"Kids are on the frontline in Minnesota," the Pesticide Action Network warns in a recently released report on the effects of children's exposure to pesticides. "Kids are more vulnerable to chemical exposure," Lex Horan of the Pesticide Action Network told a Park Rapids area audience this week. "They haven't developed the biological defense mechanisms. When kids are exposed at a critical moment of development it can have a lifelong effect." The report's review of government health trend data and recent academic research found:
• Childhood health harms (from 1975 to 2012) have risen significantly. Developmental disabilities in kids ages 3-17 were up 17 percent from 1997 to 2008; ADHD (attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder) rose 33 percent in the same period.
• Autism spectrum disorder rose 123 percent at age 8 from 2002 to 2012. The rate of children diagnosed with ASD is slightly higher than the national average.
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leukemia and brain tumors are the most common - and fastest rising — types of cancer among children.
These two childhood cancers have risen 40 to 50 percent since 1975. There are links between pesticide exposure and the increased risk of leukemia and brain tumors, the report states.
The overall childhood cancer rate in Minnesota is slightly above the national average, and overall incidence of leukemia and non-Hodgkin are higher.
Minnesota leukemia incidence is 16.0 per 100,000 and non-Hodgkin lymphoma 23.0 per 100,000, compared to the nationwide numbers of 13.2 and 19.2 per 100,000, respectively.
Children in agricultural communities are exposed to pesticides above and beyond the widely shared exposures from food residues and applications in schools, parks, homes and gardens, the report points out.
Source: Pioneer Journal, May 23, 2016
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