By Sophie Burkel
Staff Writer

Microcephaly is a birth defect that makes the child’s head smaller than other children’s heads that are the same age and weight. In most cases, this also leads to a smaller, underdeveloped brain, as the brain hadn’t fully developed while still in the womb. Microcephaly has been seen as an isolated birth defect or found with a mixture of other birth defects.

Microcephaly is not always from the Zika virus, as many believe. Microcephaly can be caused by certain drugs, alcohol, and other toxic substances. Although the many cases of Microcephaly seem to be connected to an outbreak of the Zika virus, which was first noticed in Uganda. During the course of time where there were many researchers looking into the connection between the birth defect and the virus, environmentalists began looking into the use of highly dangerous pesticides and the birth defect. An example of one of these pesticides is Paraqoat, which the U.S. regulators have deemed “highly poisonous”, pesticides like these have been almost completely removed from mainstream industrial companies. These are used in Northeast Brazil, where almost a third of the cases were discovered.

In recent years, Brazil has become one of the main exporters of fruits and fruit juices. There large production of these exports is probably due to the use of these dangerously poisonous pesticides. “Other virologists disagree with this study and suggest that confounding variables were responsible for the issues”, says Hammon, a Human Anatomy and Physiology teacher of Neshaminy High School.