Mother/Infant/Child | Articles
There are growing concerns that environmental toxins may play a larger role in children’s developmental disorders than previously thought. This outcome came from a recent conference focused on the prevention of “childhood diseases of environmental origin.”
Statistics show that 17% of U.S. children are affected by developmental disabilities such as autism, attention deficit disorder, ADHD, mental retardation and cerebral palsy. Yet the cause of most of these disorders is unknown. In fact, Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Center for Children’s Health and the Environment stated that 70% to 75% of childhood developmental disorders have no known cause.
Trying to determine the degree to which chemicals in the environment may play a role and then which chemicals is quite difficult. Part of the problem is the large number and variety of chemicals people are exposed to each day, along with the difficulty in documenting the levels of that exposure. In addition, only 20% of the 75,000 chemicals produced in the last 50 years have been evaluated for potential neurotoxins.
With young children spending as much as 90% of their time indoors along with their tendency to place everything in their mouths, children are particularly vulnerable. Although the effects of extreme toxic poisoning, such as high level mercury poisoning, are fairly easy to recognize, low levels of exposure produce symptoms that are much more subtle, especially in small children. This makes connecting the dots considerably more difficult.
Conference findings call for more study of toxin effects on children and for parents and pediatricians to consider a child’s environment when evaluating developmental problems.
WOW!!! Finally, a study that recommends more studies in an area that is terribly overlooked. There are so many indicators that all of the chemicals mixed in our food, water, clothes, and cleaning products; sprayed on our walls, gardens, and grass and those in the materials in our homes, all together, most likely are speeding up our declining health. There was a study on the effect of Pesticides but there were so many side effects to the study that the scientists felt it was morally wrong to continue. This should have put us on a national campaign to protect our children and ourselves. Frankly, if they can’t prove to me that a chemical is safe, then I do not want to take a chance with my family. DO YOU??? Less than 7 % of the chemicals on the market have any safety studies. How could that happen? Well, unless you start asking and demanding this information from your Representatives then nothing will happen.
God Bless,
Dr. Benzinger
