Table 4.

Studies of the impact of pesticides on women and their offspring.

PUBLICATION	YEAR OF PUBLICATION	POPULATION	NATURE OF EXPOSURE	CONCLUSION
Abell et al84	2000	Denmark: 1767 female members of Danish Gardeners Trade Union; 492 pregnant women assessed	Workers in greenhouses handling flower cultures, spraying pesticides	Female workers in flower greenhouses may have reduced fecundability and pesticide exposure may be part of the causal chain
Bazylewicz-Walczak et al85	1999	Poland: 51 women working in gardening enterprises. Of these, 26 performed planting jobs in greenhouses and were occupationally exposed to several organophosphates; 25 women were not exposed	Long-term exposure to several organophosphate	The exposed female workers were characterized by longer reaction times and reduced motor steadiness compared with the unexposed workers. Also, increased tension, greater depression and fatigue, and more frequent symptoms of central nervous system disturbances were observed in the exposed women compared with the controls
Bretveld et al86	2008	Review of epidemiological studies that found associations between pesticide exposure and reproductive effects that may have been due to disruption of the female hormonal function	Long-term exposure	Occupational exposure to pesticides appears to have adverse effects on female reproduction. Endocrine disruptors that accumulate in the body may eventually reach higher threshold levels necessary for exertion of their biological effects
Cohn et al87	2015	Child Health and Development Studies pregnancy cohort, Alameda County, California, 1959 to 1967, and their adult daughters	Widespread DDT use in the 1960s	This prospective human study linked measured DDT exposure in utero to the risk of breast cancer
Dalvie et al88	2010	Women residents on farms in Western Cape (South Africa)	Pesticide exposure experienced at work and from the environment	More women with low cholinesterase compared with normal levels (indicating that they were highly exposed to pesticides) had elevated levels of fractional exhaled nitric oxide, indicating the presence of lung inflammation associated with asthma
Farr et al89	2004	Women living on farms in Iowa and North Carolina	Exposures of interest were lifetime use of any pesticide	Women who used probable hormonally active pesticides had a 60%-100% increased possibility of experiencing long cycles, missed periods, and intermenstrual bleeding compared with women who had never used pesticides. Associations remained after occupational physical activity was controlled for
Handal and Harlow90	2009	Ecuadorian mothers with at least one child who had lived in the community at least 1 year	Occupational pesticide exposure	The findings suggest a potential adverse association between employment in the cut-flower industry and spontaneous abortion
Harari et al91	2010	In northern Ecuador, an intensive cross-sectional study assessed children’s neurobehavioral functions at 6–8 years of age	Pesticide exposure during the index pregnancy	The findings support the notion that prenatal exposure to pesticides—at levels not producing adverse health outcomes in the mother—can cause lasting adverse effects on brain development in children
Jørgensen et al92	2014	The risk of cryptorchidism among sons of horticultural workers and farmers in Denmark was assessed	Pesticide exposure during pregnancy	A slightly increased risk of cryptorchidism in sons of maternal horticultural workers and farmers was found
McLean et al93	2009	Population-based case-control study of adult-onset leukemia and occupation in New Zealand	Occupational exposures, including agriculture	Confirmed previously observed associations between ever having been an agricultural worker and elevated risk of leukemia. The risk appeared to be higher in women than in men

Abbreviation: DDT, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.