When I first wrote Hormone Deception I was interviewed on the Dr. Oz radio show at the time. I had written about brain issues and varied health problems in children after exposure to indoor termite and bug bombs and other household products.

The show was shocked that I felt that so many things in the environment held threats for children. They felt these warnings were dooms day-ish and that if this were true, this meant so many products we used seemed to be suspicious that it just seemed too far-fetched.

Well, these weren’t my own prized perceptions. Every inch of data came from peer review science papers, thousands of man hours of top scientist collected research, symposiums by top experts and my personal experience as an estrogen scholar with top environmental scientists at the Center for Bio-environmental Research at Tulane. I compiled these conclusions based on my own 6 years of research in Hormone Deception. I didn’t make any of this up.

Well, here we are again. This month in the news we see pesticide exposure linked to increased risk of Type-2 diabetes, plastic exposure in pregnant moms linked to gestational diabetes, and we see indoor pesticides linked to brain damage and cancer in kids. Yeeech.

Headline: Boy suffers brain damage after termite fumigation. This was breaking news earlier this month (September 2015) when a Florida family fell ill and their 10-year-old boy was hospitalized after termite fumigation in their home. In March, a Delaware family vacationing on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, fell ill after a suspected pesticide exposure.

What’s going on?

Children exposed to insecticides, INSIDE THE HOME, have higher risk of diverse diseases from cancers like leukemia and lymphoma to behavioral problems like impulse control and anger to gut and immune issues like Type 1 diabetes. There’s strong evidence that long-term exposure to these types of chemicals in the home can and do adversely affect cognitive development

A new report (but believe me, these reports have been coming out for years) demonstrates that pesticide use in homes may increase the risk of children developing leukemia or lymphoma.

Researchers combined data from 16 EARLIER studies that had compared pesticide exposure between children who developed leukemia or lymphoma and those who did not. These studies estimated the level of insecticides and herbicides both inside the home and in the yard and outdoor residential space.

The researchers concluded that children who had been exposed to insecticides indoors were 47% more likely to have leukemia and 43% more likely to have lymphoma. “Childhood cancers are increasing year by year in this country; there is disagreement about what is contributing to that, but pesticides have always been on the radar,” said Chensheng Lu, an associate professor of environmental exposure biology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (lead researcher on this paper.)

The study found an association ONLY with insecticides used INDOORS. Outside the chemicals get diluted with air. But many on the outside are TRACKED into the house on the bottom of shoes, clothing, and even pet paws. That’s why a NO SHOES POLICY makes sense.

Other research has suggested a link between parents who are exposed to high levels to pesticides at work, such as through farming, and increased rates of cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, both in these adults and their children.  HormoneDisruption.com

October Pediatrics 2015