For years, the number of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, has grown.  Part of that might be because of improved testing.  Part of it might be because it’s a fad to have kids tested for whatever hot new disease of the moment is all over the news (which was ADHD for most of the early 2000’s).  And part of it, if you believe researchers from Harvard School of Public Health, might be pesticides.  Researchers have discovered that the higher a child’s exposure to organophosphates, the more likely that child is to have ADHD.

“There is growing concern that these pesticides may be related to ADHD,” said researcher Marc Weisskopf.  “What this paper specifically highlights is that this may be true even at low concentrations.”  ADHD is considered a condition caused by brain chemistry, and organophosphates were originally developed as a chemical warfare neurotoxin, which might explain the correlation.

Of course, for most kids, it’s just that school is boring.  Reading is even more boring.  Sometimes your attention just wanders, and I know when I was a kid, I was pretty much not paying attention all the time.  Then again, that’s because I was smart and lazy, not because I had a brain condition caused by bug spray.

Image:  Ecoagriculture Partners

Tags: ADHD, ADHD causes, pesticides, ADHD caused by pesticides, organophosphates, Marc Weisskopf, Harvard School of Public Health

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