Experts Want To Ban Organophosphate Pesticides To Protect Children's Health (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Evidence that an entire class of pesticides threatens the health of children and pregnant women is now so arresting that the substances should be banned, an expert panel of toxicologists has said. Exposure to organophosphates (OPs) increases the risk of reduced IQs, memory and attention deficits, and autism for prenatal children, according to the paper, published in Plos Medicine. More than 10,000 tonnes of OP pesticides are sprayed in 24 European countries each year and usage is higher in the US, where the Trump administration is appealing against a federal court ban on chlorpyrifos, one of the most popular agricultural insecticides.

Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the paper's lead author and director of the UC Davis environmental health sciences centre, said: "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. By law, the EPA cannot ignore such clear findings: It's time for a ban not just on chlorpyrifos, but all organophosphate pesticides." Bruce Lanphear, one of the paper's co-authors, said: "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. Government officials around the world need to listen to science, not chemical lobbyists."

Comments

Show me the numbers

[quenda]

What is the magnitude of risk here? Is it an observable epidemiological effect like lead in petroleum, and iodine deficiency?
Or is it more like the recent hysteria over glyphosate?

And why should it be totally banned instead of just kept away from pregnant women? I don't believe there is any residual pesticide in fresh food when regulations are followed.
I rubbed this stuff (malathion) into my kids heads to kill headlice when they were little. They still get strait As. Would not have dreamed of using it on a pregnant Mrs.

I'd like to see the costs quantified, because a lot more people in 3rd world countries are going to experience famine, without these pesticides.

Re:Show me the numbers

[Ol Olsoc]

What is the magnitude of risk here? Is it an observable epidemiological effect like lead in petroleum, and iodine deficiency? Or is it more like the recent hysteria over glyphosate?

I've read the data, the numbers are significant and show increasing harm by closer distance to the spraying sites, and coinciding across the locations.

Observable evidence doesn't mean much, as when people showed concern about tetra ethyl lead in gasoline, an industry exec "proved" it was perfectly safe by washing his hands in gasoline. This was years before the inadvertent experiment where demographics showed that men living near highways were poisoned with lead, leading to violent tendencies.

And there are still people who whine about banning DDT, lead in gasoline, elimination of Paris Green (arsenic source) from pesticides, and removing arsenic from wallpaper, and dosing children with huge amounts of X-rays in bogus shoe fitting devices.

The companies hold great sway in these matters.

Acute toxicity to humans is not the only risk

[sjbe]

We've known for decades that organophosphates are very dangerous. This is why they developed neonicotinoids that are much safer.

There is evidence that neonicotinoids hurt pollinators. Just because a few drops applied directly to a person don't result in a trip to the morgue doesn't mean they are "safer". Sometimes the indirect consequences are worse than the direct ones. No pollinators = no food and last I checked famine was pretty dangerous to humans.