Need to reduce exposures further

A similar study was conducted jointly by investigators at the Center for Research on Women s and Children s Health, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the Kaiser Permanent 

Division of Research and the University of Califomia-San Francisco School of Medicine (Cohn et al., 2003). They measured pesticide metabolites in preserved postpartum maternal serum samples from 1960 to 1963. They also recorded time to pregnancy in their eldest daughters 28-31 years later. The daughters probability of pregnancy fell by 32% for each 10 mcg/1 detected, three decades after the exposure. 

The team led by Whyatt used regression analysis to assess whether there was a difference in the association between chlorpyrifos exposure and birth outcome before and after the EPA s action in the summer of 2000 which had ended residential use of chlorpyrifos. Prior to 2001, chlorpyrifos clearly had an impact on birth outcome, but after the EPA action taken in June 2000, levels of exposure declined and there was no longer a statistically significant association between insecticide exposure and birth outcome (Whyatt et al., 2004, 2005). This study provides encouraging evidence linking an action driven by the FQPA to a significant reduction in prenatal and infant exposures and risk. 

EPA research investments since 1995 in pesticide exposure and risk assessment methods have helped pioneer novel approaches to quantify risk levels. A team at the University of Washington s School of Public Health and Community Medicine found that 2-5 year olds consuming predominantly organic foods over a 3-day period had 8.5-fold lower mean levels of OP insecticide metabolites in their urine than children eating mosdy conventional (unlabeled) foods (Curl et al., 2003). The study was carefully designed to minimize potentially 

All 23 children had OP insecticide metabolites in their urine in phase one testing, while levels were below the limit of detection during phase two, following the consumption of mostly organic food for just five days. Once the children were back on their normal, conventional food in phase three, the levels of insecticide metabolites in urine returned to those found in phase one. 

---