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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Johnathan Hettinger and Carey Gillam

Pregnant women in Indiana show fourfold increase in toxic weedkiller in urine – study

Black pregnant belly with woman's hands cradling it.
The findings add to a body of literature documenting human exposure to agricultural chemicals. Photograph: Jamie Grill/Getty Images/Tetra images RF

Pregnant women in a key US farm state are showing increasing amounts of a toxic weedkiller in their urine, a rise that comes alongside climbing use of the chemicals in agriculture, according to a study published on Friday.

The study, led by the Indiana University school of medicine, showed that 70% of pregnant women tested in Indiana between 2020 and 2022 had a herbicide called dicamba in their urine, up from 28% from a similar analysis for the period 2010-12. The earlier study included women in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

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