Common insect sprays we use in the home could be affecting the development and learning abilities of young children, a new study has found.
Even newer products – which supposedly contain ‘safer’ compounds – are affecting children, and can even do so while they are still in the womb.
One study, which tracked 725 pregnant women, has discovered that their children had delayed mental development at the age of three. All the women, living in upper Manhattan and the South Bronx in New York, regularly used insect spray in their homes, and the vast majority had high levels of PBO (piperonyl butoxide) in the air they breathed during their third trimester. PBO is added to most insect sprays, and has been used since 2001 as a safer compound to previous ones that had been considered to be more harmful.
(Source: Pediatrics, 2011; doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-0133).
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