed in the first place is to ban them completely.”

“Alternatives to these toxic pesticides exist, and many farmers have successfully eliminated use of organophosphate pesticides. The agricultural community has a responsibility to use these alternatives. We need federal support for research on less toxic pest management and support to our farmers so they can farm sustainably and profitably, as well as alternatives to organophosphate use to control mosquitos and other public health threats,” said Asa Bradman, environmental health scientist at UC Berkeley and co-author of the paper. “Agriculture must also do a better job of protecting farm workers and their families from exposure, by making sure they have the training and equipment necessary to prevent exposure to organophosphate pesticides.”

Hawaii recently became the first U.S. state to ban chlorpyrifos use. Internationally, the European Union denied the approval of 33 organophosphate pesticides, and several other countries have outright banned a handful of other organophosphate pesticides.

Read the paper here.

The paper’s authors include:

  • Irva Hertz-Picciotto, UC Davis Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine,
  • Jennifer B. Sass, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Senior Scientist of Federal Toxics, Health and Food, Healthy People & Thriving Communities Program
  • Stephanie Engel, University of North Carolina Professor Department of Epidemiology
  • Deborah H. Bennett, UC Davis Professor of Public Health
  • Asa Bradman, UC Berkeley Associate Director, Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health and Associate Adjunct Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
  • Brenda Eskenazi, UC Berkeley Brian and Jennifer Maxwell Endowed Chair in Public Health and Director, CERCH (The Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health)
  • Bruce Lanphear, Simon Fraser University Professor of Health Sciences
  • Robin Whyatt, Former Professor of Clinical Environmental Health Sciences

Letter to EPA on proposed rule: Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science

Today more than 40 health experts voice their opposition to the EPA Proposed Rule, Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science, in a letter to the EPA. As scientists and health professionals we recognize the importance of data sharing and replicability in scientific practice and discourse; but, this proposed rule is about stifling science, not improving it, and could lead to the dismantling of many important EPA regulations that protect children from toxic chemicals and pollutants. We would welcome an open dialogue to improve science-based decisions across the federal government. But we stand united in firm opposition to this proposed rule. Read the full TENDR Letter.

A National Strategy to Eliminate Childhood Lead Poisoning

Top scientists and physicians call for eliminating lead poisoning for all US children within five years. Project TENDR’s goals and recommendations to fully protect children from lead poisoning were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on May 15, 2017. You can read the full article here.

Project TENDR in the American Journal of Nursing

Project TENDR member Laura Anderko PhD, RN authored a commentary published in the American Journal of Nursing. Read the full article here.

 

TENDR Commentary in Epidemiology

Prevention of Developmental Neurotoxicity

By: Philippe Grandjean, Reiko Kishi and Manolis Kogevinas on behalf of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology

This Commentary on the TENDR consensus statement was published in the March 2017 issue of Epidemiology, lending an international perspective to our work. Read the full article here.

TENDR in The Journal of the American Medical Association

In October 2016, The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article on the unprecedented call to action by Project TENDR. Read the full article here.