Invisible killer: The chemicals in British air as bad for your children as passive SMOKING
YOU'D think being in the fresh country air is good for children, but it might be making their lungs weaker.
Pesticides are damaging to children's lungs
New research has warned the effect of pesticides in the air is as damaging to children’s lungs as passive smoking.
The study linked levels of organophosphates (pesticides) in a child's body with weaker breath in children living around farms.
It found that each tenfold increase in the concentrations of the pesticide was associated with a 159-millilitre decrease in lung function or, to put it simply, eight per cent less air - on average - when blowing out a candle.
Children lose eight per cent less air when blowing out a candle
The study is the first to link chronic low-level exposures to organophosphate pesticides - chemicals that target the nervous system - and lung health in children.
Exposure to pesticides also put children at greater risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in adulthood, the study discovered.
COPD - which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema - affects three million people in the UK.
Exposure to pesticides in the country put children at risk of COPD
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Professor Brenda Eskenazi at the University of California, Berkeley said: "Researchers have described breathing problems in agricultural workers who are exposed to these pesticides, but these new findings are about children who live in an agricultural area where the organophosphates are being used.
"This is the first evidence suggesting that children exposed to organophosphates have poorer lung function.”
To minimise exposure to children, if living on a farm, farmworkers are advised to remove work clothes and shoes before entering homes, and to keep children indoors if fields are being sprayed.
This study is a first of its kind
It’s also highly recommended that fruit and vegetables should always be washed before eating.
The study looked at 279 children living in California's Salinas Valley and was published in the journal Thorax.