Weed killer pregnancy

Pesticides - Reproductive Health | NIOSH

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Exposure to pesticides could increase your chances of having a miscarriage, a baby with birth defects, or other problems. Some pesticides also may be able to pass into breast milk. Here, you can learn more about these chemicals and what you can do to reduce your exposure for a healthier pregnancy.

What are pesticides?

Pesticides are chemicals used to destroy or control weeds (herbicides), insect pests (insecticides), rodent pests (rodenticides), or fungi (fungicides).
Pesticides are used in many workplaces, but also used in and around homes, primarily to treat for insects or weeds in the lawn.

Why should I be concerned about exposure?

Some pesticides have been linked in human studies with problems including miscarriages, birth defects, and learning or developmental disabilities in children.
Some pesticides also may pass into breast milk.

Who is exposed to pesticides?

Farmers greenhouse workers
Veterinarians, veterinary workers, and animal handlers
Landscapers
Lawn/pest service providers
Air crews

What is not known?

We don’t know what causes most miscarriages, birth defects, and other reproductive problems. If you work with pesticides and have a miscarriage or baby with a birth defect, we often can’t tell if it was caused by exposure to pesticides or if it was caused by something else.
We don’t know what levels of exposure to pesticides are safe for pregnancy and breastfeeding. Try to reduce or eliminate your exposure as much as possible during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

What can I do to reduce or eliminate exposure?

If you are pregnant, talk with your employer to see if it’s possible to avoid duties with pesticide exposures during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
If you cannot avoid working with pesticides during pregnancy or while breastfeeding, here are some ways to reduce exposure:
- Avoid directly applying pesticides, if possible. Ask someone else to apply the pesticides for you.
- Wear protective clothing (like gloves and protective clothing) to avoid contact with pesticides and their residues. If you use sprays or fumigants, you may want to consider a respirator. Respirators are sometimes worn to reduce the amount of certain chemicals that workers breathe in. To be effective, respirators must be used correctly. If you are pregnant and using a respirator, learn more about respirators and pregnancy and talk to your doctor and your employer if you think you might need respiratory protection.
- Carefully read and follow the instructions on the label for any pesticides you use. People and pets have become very sick, sometimes requiring hospitalization, after using household or work pesticides incorrectly.
- Avoid entering areas where pesticides have been applied for at least as long as the pesticide label tells you to wait.
- Pesticides can be carried into the home on shoes and clothing. Find tips on reducing take-home exposure, and ask that others in your household do the same.

Where can I get more information?

Learn more about personal protective equipment (PPE) in pregnancy
Look up fact sheets for specific pesticidesexternal icon

Exposure During Pregnancy to Glyphosate, the World’s Most Widely Used Herbicide, and the Risk of Preterm Birth - Blog

Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide worldwide and various studies have associated its use with an increased risk of cancer. Now, a new study has found that exposure to glyphosate during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth, i.e. the baby being born before the 37^th week of pregnancy. Preterm birth poses a significant health risk because it can be associated with both short- and long-term health effects for the child.

Although the use of glyphosate has been restricted in some European Union countries, the global glyphosate market is projected to expand at an annual growth rate of 6.3% from 2016 to 2022, reaching an estimated US$9.91 billion by 2022. Genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops now account for approximately 56% of global glyphosate use.

Glyphosate is the most commonly used herbicide worldwide and various studies have associated its use with an increased risk of cancer. Now, a new study has found that exposure to glyphosate during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of preterm birth.

The new study, conducted in Puerto Rico, found that prenatal exposure to glyphosate and its environmental degradate—aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA)—around the 28^th week of pregnancy was associated with a 30%-70% higher risk of preterm birth. This is not trivial. Exposures earlier than 28 weeks were not associated with an increased risk of preterm birth.

The authors evaluated preterm birth for two reasons. First, experimental evidence and animal studies indicate that this is an adverse health outcome that could be related to glyphosate exposure. Second, preterm birth is a major, but poorly understood, public health issue that can have negative health effects.

Glyphosate concentrations in urine were slightly lower in this study population compared with those of other general population studies investigating exposure to this herbicide. But even relatively low concentrations posed risks.

This study is interesting because it was prospective (i.e. designed to assess risk) and used a valid measure to examine exposure: glyphosate levels in the mother’s urine. However, the study was relatively small, with around 250 births included in the analysis.

The key message from this study is that, for the world’s most widely used herbicide, the most conclusive epidemiological study on a major health outcome—preterm birth—is based on a population of only 250 people.

For the world’s most widely used herbicide, the most conclusive epidemiological study on a major health outcome—preterm birth—is based on a population of only 250 people

Research on the potential health effects of glyphosate—best known by the brand name Roundup^®—is especially complicated. Regulatory and legal aspects specific to glyphosate have been a severe impediment for primary and postmarket research and control of exposure to this herbicide.

