Chlorpyrifos may harm fetal neurodevelopment in mothers with low PON1 levels.

2004 MAY 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Chlorpyrifos may harm fetal neurodevelopment in mothers with low PON1 levels.

"Although the use of pesticides in inner-city homes of the United States is of considerable magnitude, little is known about the potentially adverse health effects of such exposure. Recent animal data suggest that exposure to pesticides during pregnancy and early life may impair growth and neurodevelopment in the offspring.

"To investigate the relationship among prenatal pesticide exposure, paraoxonase (PON1) polymorphisms and enzyme activity, and infant growth and neurodevelopment, we are conducting a prospective, multiethnic cohort study of mothers and infants delivered at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City," scientists writing in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives report.

"In this report we evaluate the effects of pesticide exposure on birth weight, length, head circumference, and gestational age among 404 births between May 1998 and May 2002. Pesticide exposure was assessed by a prenatal questionnaire administered to the mothers during the early third trimester as well as by analysis of maternal urinary pentachlorophenol levels and maternal metabolites of chlorpyrifos and pyrethroids," wrote G.S. Berkowitz and colleagues, CUNY Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Community and Prevention Medicine.

"Neither the questionnaire data nor the pesticide metabolite levels were associated with any of the fetal growth indices or gestational age. However, when the level of maternal PON1 ...