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INTRODUCTION: Agricultural pesticide spray periods increase the pesticide exposure potential of children living nearby and growing evidence indicates that they may affect children's health. We examined the association of time following a heightened agricultural production period, the Mother's Day flower harvest (May), with children's blood pressure (BP). METHODS: We included cross-sectional information of 313 children ages 4-9 years in Ecuadorian agricultural communities (the ESPINA study). Examinations occurred during a period of low flower production, but within 63-100 days (meanâ¯=â¯81.5, SDâ¯=â¯10.9) following the Mother's Day harvest. BP was measured twice using a pediatric sphygmomanometer and BP percentiles appropriate for age, gender and height were calculated. RESULTS: Participants were 51% male, 1.6% hypertensive and 7.7% had elevated BP. The mean (SD) BP percentiles were: systolic: 51.7 (23.9); diastolic: 33.3 (20.3). There was an inverse relationship between of time after the spray season with percentiles of systolic (difference [ß] per 10.9 days after the harvest: -4.3 [95%CI: -6.9, -1.7]) and diastolic BP (ß: -7.5 [-9.6, -5.4]) after adjusting for race, heart rate and BMI-for-age z-score. A curvilinear association with diastolic BP was observed. For every 10.9 days that a child was examined sooner after the harvest, the OR of elevated BP/hypertension doubled (OR: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.3, 3.1). Time after the harvest was positively associated with acetylcholinesterase. CONCLUSIONS: Children examined sooner after a heightened pesticide spray period had higher blood pressure and pesticide exposure markers than children examined later. Further studies with multiple exposure-outcome measures across pesticide spray periods are needed.
Assuntos
Pressão Sanguínea , Exposição Ambiental/estatística & dados numéricos , Praguicidas/análise , Agricultura , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Estudos Transversais , Equador , Feminino , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMO
This article examines the therapeutic potential of ibogaine, a powerful oneiric alkaloid derived from Tabernanthe iboga, through exploring the subjective experiences of 44 participants from two observational treatment studies for opioid use disorder. Following treatment with ibogaine HCl, the participants (Mexico, n = 30; New Zealand, n = 14) completed the States of Consciousness Questionnaire (SCQ) to quantify the magnitude of their psychotropic experience. Participants were asked to provide written transcripts of their experiences, with those supplied being analyzed thematically through an iterative process, to produce a set of coded themes. Mean SCQ scores in many domains exceeded 0.6, the cutoff score for a "complete mystical experience," with 43% of participants achieving this in more than five of seven domains. Qualitative data described multiple phenomenological themes, including auditory and visual phenomena. Ibogaine's strong oneiric action promoted cyclic visions leading to confronting realizations involving remorse and regret for participants' actions towards others, but also release from feelings of guilt and worthlessness. Many participants reported feeling a sense of spiritual transformation. We propose that the reported experiences support the meaningfulness of ibogaine's oneiric effects as a discrete element in its capacity for healing, which is distinct from pharmacological actions associated with reduced withdrawal and craving.