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The study, based on data mainly from North America, Europe and
Australia, suggests that policies should be developed to limit
children's exposures at home and school to insect killers,
researchers say.
"When you apply pesticides so close to where kids are and they spend
so much time in the household, I’d really be concerned about their
exposure," said Chensheng Lu, the senior author of the analysis from
the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
The researchers write in Pediatrics that children can be exposed to
pesticides when they play on treated surfaces and then put their
fingers in their mouths.
Unlike adults, children may not be able to break down or excrete
some of the chemicals used in pesticides. Reports show children had
respiratory, stomach, nerve and hormone problems tied to pesticides,
Lu and colleagues add.
In the same issue of the journal, researchers from Italy published a
report of a seven-month-old child dying after repeated exposure to
massive amounts of a household insecticide.
"I think that case highlights the acute effects of insecticides," Lu
told Reuters Health. "The blood cancers highlight the risks of
chronic exposure."
For the new study, Lu’s team looked at published research on
childhood exposures to pesticides both indoors and out, and any
associated cancers. Sixteen studies were included in the final
analysis, each looking at samples of a few hundred to a few thousand
children.
The studies looked at exposure both to professionally-applied
pesticides and to household bug sprays and weed killers.
Overall, childhood exposure to indoor insecticides was linked to a
47 percent increased risk of childhood leukemia and a 43 percent
increased risk of childhood lymphomas, which are cancers of the
lymphatic system.
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The researchers also found a slightly increased risk of childhood
cancers with the use of outdoor herbicides, or weed killers, but the
association was only significant for leukemia.
The link between outdoor exposure and childhood cancers was not as
strong as for indoor exposure, because people tend to spray more
pesticides indoors, Lu said.
More research is needed to determine how exposure to pesticides may
be linked to childhood cancers, the researchers write. Lu cautions,
however, that parents should keep in mind that many pesticides are
meant to be deadly to insects and pests.
"Those chemicals have lethal potencies," he said. "Why would people
want to spray so close to their kids?"
Eliminating the possibility of increased risk for childhood cancers
comes down to parents and caregivers not spraying pesticides in
their homes, Lu said.
"Prevention is the key in this type of association," he said. "I do
not believe people need to spray pesticide in their household."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1F00NJ3 http://bit.ly/1F00OwF Pediatrics,
online September 14, 2015.
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