Pesticides and Anencephaly.

PESTICIDES; AGRICULTURAL laborers; NEURAL tube defects; ANENCEPHALY; BRAIN abnormalities; SPRAYING & dusting in agriculture; CHLORPYRIFOS; PROTECTIVE clothing

This article discusses the risk of producing a child with anencephaly as the result of early pesticide exposure among parents who are agricultural workers in Mexico. The study is reported in the October 2006 issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and confirms a link between parent’s exposure to pesticides such as chlorpyrifos and methyl parathion and the birth defect. According to principal investigator Marina Lucasana, the risk is greater during the acute risk period in the first month of pregnancy for mothers than anytime of exposure for fathers. Workers rarely wore protective clothing and the authors urge that women who may become pregnant be protected from direct and indirect pesticide exposure.