Assessing the association between pesticide exposure and cognitive development in rural Costa Rican children living in organic and conventional coffee farms

Chensheng Lu; Christa Essig; Christa Root; Diane S Rohlman; Tom McDonald; Stephen Sulzbacher

doi:10.1515/IJAMH.2009.21.4.609

Back

Assessing the association between pesticide exposure and cognitive development in rural Costa Rican children living in organic and conventional coffee farms

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Assessing the association between pesticide exposure and cognitive development in rural Costa Rican children living in organic and conventional coffee farms

Chensheng Lu, Christa Essig, Christa Root, Diane S Rohlman, Tom McDonald and Stephen Sulzbacher

International journal of adolescent medicine and health, Vol.21(4), pp.609-621

10/2009

DOI: 10.1515/IJAMH.2009.21.4.609

PMID: 20306773

View Online

Abstract

We examined the association between pesticide exposure and cognitive development among rural Costa Rican children in a cross-sectional study. Study participants aged 4-10 years included 17 children whose parents worked in La Amistad organic coffee plantation and 18 Las Mellizas children whose parents worked in their own small conventional coffee farms. Two spot-urine samples were collected from each participant and analyzed for organophosphorus and pyrethroids pesticide metabolites. We administered the computerized Behavioral Assessment and Research System (BARS), a figure-drawing task, and a long-term memory test to evaluate study participant's cognitive development. Although urinary pesticide metabolite levels did not vary considerably between these two groups of children, we found that Las Mellizas children performed better in BARS and the figure drawing tests than did La Amistad. The results from the linear mixed-effects models suggested that family socioeconomic status (SES) might be a significant contributor to the variation of the outcomes of the neurobehavioral tests. The effect of pesticide exposure, however, as measured in a snapshot fashion, did not play a significant role to the performance of the cognitive development evaluation. Regardless of the study limitations, needed effort should be devoted to the improvement of the SES on the La Amistad families so that their children's cognitive development would not be compromised further. Additionally, future studies should focus on addressing the limitations imposed on the snapshot assessment of pesticide exposure and on conducting cognitive development evaluation so the link between childhood pesticide exposure and their cognitive development can be thoroughly investigated.

Coffee

Agriculture

Rural Population - statistics & numerical data

Organophosphorus Compounds - urine

Humans

Child, Preschool

Male

Pyrethrins - urine

Cognition - drug effects

Socioeconomic Factors

Behavior - drug effects

Environmental Exposure - adverse effects

Pilot Projects

Pesticides - toxicity

Costa Rica - epidemiology

Female

Environmental Pollutants - toxicity

Child

Details

Title: Subtitle: Assessing the association between pesticide exposure and cognitive development in rural Costa Rican children living in organic and conventional coffee farms
Creators: Chensheng Lu - Exposure, Epidemiology and Risk Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. cslu@hsph.harvard.edu
Christa Essig
Christa Root
Diane S Rohlman
Tom McDonald
Stephen Sulzbacher
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: International journal of adolescent medicine and health, Vol.21(4), pp.609-621
DOI: 10.1515/IJAMH.2009.21.4.609
PMID: 20306773
NLM abbreviation: Int J Adolesc Med Health
ISSN: 0334-0139
eISSN: 2191-0278
Publisher: Germany
Language: English
Date published: 10/2009
Academic Unit: Occupational and Environmental Health; International Programs; Injury Prevention Research Center
Record Identifier: 9983997336302771

Metrics

28 Record Views