Associations between prenatal pesticide exposure and cough, wheeze, and IgE in early childhood.

摘要

Occupational and agricultural studies have reported positive associations between pesticide exposure and wheeze or asthma in adults. Among elementary school children, exposures to herbicides, pesticides, and farm crops in the first year of life, determined retrospectively by questionnaire, were associated with asthma before age 5 years. In a prospective birth cohort study in California, having a mother working in agriculture was associated with increased levels of T_H2 cytokines in children at age 2 years. These associations have not been tested prospectively in children by using measured pesticide levels, nor in an urban cohort, in which residential pesticide use can be widespread.