EXPOSURE to pesticides in the womb may change when and how breasts develop in young girls.
A preliminary study by Elizabeth Guillette and colleagues at the University of Florida, Gainesville, assessed the breast development of 50 Mexican girls, aged 8 to 10. Half were from a valley where pesticides were regularly applied, while the rest were from nearby foothills where families live as ranchers. Girls in both groups came from the same traditional Mayan population and were otherwise similar in income, diet and lifestyle.
Girls from the valley had larger breasts than those from the foothills, indicating earlier breast development,…
