THE PRICE OF LIVING IN A TOXIC WORLD

What is the price we pay for living in a toxic world? Estimates show nearly 12 million children in the United States under age 18-an astonishing 17 percent-have one more learning, developmental, or behavioral disabilities. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects 8 to 10 percent off all school-age children (a conservative estimate-the prevalence may be as high as 17 percent. Learning disablities may affect up to 10 percent  of  schoolchildren in public schools. Some 1.5 million children take Ritalin or a similar medication for ADHD, with the number taking this type of drug doubling every four to seven years since 1971. As parents, teachers and physicians, we struggle so desperately to help children affected by these developmental and emotional problems that we forget to focus on the fact that environmental substances might have caused these problems in the first place. And the scientific community is now certain that complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors cause the bulk of these neurocognitive and developmental problems. Most important, we now know that exposure to environmental toxins is preventable.
The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) showed that during 1997, atotal of 2.58 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released in the United States by the large industrial companies required to report under the TRI. Of the Top 2 TRI chemicals (those twenty with the largest total releases), some 75 percent are either known or suspected to be neurotoxins. More shocking is that nearly a billion pounds of these neurotoxins were released by facilities into the air and surface water, allowing them to be inhaled, absorbed, or ingested through air, food and water.
Fortunately, savvy parents can substantially reduce their child’s exposure to potentially dangerous toxins, especially to the most damaging ones. We know we can’t keep our children free all chemical exposure, but we can certainly try to minimize thier exposure to the worst offenders, especially during the most critical-and vulnerable-period of brain growth.