Bradman research with CHAMACOS study finds pesticides harm the young brain
Even as the researchers have been trying to unravel the tangled effects of pesticides and other chemicals on children’s development, they’ve been devising practical ways to help the study’s participants reduce their risk of exposure—a rare example of community engagement by academic scientists. In a place that’s often sharply polarized between those who own the fields and those who work in them, CHAMACOS researchers have insisted on involving all sides. They’ve worked with growers and farmworker advocates to explore ways to mitigate exposure and have spun off studies to answer questions and concerns in the local community. It’s been “a partnership, not a top-down approach,” says Asa Bradman, one of the researchers. Recently, after hearing from local daycare centers that they were worried about the pesticides used in their facilities, Bradman launched a series of small studies to investigate the problem and help the daycare centers and their pest-control companies find child-safe methods.
“It’s one of the things I find most impressive about their work,” says Dan Shapiro, a professor at California State University, Monterey Bay, and a member of CHAMACOS’s community advisory board. “They have a genuine interest in engaging, collaborating and serving the community rather than swooping in as disinterested researchers, collecting data and leaving.”