Better birth and growth defects through chemistry

Years ago while I was still in high school I would sometimes hear my uncles curiously reflect that the physical attributes of the girls I went to school with seemed to have developed far earlier than the young girls they knew while in high school themselves. This was not just some lewd excuse to ogle the attractive young ladies because they were far from the only ones making that observation and such remarks were not limited just to girls. I have heard people say many times that young guys are shaving far sooner than their fathers did and that they are physically maturing far faster as well. Case in point is that my son is thirteen and is now, in a limited way, shaving himself and is nearly six feet tall. I didn't even begin to worry about facial hair until much later and I didn't hit six foot until sixteen.

Every once and while some scientific report will surface giving credence to such anecdotal observations. The reports will state that the artificial growth hormones feed or injected into dairy cows are bleeding over into the milk they produce resulting in the faster development or maturing of children. Of course a whole army of counter reports and high paid scientists and spin doctors will flood the media assuring us that the milk supply is as safe and wholesome as it was in the good old days.

Being honest here but that may very well be the case. I'm not a scientist although I will say my understanding of science is far better than my educational contemporaries and even better than many of the post-graduate level college types I know. Digressing here but for example I once had a conversation with a lawyer friend of my wife's that didn't know the difference between nuclear fission and fusion.

But getting back on point, even if the hormones in milk are harmless we are flooded in this day and age with artificial chemicals in every aspect of our lives from work to home. We willingly bath ourselves in cleaning agents to sanitize our homes, air fresheners to hide the normal smell of pets and people, food additives to preserve or make what we eat taste better, and spray very toxic chemicals into the open environment to control pests that feed of the crops we eat.

These compounds are tested and said to be safe but even the manufactures state their products are harmful beyond certain levels. So for me at least the question is still open as to whether all the wonderful things the science of chemistry has wrought don't work their way down to our children. You might find the following transcript interesting. Oh yeah Happy Earth Day everyone.

The NPR show "Living on Earth": Air date the week of April 17, 2009

CURWOOD: From the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts - this is Living on Earth. I'm Steve Curwood.

YOUNG: And I'm Jeff Young in Washington.

When crops go in the ground and start to grow, it's the time for conventional farmers to apply chemical weed killers.

For example, millions of pounds of Atrazine are applied on US farms each year, even though the herbicide is banned in Europe.

And it should not be surprising that between April and July, there tend to be higher levels of pesticides in water than during the rest of the year, as the U.S. Geological Survey has found.

CURWOOD: What is surprising is new research that shows an association between the time of conception, pesticide levels, and the likelihood of crippling or fatal birth defects.

The research is being led by Paul Winchester, a neonatologist. His curiosity was aroused when he encountered a high level of birth defects when he began working in the heart of farm country at St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis.

Dr. Winchester, what exactly did you find?

WINCHESTER: We found that birth defects like spina bifida, cleft pallet and lip, down syndrome, urogenital abnormalities, club foot among others are some of the birth defects that are more likely to occur for women who conceive between April and July. That time period coincides quite well with the time period when surface waters measured across the U.S. are having significantly more pesticides in their concentration than any other times of year.