Madison Reporter

As millions of Americans prepare for the simultaneous emergence of two cicada broods this summer, new research from the La Follette School highlights how cicada-targeting pesticides used in the early 20th century might have shortened Americans’ lifespans.

The study, co-authored by Jason Fletcher of the La Follette School, is the first to evaluate exposure to pesticides on old-age mortality. It adds to the understanding of the long-term effects of in-utero and early-life exposure to environmental factors. Fletcher’s research indicates that males born during years when cicadas emerged and in areas requiring pesticides had shorter lives by roughly 2.2 months. This figure increased to nearly a year for males whose fathers were farmers, leading to direct farm exposure while young.

“With cicadas in the headlines, this is a good time to reflect on how the environments we create for ourselves can have unintended consequences far down the line, and how we must anticipate these effects much better,” Fletcher said. “This paper is looking at the past, but as we see cancer rates skyrocket and increasingly find microplastics in the human body, I think it is as relevant as ever today.”

Fletcher and his co-author, Hamid Noghanibehambari from Austin Peay State University and an affiliate of UW-Madison’s Center for Demography of Health and Aging, focused on males born between 1925-1940. By using Social Security Administration death records from 1975-2005 linked to the 1940 US census, they identified counties and years in which cicadas emerged and compared areas by abundance of tree crops. Cicadas damage tree crops but not row crops; therefore, pesticides were used to prevent significant damage to apple orchards and other tree crops during cicada emergences while areas with row crops such as corn were left untreated.

Agrichemicals such as pesticides rapidly evolved during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the industry modernized and began innovating with synthetic pesticides. Several pesticides in use at that time included now-banned ingredients such as arsenic and lead arsenate. Although lead arsenate has been eliminated from pesticides for decades, researchers believe millions of acres of land in the United States remain contaminated.

Fletcher’s research found approximately 300,000 males who met their criteria of in-utero exposure to cicada-targeting pesticides. They calculated that these exposures may have accounted for 55,000 years lost due to premature death. Extrapolating this number for all croplands and pesticide use suggests 1.2 million years lost due to in-utero exposure for American males born between 1925-1940. Statistical modeling also indicates that this early mortality among a whole generation resulted in a cumulative loss of about $1.1 trillion.

“Two months doesn’t seem like much on an individual level, but when you aggregate these small effects for a whole group, you see how large an impact something like pesticide use can have on public health,” Fletcher stated. “And these effects are in addition to exposure to many other environmental factors that may also decrease longevity.”

Among policy implications highlighted by Fletcher are recommendations that policymakers focus on populations at risk and implement targeted initiatives rather than solely eliminating or reducing pesticide use. Additionally, he encourages policymakers and public health practitioners to reduce long-term negative impacts by recognizing affected populations and working towards alleviating these effects throughout their lives.