The article chosen for this particular review is titled Residential Exposure to Pesticide During Childhood and Childhood Cancers: A Meta-Analysis. It was written by Chen, Chang, Tao & Lu (2015). The article reports the outcome of a meta-analysis of issue of childhood cancer incidence among children who are exposed to pesticides used in the residential settings as established by the researchers. The main objective of the researchers in this particular study was to establish the link between residential childhood pesticide exposures and cancers among children. The study was informed by the existing high concern over the increasing number of children exposed to chronic low-level pesticide. A lot of the children who are exposed to these pesticides for long periods end up developing cancer at a quite tender age. Therefore, it is an issue that must be dealt with in order to save the lives of children.
It is important to note that the use of pesticides has greatly increased in many homes. Pesticides are used to kill unwanted insects such as house flies, butterflies, mosquito and cockroaches. Moreover, there are now introductions in the market that do not require staying away from the house after application of the pesticide. These types of pesticides project the image of high safety and lack of any health danger. Many parents, therefore, feel the confidence of applying the pesticides even without staying away from the house for a substantive amount of time. In most cases, children are left in exposure to such pesticides. Moreover, the pesticides are occasionally applied right in the middle of the night when children are asleep. What many users forget is the fact that the child inhales large content of the pesticide fumes while asleep. Lengthy exposure of the child to the chemicals leads to complications and development of cancer. This point is what these researchers point out in their work. They seek to show proof of the link between childhood cancer and exposure to the residential pesticides.
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Pesticides are quite important in homes since they help families in eradicating pests in agriculture as well as gardens and even insects. However, they have one big disadvantage of being highly toxic to human health. The researchers of this article acknowledge in their introductory remarks that the chemicals have the ability of affecting the health of a child in different settings, especially at home. Children get exposed to pesticides when they play on the residential surfaces of areas treated. This specifically happens when in lawns and house surfaces. The common pathway of exposure is hand-to-mouth and dermal.
Normally, a child is prone to putting hands in the mouth. The contact between a child’s mouth and hand does happen frequently. In a case where the hands are contaminated after touching the surfaces and lawns treated, the child may directly ingest the pesticide when he or she puts the hands in the mouth. The exposure could be indirect in the sense that the hands may just be put in contact with the perioral area of the mouth. The chemical then enters the oral cavity during lip-licking. However, dermal exposure entails skin or clothes contact with the surface.
The most serious thing is that children who are exposed to pesticides for long periods have the high risk of developing cancer during childhood. It must be noted that children do have weak immune systems. Therefore, exposure to pesticides usually destroys the already weak immune system further hence making the child vulnerable to development of diseases. Specifically, the enzymatic and metabolic systems of children are less able to detoxify and excrete toxins ingested after exposure to pesticides than the case of adult people.
The method used by the researchers to establish the link between exposure to pesticides and childhood cancer incidence included the analysis of past empirical and scholarly studies on the issue. The researchers of this study did conduct a search of all the observational studies published in the PubMed journal in the period before the year 2014. Moreover, the researchers did review the references of the articles got after the search in the journal. Categorically, the researchers did consider 277 studies, which satisfied the criteria for inclusion. However, only 16 studies did make it to the meta-analysis stage because of their high level of relevance to the topic and credibility of the results found. Effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were then calculated based on the random effect model using the inverse variance weights.
The method applied in this study led to the establishment of clear results reported by researchers. It was found that the exposure of children to indoor residential insecticides increases the risk of childhood leukemia as well as lymphomas. Moreover, the exposure to herbicides was linked to the incidence of leukemia among children. In essence, these results indicate a significant cause of childhood cancer by exposure of children to indoor insecticides. This exposure may be through hand-to-mouth contact or inhalation.
The research article opens the eyes of many parents regarding the importance of implementing controls geared towards ensuring that children are not exposed to pesticides. It is important to ensure that important recommended measures are considered when using the indoor insecticides so that there is no exposure among children. The conclusions made by the researchers are in tandem with the observation recorded by previous research. Moreover, the conclusions are in line with the results found out after the meta-analysis of the exist9ing research works.
It is expected that this research will positively impact on the future of the society It will ignite the efforts geared towards implementing measures of reducing child exposure to pesticides, especially the indoor insecticides. It is important to also note that it is expected that this study will significantly encourage future empirical studies aimed at establishing some of the effective preventative measures while using the indoor insecticides. It must awaken all policy makers concerned with the use of pesticides to ensure that the approved chemicals are user-friendly and not entirely killer substances.
Notably, most epidemiologic studies in existent literature do support the notion that pesticide exposure has got huge impact on the status of child health. The child biological body system is greatly affected by such exposure to pesticides. It is believed that the respiratory, gastrointestinal, nervous and endocrine systems of a child are all adversely affected by the exposure to pesticides, especially indoor insecticides.
The existing concern over the number of children affected by this exposure to pesticides is what has triggered the many studies that now exist in literature. All the studies are centered on the topic of the association between pesticide exposures and risk of childhood cancer. A positive exposure–response relationship between residential indoor insecticide use and occurrence of childhood cancers was observed in the current study. Some studies have also shown that maternal pesticide exposure during pregnancy was associated with childhood cancers. Although current data do not establish the most critical exposure period for the occurrence of childhood cancers, their development is probably multi-factorial and probably includes gene–environment interactions. Some studies assert a possible association between pesticide exposure with genetic predisposition and defined subtypes of childhood cancers. Additional studies are needed to examine the potential mechanisms by which childhood exposure to pesticides could lead to the development of childhood cancers.
Therefore, programs like integrated pest management must be encouraged in residential in order to minimize the risk of cancer among children because of exposure to pesticides. There is also need for awareness creation to elaborate on the right procedures of using indoor insecticides. Parents must ensure that the applied indoor insecticides are cleaned and the rooms well-ventilated before they can return their children in to the house.
References
Bailey, H. D., Infante ‐ Rivard, C., Metayer, C., Clavel, J., Lightfoot, T., Kaatsch, P., ... & Dockerty, J. D. (2015). Home pesticide exposures and risk of childhood leukemia: Findings from the childhood leukemia international consortium. International journal of cancer , 137 (11), 2644-2663.
Chen, M., Chang, C. H., Tao, L., & Lu, C. (2015). Residential exposure to pesticide during childhood and childhood cancers: a meta-analysis. Pediatrics , 136 (4), 719-729. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/136/4/719 .
