Expecting mothers need to be careful while eating as it has been revealed that exposure to pesticides during pregnancy can lower children’s IQ level. Recently three studies were conducted in knowing the consequences when an expected woman is exposed to pesticide. The studies’ findings have revealed that all the pesticides including farmer sprays on fruits and painkillers have adverse effect on baby.

In the first study, conducted by Columbia University, researchers studied babies born from African American and Dominican mothers. It came to light that children born to women who had the highest levels of an organophosphate pesticide known as chlorpyrifos in the cord blood during delivery scored three points lower on IQ tests at age 7, compared with children born to mothers with the lowest levels of the pesticide.

In the second study, conducted by University of California, Berkeley, researchers looked at levels of a breakdown product of organophosphate pesticides in the mother's urine, the difference in IQ in children born to mothers with the highest versus the lowest levels of the metabolites was even greater at age 7 which ranked to seven points.

Whereas, in the third study, conducted at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City, revealed that children born to mothers with higher levels of pesticide metabolites in their urine scored lower on cognitive tests beginning at 12 months, suffered deficits in reasoning throughout childhood.

The study has emphasized that organophosphate pesticide is harmful during pregnancy as they tend to lower the IQ level of children.