LOS ANGELES—Pesticide exposure during pregnancy might lead to the development of central nervous system tumors during childhood, according to a study involving researchers from the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA), University of Southern California and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
The increased risk of these tumors, estimated as much as twice to 2.5 times higher for some pesticides, occurs even if the mother is not a farmworker, or lived as far as 2.5 miles from the field where the pesticides are sprayed, researchers found.