News of pesticide effects on human health have littered the internet and social media. For some time, but the number grows each year. This study by researchers at the University of California San Diego, found increases in children’s blood pressure associated with pesticide exposure.
They took advantage of Mother’s Day pesticide use in Ecuador, one of the largest growers of commercial flowers in the world. By testing Ecuadorian children’s levels of pesticides and blood pressure during various time periods after the flower season, they found some concerning results.
The study included 313 boys and girls aged 4 to 9 in the first 100 days after the Mother’s Day flower harvest. Levels of various pesticides were higher and the rate of high blood pressure tripled in the early days after the harvest occurred. Beyond these objective biomarkers, cognitive measures were impacted for a period of time after the harvest pesticide exposure.
I am still at a loss why we don’t acknowledge the effects of pesticides on human health. Oh, so sorry, I forgot… money. Industries who use these pesticides to boost crop production want to keep using them for profit. As a business owner, I get the need for profit to stay in business, but at some point, the health of our children deserves some priority here. Not being in the flower industry, I don’t have any easy answers for pesticide replacements. However, as a consumer, I should consider where my flowers come from as well as my food and my other everyday purchases.
With wisdom gleaned from functional medicine’s willingness to look beyond the marketing propaganda, maybe we can work towards a healthier more abundant life for our children than we ourselves can attain.
REFERENCES:
Original
Jose R. Suarez-Lopez, Fatimaezzahra Amchich, Jonathan Murillo, Julie Denenberg. Blood pressure after a heightened pesticide spray period among children living in agricultural communities in Ecuador. Environmental Research, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.05.030
Summary and thanks to Science Daily:
University of California – San Diego. “Hypertension found in children exposed to flower pesticides.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 May 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190522162713.htm>.
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