A recently conducted study has reached the conclusion that exposure to pesticides can increase the risk of people developing dementia later on in life. However, the study that has appeared in the medical journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine has met with constant criticism by a few scientists.

Talking about the study, Spokesman Steffan Browning from the Soil and Health Organic NZ has stated that the study involved the participation of 600 people. It was found in the study that people who were exposed to pesticides directly had greater chances of performing worse than normal people in cognitive tests.

Workers performing their duties in relation to pesticides were found to have lost out on two points in a ‘mini mental state exam’.

According to the experts involved in the study, the noticeable impairment could be a symptom of someone who might develop the mentally degenerative disease later on in life.

Though, coming out strongly against the findings, as a Professor of Toxicology at the University of Canterbury, Ian Shaw has questioned the pesticides being used by the workers, who were involved in the study. He says that the study did not surprise him at all, as most of the pesticides involved the impairment of the nervous system of mosquitoes. Though, he has stated that fungicides do not really impair the nervous system.