The controversy following the designation by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen was mainly, albeit not solely, orchestrated by corporate interests. The controversy was also generated by the lack of scientific evidence from large prospective studies on herbicide exposure in either farmers and professional applicators or the general public.

There is a need for additional large, diversified epidemiologic cohort studies, particularly in medium-income countries with the infrastructure to conduct such studies and where exposures are likely to be higher than those in high-income countries.

There is a need for additional large, diversified epidemiologic cohort, particularly in medium-income countries with the infrastructure to conduct such studies and where exposures are likely to be higher than those in high-income countries

Even if such major research initiatives are eventually launched, they would cover only part of the problem regarding the effects of herbicides. The extensive use of these products worldwide is a major problem for the planet, giving rise to chemical pollution and ecosystem degradation. In the case of glyphosate, widespread use has resulted in the presence of residues in house dust, soil, water and foods, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Apart from classic epidemiological cohort studies, we now also need transdisciplinary research and action applying planetary health approaches to capture and eventually prevent the broader health effects of pesticides.

Full study in Environmental Health Perspectives

Editorial (by Manolis Kogevinas) in Environmental Health Perspectives

Pregnancy and addiction: what are the risks of drug abuse in pregnant women? | Addiction & Recovery articles | Emotional & Mental Health center

Substance abuse always affects the health of the addict. When a person who abuses drugs is pregnant, it brings a new person - a fetus - into this perilous fold. What effects can different medicines have if they are used during pregnancy?

Women are a minority of drug users - an estimated four out of ten people with substance use disorders are women. However, most female drug addicts are in their reproductive years. When these women become pregnant, they may or may not do everything they can to stop drugs immediately. About six percent of expectant mothers abuse drugs. Another 16 and 8.5 percent, respectively, smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.

In the US alone, about 380,000 children are born to drug-addicted mothers each year, and studies show that the situation is not much better in other developed countries.

What happens when a pregnant woman is also an addict? How might illegal drugs affect her and her child? This, of course, will vary greatly depending on the substance used, so let's dive into that.

How can marijuana use affect pregnancy?

Often regarded as a rather mild drug, some pregnant women may even get the impression that marijuana - now used for medical purposes - may have some beneficial effects. They would be wrong. Given the fact that research shows that more and more women are now using the herb during pregnancy, it's important to be aware of the risks. (The same risks apply if you are hoping to use marijuana to reduce morning sickness; you do not need to have a marijuana use disorder to put your child at risk for cannabis use. )

Smoking cannabis or using weed in any other form during pregnancy is associated with a wide range of negative health effects, increasing the risk of:

Preterm birth.
Low birth weight baby.
Poor brain development in children.
Attention and behavior problems later in life for a toddler.
Must be admitted to the intensive care unit.
Another birth - to the tune of 2.3 times.

Potential consequences of opioid use in pregnancy

Opioids include heroin, but also numerous prescription drugs such as fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine. Use during pregnancy can lead to very serious consequences, including:

Neonatal withdrawal syndrome, in which the baby goes into withdrawal symptoms after birth. This serious disease occurs in 45-94 percent of children born to mothers with opioid dependence. While it can be treated, neonatal abstinence syndrome is a medical emergency in itself and can even be fatal.
Low birth weight in children.
Respiratory problems in children.
Growth is delayed later in the child's life.
Microcephaly, small brain.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Bleeding in the third trimester of pregnancy.

The use of opioids during pregnancy poses a very serious threat to the health of the fetus and child, which later leads to. a plan to manage withdrawal in the safest way, and prenatal care can be enhanced. cutouts.

What can cocaine use during pregnancy for the baby?

Cocaine abuse during pregnancy has been associated with numerous negative outcomes:

Water that breaks down early, requiring induction or caesarean section, leading to preterm labor
Placental abruption, in which the placenta separates from the uterus before the baby is born. This is extremely dangerous.
Pre-eclampsia, another dangerous condition characterized by extremely high blood pressure combined with protein in the urine.
Again, small children and premature babies.
For moms, migraines and seizures.

However, it is not yet clear how the abuse of cocaine and other stimulants during pregnancy may affect children in the long term.

Let's not forget about "legal drugs": alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy

You can buy alcohol and cigarettes legally, but that does not mean that using them during pregnancy is less dangerous than substance abuse.

There is no safe limit for alcohol consumption during pregnancy, ie it has been proven that the amount of alcohol is not safe for the developing fetus. Drinking has been associated with consequences ranging from behavioral and cognitive problems and fetal alcohol syndrome to miscarriage and stillbirth.

Tobacco is another killer. It is well known that children born to smokers are more likely to be smaller than expected for their gestational age, but smoking during pregnancy can also lead to ectopic pregnancy (outside the uterus - almost always not viable), behavioral problems in children, placental abruption, and eventually stillbirth. Smoking during pregnancy more than doubles the risk of stillbirth.

