( Recent research in California has revea...)Developmental Delays in Infants Linked to DDT,Health

Recent research in California has revealed that DDT can cause developmental delays in infants whose mothers were exposed to the pesticide//.

While DDT is currently banned in the United States, officials in Africa plan to expand its use to combat mosquitoes that spread malaria.

According to study author Brenda Eskenazi, a professor of epidemiology and maternal and child health at the University of California, Berkeley, the potential benefits of DDT use to reduce malaria must be considered by policymakers along with the new findings.

Dr. Walter Rogan, senior investigator in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' epidemiology branch said that while DDT appears hazardous to some animals, DDT's health effects on humans are still being studied.

The researchers examined blood levels of DDT and one of the breakdown products -- known as DDE -- in 360 pregnant women from California's Central Valley who are participating in a long-term UC Berkeley project called the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS).

Ninety percent of these women were born in Mexico, where DDT was widely used in agriculture during the 1970s, then used to control mosquitoes until 1995. It was only in 2000 that a complete ban of DDT went into effect.

Mental and physical skills of these women's infants at 6, 12 and 24 months of age were tested. It was found that the babies of mothers with the highest DDT exposure showed signs of delayed mental development at 12 months and 24 months.

For each tenfold increase in DDT levels measured in the mother, the researchers found a corresponding two- to three-point decrease in the child's mental development scores at 12 and 24 months. In physical skills exams, there were two-point decreases in children's scores at 6 months and 12 months for each tenfold increase in DDT levels in the mothers. No decrease was found at 24 months.

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