Toxics And Our Children's Intellect

Once again, we owe a great debt to the dedicated doctors and activists at the Greater Boston Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). Six or seven years ago, they published one of the first and best reports on the whole question of endocrine disruptor chemicals (those chemicals that mimic our hormones), causing a wide variety of environmental and health effects.

Although a spate of excellent and far more popular books, including Living Downstream by Sandra Stein-graber and Our Stolen Future by Theo Coburn hit the shelves, their report remains one of the most useful reference guides on the subject. Now Dr. Ted Schetter, M.D., MPH and friends have taken the next step and given us “In Harms Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development.”

This report tackles the links between these same chemicals and what many have recognized as a growing epidemic of learning and behavioral disorders.

Pointing out that there are currently over 80,000 manmade chemicals dispersed into the environment and our bodies (including chlorine, dichloromethane, dioxins, PCB’s styrene, methanol, ammonia, methyl ethyl ketone, toluene, phosphoric acid, organophosphates and other pesticides xylene, carbon disulfide, glycol ethers, lead compounds and mercury), the authors clearly show how these chemical exposures are linked to the spectrum of learning and behavioral dysfunctions.

These include learning disabilities, language disability (a core symptom of autism when expressed in the extreme), opposition or conduct disorder, attention deficit disorders with and without hyperactivity, obsessive compulsive and tic disorders, Asprger’s, mental retardation, and other neurodevelopmental, social and psychiatric disorders.

Thorough and in easy-to-understand language, the authors provide explanations on normal brain development, toxicology, the mechanisms of action these chemicals have in the body (PCBs replace thyroxin on the carrier protein crossing the placenta with thyroid hormones necessary for fetal brain development), sections on specific chemicals (the one on pyrethroids is especially chilling as many of our schools use them as the “less toxic” alternative), routes of exposure, and an extensive examination of the research data, both animal and human.

Perhaps the most disturbing study was done in the mountains and valleys of the Yaqui people of Mexico. Yaqui children living in the valley, exposed to higher levels of pesticides, were matched by age to Yaqui counterparts living in the foothills, where exposures are considerably less.

Both groups of children were asked to draw pictures. Their pictures say volumes about the differences in neurological development between the groups of children.

Want to know exactly how much mercury exposure your getting from that tuna sandwich you ate today at lunch? Even more important figure out the difference between your exposure and that of your child’s, and how they both relate to the EPA “safe” level.

This report can help you do it. Authors provide the easy-to-use equations that allow you to figure it all out as well as charts that elucidate the neurological effects of the various toxins.

The sad truth is that although we know from chemical warfare (nerve gas) that organophosphates (OP) interfere with the function of acetylcholinesterase (an enzyme critical to the proper functioning of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine), some 37 of these OP chemicals are approved for use on food products and another 17 are approved by the EPA for residential uses, including homes, lawns, schools and playgrounds.

While large dose exposures have long been recognized in “nerve gas syndrome,” smaller exposures can impair brain function in the developing fetus at levels so low they do not cause clinical symptoms in the mother.

With an estimated 12 million (17%) of children in the United States suffering from learning, developmental or behavioral disabilities and an estimated 1.5 million children taking the stimulant Ritalin, recognizing the possi-ble causative factors of this growing epidemic must be a priority.

“In Harms Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development” does just that and is a must for parents, parents to be, teachers, school administrators, public health workers, environmental regulators and anyone else who cares about the health and well being of our future generations.

As the authors say, “The role of toxic chemicals deserves special scrutiny because it is a preventable cause of harm.”