What do you have to take away from all this?

Substance abuse always poses a risk of adverse health outcomes. Substance abuse during pregnancy puts another person, the fetus, at risk. The exact nature of possible complications varies greatly from one substance to another, as we have seen, and the full range of potential outcomes is not always known. For example, the risks of using MDMA during pregnancy still need to be further explored, and there are many more illegal drugs out there than we've covered here. Barbiturates and benzodiazepines are also known to cause withdrawal symptoms in newborns.

No matter what substance a woman is addicted to:

It would be an understatement to say that seeking drug addiction treatment before pregnancy is ideal. This is especially true for substances that cause physical withdrawal symptoms, such as opioids, which can be difficult to manage.
If you are pregnant and an addict or someone you care for falls into this category, it is essential to get proper prenatal care. The woman's medical team needs to be aware of substance use so that risks can be better managed.
Substance abuse treatment for mothers-to-be is available and the focus is on behavioral therapy.

What to plant on the plot so that weeds do not grow there

Photo: KatarzynaBialasiewicz / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images

, barnyard and other unnecessary vegetation in the garden is very difficult. Weed control can take all the time of a summer resident. Wild grass is unpretentious to conditions, adapts to any soil.

Systematic mechanical weeding and root removal, of course, bring results, but you have to spend too much effort on this struggle. You can get rid of parasitic plants with the help of chemicals. But sometimes the best way is to simply plant plants on the site that grow well and oppress the roots of weeds.

Lawn Grass

Special varieties are effective against weeds. The lawn, growing with a dense green carpet, displaces unnecessary sprouts. Before sowing lawn mixtures, you will have to work hard: put the soil in order, remove all vegetation, dig up the soil and remove weed roots, and, if possible, treat the site with special preparations. But then you can forget about weeding and the fight against wheatgrass or barnyard grass. When buying a variety of lawn grass, pay attention to its most important characteristics:

adaptation to the climatic conditions of the region;
plant height;
growth density;
moisture requirement;
trampling resistance;
easy care.

Photo: PeopleImages / E+ / Getty Images

Usually grass mixtures are used for the local area, then the shortcomings of one variety are covered by another type of culture. But if you wish, you can choose one variety for sowing. Of those that have proven themselves as weed suppressors, you can choose these.

Lawn grass seeds "Real Lawn", 10 kg

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Grass varieties are well adapted to all kinds of weather conditions, and the proportions are chosen so that the cover is thick and beautiful in different climatic zones.

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Meadow bluegrass. This perennial variety easily displaces weeds from its sown area, but it will take three years to wait for a continuous dense cover - a full-fledged lawn will grow only in the third or fourth season, before that the shoots will be thin and weak. Bluegrass is sown in an open area that receives sunlight most of the day.

Red fescue . Grass for dark areas. Growing up, it looks like a smooth dark green carpet, however, it is quite hard, you can’t walk barefoot. The sprouts are located tightly to each other, weed plants do not break through.

Ryegrass. Juicy dense growth perfectly harmonizes with rose bushes and other flowers on the site, resistant to trampling and pests. Gardeners love this turf grass variety for its softness even after mowing. At the same time, ryegrass does not give growth to harmful plants ( read also : how to treat the garden in the spring from diseases and pests).

bent shoot. Will not give weeds a place, because it grows well on its own. Likes sunny places, regular watering, undemanding to the soil.

Photo: ronstik / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images

Flowers

Few people know, but certain varieties of flowers are aggressors in relation to other plants. So if you don’t want to spend the summer in the country with a hoe, removing weeds, organize a flower bed on the site. By the way, as a rule, these flowers are easy to care for, and they will delight the eye until late autumn.

Lily of the valley. A paradoxical surprise of nature. A plant beloved by poets and all romantics with delicate bell flowers and a pleasant aroma is able to survive all neighbors from its territory. The weeds are afraid of him. The lily of the valley grows rapidly, so it must be separated by an artificial fence. Grows in shade, low maintenance.

Lupine. Spectacular plant, immediately attracts attention. It grows as a sprawling lush bush with palmate leaves and racemose inflorescences, reaching a height of up to half a meter. Flowers are monochromatic - yellow, white, lilac, pink and mixed colors. In addition to aesthetics, lupine is a nurse in a flower bed. Behind its sprawling cap of leaves and a powerful root system up to 2 meters deep, other plants cannot break through.

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Dicentra. A favorite plant of landscape designers for decorating an alpine hill, coniferous trees, and in any flowerbed of a dicenter immediately attracts attention. This exotic guest arrived in the European part of the mainland from Japan. Grows tall lush bush, growing rapidly. It blooms profusely and emits a delicate delicate aroma. Dicentra does not require special care, but the root system, the powerful upper part of the plant does not allow weed sprouts to break through.

