Children are put at the unnecessary risk of developing cancers when they are exposed to insecticides from sprays and foggers used in the home, a new study analyzing previous research suggests. The research team, from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, wondered if a link between pesticides and cancers in children could be identified from previous studies. An initial search of papers identified 277 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the analysis.
From these, 16 papers were studied more closely. Publishing in the journal Pediatrics, the authors admit that this is a low number of papers to go by, but nonetheless, the sum of their findings suggests that exposure to insecticides indoors during childhood is significantly associated with an increased risk of childhood cancers, though not tumors. The greatest risks are specifically for acute leukemia and…
