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Elizabeth A. Guillette,¹ María Mercedes Meza,² Maria Guadalupe Aquilar,² Alma Delia Soto,² and Idalia Enedina Garcia²

¹Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 USA
²Direccion de Investigacion y Estudias de Postgrado, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora, Obregón, Sonora, México

Abstract

In this comparative study, we compensated for many of the known variables that influence children's growth and development by selecting two groups of 4-5-year-old Yaqui children who reside in the Yaqui Valley of northwestern Mexico. These children share similar genetic backgrounds, diets, water mineral contents, cultural patterns, and social behaviors. The major difference was their exposure to pesticides. Pesticides have been applied to the agricultural area of the valley since the late 1940s. In 1990, high levels of multiple pesticides were found in the cord blood of newborns and in breast milk. Building on anthropological methods for rapid rural appraisal of problems within the environment, a Rapid Assessment Tool for Preschool Children (RATPC) was developed to measure growth and development. The children of the agrarian region were compared to children living in the foothills, where pesticide use is avoided. The RATPC measured varied aspects of physical growth and abilities to perform, or function in, normal childhood activities. No differences were found in growth patterns. Functionally, the exposed children demonstrated decreases in stamina, gross and fine eye-hand coordination, 30-minute memory, and the ability to draw a person. The RATPC also pointed out areas in which more in-depth research on the toxicology of pesticides would be valuable. Key words: children, Mexico, pesticides, Yaqui. Environ Health Perspect 106:347-353 (1998) . [Online 18 May 1998]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1998/106p347-353guillette/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to E.A Guillette, 32 SW 43rd Terrace, Gainesville, FL 32607 USA.

The authors would like to acknowledge Gonzalo Robles Monteverde and José Luis Navarro of the Secretaría de Salud Publica, Sonora, and Jose Manuel López and Juan Manuel Morsan of the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora for their assistance in making this study possible. We thank Howard Bern and Theo Colborn for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript and Lou Guillette for assistance with statistics. This work was funded in part by the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, University of Arizona, Direccion de Investigacion y Estudias de Postgrado, Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora and Secretaría de Salud Publica, Sonora.

Received 5 September 1997 ; accepted 10 March 1998.