The Autism News | English
By Erica Gomez | Oregon Live
If I could go back to the fifth grade and award myself a superlative, it would probably be “Most Likely to Gag at the Sight of Kale.” I was literally bottle-fed Coke as an infant and managed to survive a childhood mostly fueled by refined white flours, hotdogs and cupcakes. Fortunatly, my eating habits have changed since then.
After moving to Portland in 2006, I was immersed in a world of sustainable and healthy eating and began to better understand the food system and how diet affects health. I enrolled in the master of public health program at Portland State University, where I have been researching food, nutrition and environmental health issues. While I had long known organic food was better for you, I did not realize how detrimental that pesticides are to our nation’s health, especially that of children.
Last month was a pivotal month for pesticide awareness. At last, the president’s cancer panel released a report that recommends eating organic food to decrease your risk of developing cancer, and a study released by Harvard and the University of Montreal linked ADHD in children with pesticide exposure. Besides being linked to cancer and ADHD, pesticides are a neurotoxin that pose an especially high threat to fetal, infant and childhood development, and can cause all manner of illnesses and conditions in children, including hormonal disruptions, birth defects, developmental disorders and autism. Even small amounts can dramatically affect the chemistry of your brain.
Oregon has one of the highest rates of autism in the country, and as one of the leading agricultural states, we can’t afford to continue pumping countless pesticides into our air, soil, water and food. Every year, 888 million pounds of pesticides are applied in the United States (about t3 pounds for every person in the country). Seventy-five percent of all conventional produce had detectable amounts of pesticides, and a 2002 study in Seattle found that children who ate conventional produce had six times the amount of organophosphates (a commonly used insecticide) in their bodies than children who ate organic produce.
I was recently discussing pesticides with a physician who works with Mexican and Central American patients in the Willamette Valley, a significant amount of whom are farmworkers. Most of her patients are adults, but out of the few children she treats, she’s alarmed at how many of them have autism. This generation is reaping the effects of years of environmental abuse and harmful farming practices, and our children’s bodies are overburdened by countless toxins while we wonder why there is such a significant increase in food allergies, attention and behavioral disorders, autism, obesity and diabetes.
While food is generally not solely responsible for any of the poor health conditions afflicting Americans, it is a major factor that we can no longer ignore. We spend billions on special education programs, and the costs incurred by caring for those with autism alone are $35 billion a year. Perhaps we would do our nation a great service by investing in preventative measures and demanding that the government reduce the vast amount of pesticides that are affecting our most vulnerable citizens.
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