Applying large amounts of pesticides to farm fields can have negative effects on babies born to mothers living nearby, according to new research. The data-crunching study published in Nature Communications looked at the farm-heavy San Joaquin Valley in California, where a variety of pesticides get applied to dozens of different crops including fruits, vegetables and nuts. Researchers matched birth records for more than a half-million babies born between 1997-2011 to pesticide application rates for a one-square-mile region including the mother’s address. Most babies were fine. In fact, researchers had to look at the five percent exposed to the highest amount of pesticides to find meaningful impacts, and it was the top one percent--those presumably exposed to the most pesticides--that showed lower birth weights, shorter gestation lengths and adverse birth outcomes. “We see these important effects, but just for a small subset of the population living in this agriculturally dominated
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