Leading scientists recently identified a dozen chemicals as being responsible for widespread neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, and other cognitive impairments.
But the scope of the chemical dangers in our environment is likely even greater.
In 2006, Dr Philippe Grandjean did a systematic review and identified six industrial chemicals as developmental neurotoxicants:
- arsenic
- ethanol
- lead
- methylmercury
- polychlorinated biphenyls PCBs
- and toluene.
Seven years later, the number of chemicals known to be toxic to children’s developing brains has doubled with these six additional ones:
- chlorpyrifos,
- dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane DDT/DDE,
- fluoride,
- manganese,
- tetrachloroethylene PERC,
- and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers PBDEs.
Dr Philippe Grandjean – who wrote the book Only One Chance, how to protect the Brains of the Next Generation – assumes that even more neurotoxicants remain undiscovered and proposes a global prevention strategy.
Sources and Press Articles:
- The Toxins That Threaten Our Brains, The Atlantic 284466, by James Hamblin, MARCH 18, 2014.
- Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity, NCBI, PMID: 24556010, 2014 Feb 17.
- Full text: The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages 330 – 338, March 2014, doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(13)70278-3
- More Toxic Chemicals Damaging Children’s Brains, HuffingtonPost, n_4790229, by Lynne Peeples, 02/14/2014
- Putting the next generation of brains in danger, CNN, chemicals-children-brains, by Saundra Young, February 17, 2014