Stonecrop. Another unpretentious plant, feels comfortable even on poor soils . This is a representative of succulents, it has many varieties, but the unifying features are waxy small leaves and inflorescences of small flowers. It multiplies rapidly, it needs a restriction, otherwise it will displace not only weeds, but also other crops from the flower bed.

Badan. The ideal use of the plant is to plant along the fence, to cultivate the place where "grass to the waist" can grow. The plant looks good along stairs, paths, against the background of stones, under the crowns of trees. Badan has dark decorative leaves and bright inflorescences. The plant is a perennial, winters well even in a harsh climate, and most importantly, weeds do not get along with it.

Astilba. Weeds next to astilba are prevented from breaking through by the rhizomes of the perennial. They densely braid the soil. The plant is ornamental, blooms all summer

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Gorgeous geranium. It grows so fast on the plot that it itself can be considered a weed, although a very beautiful one. If the geranium is not limited to borders or thinning, then very soon the flower bed will turn into a solid purple cloud. The flowering period is in July. By the way, among similar crops-aggressors, mountaineer, saxifrage, fragrant violet, phloxes, marigolds, cloves.

Volzhanka . Another plant that helps control weeds, but is also very beautiful and has a honey-sweet aroma. He needs a lot of space for landing, grows well in breadth and height. It blooms in large white panicles until July, but even after flowering, the Volzhanka bush looks luxurious.

Volzhanka dioecious seedlings

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Luxurious plant that will definitely decorate your garden.

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Ornamental plants

There is a fairly large list of crops that either large leaves or root system block the growth of parasitic plants. All kinds of creepers, shrubs, conifers - everything that grows densely on the surface displaces weeds. Small periwinkle, carob oxalis, mountaineer, butterbur are aggressor plants, they themselves grow very easily. Here are just a few more representatives who oppress unwanted growth.

Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto/iStock

Khosta . A fairly common plant in the south of the country, beautiful, with wide leaves. The shape and color of the leaves are varied. It looks great both as a single bush and as part of a composition. The peculiarity of the host is that it has a developed rhizome, which does not give a chance to alien seeds to break through to the surface. But she herself in a short season can grow to a whole plantation. Feels better in shady places.

Cuff. Plant it along the paths, the fence - and until the frost, it will protect the territory from weeds. The cuff is not the most spectacular plant, but it fulfills its decorative purpose, with it you can compose a composition in a flower bed.

Pachysandra. By planting it, you can solve at least two problems. Firstly, decorate the site with a beautiful perennial evergreen crop with openwork leaves, and secondly, get rid of weeds. It cannot be said that pachysandra is easy to take root, you will have to watch it, water it on time. Need shade or partial shade, light soil and drainage. Gives good shoots only from the second season. By the way, a fern looks like a pachysandra, if it has taken root on the soil, it will arrange an “expansion” and take up the whole place.

Bruner. In the wild, it grows near trees, so you also need to choose a shady place in the country. It begins to bloom from the end of April, but is valued more for its decoratively colored leaves. Having planted a bruner on the right plots, you can forget about caring for the plant, it is completely unpretentious, and it grows quickly due to the root system, thanks to this quality it clogs the growth of weeds.

Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto/iStock

Green manures

This is a slightly different way of controlling weeds, but very effective. On free land, weeds grow rapidly, sow themselves, the seeds are carried by the wind around the site. To prevent this from happening, the land should not be empty.

Certain crops, due to their rapid growth and concentration of beneficial properties, enrich the soil. In the future, this helps to grow a crop of valuable crops. But green manure weeds are not allowed to break through. They are usually sown after harvest. When green manure sprout, they are mowed and mulched with the soil. The roots make an excellent organic fertilizer.

Green manure seeds Phacelia 0.5 kg

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Phacelia is green manure undemanding to weather conditions. Normalizes the acidity and structure of the soil, displaces weeds and pests.

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Mustard and rapeseed. These crops, when growing, release biologically active substances that suppress the growth of weeds and fight fungal diseases. Plants after germination should be mowed, scattered over the plot, dug up after a while and watered. By the way, both rapeseed and mustard themselves look decorative, especially when flowering. They will not ripen until the harvest (rapeseed is planted in August), but they have another task.

Buckwheat. As a green manure, it easily copes with weeds. At the same time, it does not need frequent watering and is undemanding to the soil. After buckwheat, you need to plant sorrel or spinach, the soil will be fertilized with potassium and phosphorus and cleared of all weeds.

Legumes. If you plant them as green manure among strawberry bushes, you can get rid of weeds and improve the quality of the soil.

Oil radish. It does not have a root crop, but has a strong root system, goes below a meter deep into the ground, breaking up the hardest and clay soil. The growth of weeds is also prevented by the upper part of the oilseed radish.