Besides, it is used as an ingredient in baby food a role normally discouraged for organophosphates.
The average exposure to organophosphates is lower today than it was when these studies began a decade ago.
Other types of organophosphates were found in 27 percent of green beans, 17 percent of peaches, and 8 percent of broccoli.
When the women were pregnant, the researchers tested their urine for several chemical by-products of organophosphates -- a standard means of gauging exposure.
Although the commercial preparations employed in the trials are no cheaper than imported organophosphates, a source of the mineral has recently been identified in Zimbabwe.
Organophosphates, which pass from the mother to fetus through the placenta and umbilical cord, may be more damaging to developing fetuses than to children, the study notes.
Now that the indoor use of organophosphates has been all but eliminated, the main sources are direct exposure to commercial agriculture and the traces found on supermarket produce.
Experts aren't sure how organophosphates might interfere with fetal brain development, although they do know that in insects the pesticides slow the breakdown of acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter.
Organophosphates, which kill pests by attacking the nervous system, have previously been linked to developmental delays and attention problems in young children who were exposed in the womb.
The pesticides, known as organophosphates, are commonly sprayed on food crops and can be found in trace amounts on berries, green beans, and other fruits and vegetables sold in stores.
One study modelled the amount of exposure to organophosphates (another kind of AChEi) received by veterans and found that higher estimates of exposure are associated with greater losses of the brain's white matter.
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Dr. Marion Moses, director of the Pesticide Education Center in San Francisco, California, notes that at least one commonly used class of pesticides, organophosphates, can adversely affect the heart -- and this effect is just the tip of the iceberg.
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In the third study, which also looked at children in New York City, researchers found that the association between organophosphate exposure and developmental delays was more pronounced in children whose mothers had a certain genetic variant that influences an enzyme that breaks down organophosphates.
On the other hand the Environmental Working Group list calls attention to the fact that some of those residues are pesticides like organophosphates which have been linked to issues with child development and are of concern for farm workers spraying them in the fields.
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