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Study Links Pesticide Used To Fight Zika In Florida To Health Impacts In Chinese Babies

Spraying in a Miami neighborhood during the 2016 rainy season.
Associated Press
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

The pesticide widely used to fight Zika-carrying mosquitoes in Florida and across the nation has been linked to deficits in motor functions in Chinese babies, according to a new study.

The study, whose authors say it is the first to examine real-world exposure to naled outside workplace accidents or lab experiments, used cord blood from 237 mothers who gave birth to healthy babies at a hospital in southeast China between 2008 and 2011. At six weeks, the babies displayed no problems. But at nine months, the babies suffered from slight problems with coordination, movement and other motor functions.

The University of Michigan study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environment International on Thursday.

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald

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Jenny Staletovich has been a journalist working in Florida for nearly 20 years.