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August 13, 2024

What can hair tell us about pesticide exposure?

Children’s hair tested by French researchers in a new study found that almost one third of the samples had detectable levels of biomarkers for chemicals found in the environment, with 10% of the total samples detecting 100% of the biomarkers. 

 

Tests were carried out on children’s hair samples to detect biomarkers for 32 groups of environmental pollutants with an average age of 3.5 years, from across a range of geographical locations across France. The most detectable were the biomarkers for bisphenols, organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides. These chemical groups are identified as having endocrine disrupting properties with potential adverse effects on development and health. 

 

What are the health risks of pesticides? 

Pesticides are manufactured from a vast range of chemical substances and used widely in agriculture to kill pests and increase crop yields. Exposure to pesticides has been linked to a range of illness including cancer. A new American study has just proven that higher rates of cancer types can be attributed to patterns of pesticide use across different states, including bladder and colon, lung, pancreatic, and leukaemia. One of the strongest links was found between some patterns of pesticide use and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and its associations with bladder cancer and leukemia. Researchers found that the effects of pesticides on these specific cancer types were more significant than the effects of smoking.  

 

In addition to cancer, pesticides have been identified as a health risk for cardiovascular disease, cognitive and neurological disorders, fertility, and developmental changes in children. The combined effects of multiple exposures is not yet understood, or the mechanisms with the body, but exposure to pesticides presents “significant risks to human health” according to the European Environment Agency. Diet is the main source of exposure to pesticides and drinking contaminated drinking water.

 

How reliable is hair testing and what can it tell us about health? 

The presence of chemicals in hair samples can arise from within the body, such as from a dietary source, or from an external source of exposure. Hair testing is not widespread, so it’s not understood yet what a normal or high level is due to insufficient data. What is known is that hair holds onto traces of pollutants for longer than blood or urine, which the body removes in the body’s detoxification process. In contrast, pollutants in hair can attach to keratin, a protein naturally produced by the body, so they are so they are detectable for a longer period. 

 

Traces of pollutants in hair samples can provide useful insights into environmental exposures. It’s hard to identify the source of the exposure, and when it might have been, but it’s generally understood that exposures within the last 12 months are most likely to be detectable in hair. Making the link between exposure and potential health problems is still quite difficult and only if there has been an exposure to the substance at some point over the last year or so. Further research is needed, but the French study highlights the potential risk of childhood exposures to pesticides, and with almost a third of all samples tested showing traces, this could lead to further research. 

 

How can you reduce your exposure to pesticides?

Choosing organic food is the easiest way to reduce your exposure to pesticides and herbicides in your diet. To get started, avoid foods that appear on the PAN UK Dirty Dozen list that are known to have the highest levels of pesticides, and switch the foods that you eat most regularly that appear on the list to their organic alternative. 

 

If you live in a rural area, try to avoid being close to fields whilst crop sparing is taking place.

 

More reading

 

US Department of Health and human services information about hair testing 

 

The information on our website should not be used as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you have any specific questions about any medical matter, you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. Lastinghealth.com is not responsible for the content of external websites. The inclusion of a link to a third-party website should not be understood as an endorsement. 

 

Image credit: FFotokostic

 

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