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Childhood, Prenatal Pesticide Exposure Impacts Immune System, According to Study
A literature review published in Science of the Total Environment reports numerous peer-reviewed studies associating prenatal and childhood pesticide exposure to measurable alterations to children’s immune systems, including indicators of immunosuppression and increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines, among other adverse health effects. These immune system alterations are linked to higher infection risk and potentially contribute to autoimmune diseases and allergies later in life.
“Prenatal exposure to organochlorine pesticides was associated with decreased lymphocyte counts, altered T-cell subpopulations, dysregulated cytokine production, and increased susceptibility to infections,” researchers conclude. They continue to summarize the main findings of their literature review: “Pesticide exposure was linked to both immunosuppression and pro-inflammatory/allergic responses, suggesting complex and potentially exposure-specific effects.
Advocates continue to sound the alarm and call for an organic transition, given the preponderance of evidence linking pesticide exposure to adverse health effects in children and childhood development.
Of Corn and Cancer: Iowa’s Deadly Water Crisis
Nick Schutt grew up as a free-range kid in the tiny central Iowa town of Williams in the early 1980s. His parents were small-scale farmers, but when the nation’s steepest agrarian crisis since the Great Depression hit, they worked jobs in town to make ends meet.
Nick and his friends would often mount their bicycles in search of after-school adventure amid the corn and soybean fields. Sometimes, they’d find themselves playing behind the abandoned local co-op, the place where — until the recession had wrecked its business — the community’s farmers would store their corn and soybean harvests for sale, and buy their seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides.
After rains, puddles would form back there, and the kids would splash around in them, catching tadpoles. “We didn’t have a bowling alley or anything for kids to play in, so we did what kids do,” he said. One image, though, from this otherwise-idyllic memory haunts him: the sight of “rotted out” Lasso cans, inundated by recent storms and leaking out, strewn about their makeshift playscape. Lasso is the brand name of a potent herbicide called alachlor, then widely used on the region’s landscape-dominating corn and soybean fields.
How Is California Phasing out the Use of Forever Chemicals?
Sustainability Magazine reported:
California has taken another major step in protecting public health and the environment by adopting strict new health goals for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in nature.
The move, led by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), sets science-based limits for PFAS in drinking water and complements new legislative measures to phase out their use in consumer products.
The OEHHA has established public health goals (PHGs) for two of the most studies. PFAS compounds: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). These goals set non-enforceable targets of 0.007 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and 1 ppt for PFOS, levels deemed safe for lifetime exposure without significant health risk. “OEHHA’s adoption of these public health goals for PFOA and PFOS is an important step toward addressing the long-term effects of forever chemicals,” says Darrin Polhemus, Deputy Director for the State Water Board’s Division of Drinking Water.
“The PHG values will enable us to develop standards that water systems will have to achieve to help minimise these chemicals in our drinking water.” The announcement follows five years of scientific review and public consultation, underscoring California’s commitment to evidence-led environmental protection.
Congress Members Question Pentagon’s Delay in ‘Forever Chemical’ Cleanup
Three dozen members of Congress, including two Republicans, asked Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explain why the Pentagon has pushed back its cleanup of “forever chemical” contamination at nearly 140 military sites nationwide.
The New York Times reported last month that the Department of Defense had delayed its cleanup efforts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, which are used in firefighting foam at military installations across the country.
The chemicals are linked to serious diseases including cancer. The delays extended the timelines for cleanup of contaminated water and soil by an average of five years, and in some cases by almost a decade. In a letter to Mr. Hegseth, the 36 lawmakers, led by Democrats Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico, said they were “alarmed” to learn of the delays reported by The Times. Two Republican members of Congress, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Lawler of New York, also signed the letter.
“For years, our defense communities have suffered from the consequences of this contamination,” the letter said. “The DOD has a serious responsibility to these communities, including service members and their families.” In a statement, Ciro Riccardi, the communications director for Representative Lawler said “PFAS contamination has a devastating impact on military families and surrounding communities across the country.”
New Mexico’s Efforts to Regulate PFAS Attracts National Industry Pushback
New Mexico officials this week will share information about forthcoming laws requiring labeling for products that contain so-called “forever chemicals.” The virtual meeting on Wednesday follows recent proposed rulemaking for both labeling and restricting such products, and comes amid national pushback from industry.
The proposed rules come via House Bill 212 — the PFAS Protection Act — passed by lawmakers in the 2025 legislative session. The bill institutes the phasing out of most intentionally added per and poly fluoroalkyl substances — PFAS — from in everyday items. This class of manmade chemicals, which has thousands of variants, resist breaking down in nature and can accumulate in water, soils and increasingly in the blood and bodies of humans and animals around the world.
Because of PFAS’ durability, they’ve been used extensively in materials for waterproofing, nonstick cookware, makeup, carpets and firefighting foams. Studies on PFAS’ health impacts remain ongoing, but have thus far been linked to kidney and reproductive cancers, decreased fertility, fetal developmental delays, disruption of immune responses and liver functions in people.
Senate Hearing Exposes Divide Over Chemical Safety Law
Industry leaders and Republicans in Congress again signaled their desire to hasten federal reviews of new chemicals at a Senate hearing, while an environmental health expert warned such changes will lead to more pollution and human health impacts.
The hearing, held by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Thursday, focused on the regulation of chemicals, specifically the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). TSCA is a federal law under which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluates chemicals to make sure human and environmental health will be protected before chemicals are allowed onto the marketplace.
Industry representatives have long called for changes to the act, which was updated in 2016 with bipartisan support, saying it is unnecessarily cumbersome and that the slow review process stifles innovation. Environmental and health advocates, however, say it is a key defense against an onslaught of toxics that people — especially vulnerable populations like pregnant women, children, workers and frontline communities near polluting industries — are routinely exposed to.
“While industry says ‘faster, faster’ and uses buzz words like ‘progress and innovation,’ it is essential that policymakers understand the repercussions of unleashing new toxic chemicals on the population,” Tracey Woodruff, director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco, said at the hearing. “Once [harmful chemicals] are out there, you can’t take them back, and the result is that people get sick and die,” she said.
Iowa Counties Keep Water Quality Monitoring Afloat After State Funding Cuts
For over a decade, a network of water quality sensors managed by the University of Iowa has provided publicly available data about waterways across the state. And while Iowa grapples with a growing water quality crisis fueled by agricultural runoff, state government funding cuts have threatened the network’s future.
Now, the state’s largest county is stepping up to keep the 60 sensors online. This week, the Polk County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to invest $200,000 in the water quality monitoring network and its associated information system. The network of sensors tracks and publishes real-time data measuring the nutrient nitrate — found in fertilizers, including manure spread on fields — as well as oxygen concentrations, pH, stream flow and temperature from 60 streams and rivers.
Sensors take measurements at 10-minute intervals and upload the results to the online Iowa Water Quality Information System. This real-time monitoring, managed by the University of Iowa’s hydroscience and engineering center, allows researchers, landowners and government agencies to more closely track the movement of nitrate in state waterways and evaluate the success of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, said Larry Weber, the center’s director.
