A team from the Harvard School of Public Health warn of a “silent pandemic in modern society”. They say millions of children may already have been affected. Long suspected by health environmentalists and scientists, a long list of industrial chemicals is implicated, including aluminium and tin compounds, solvents such as acetone and benzene, many organics, and pesticides. Lead author of the report, Philippe Grandjean stated:“About half of the 201 chemicals that we list are high volume production chemicals.”

This important paper was published in THE LANCET, premier medical journal in the UK, (AP Nov. 10, 2006). It dealt with the impact of chemicals on foetus, infant and child brain development. The authors, Philippe Grandjean and Philip Landrigan, discussed the number of chemicals that may impact on the developing brain. Among the thousands of potentially neurotoxic chemicals for children, they discovered there are only a very few that have been tested in animals, and an even smaller percentage that have been investigated in humans. Human studies usually only involve adults. The developmental neurotoxins (DNT) that we know about, such as lead, mercury and dioxins, were identified very gradually over many years. During that time, millions of children were probably exposed. The authors suggest that the vast majority of chemicals in use have not even been examined in animal tests.

Fluoride is one of the few that has been examined minimally in both animals and humans; thus far, the studies have indicated it has a neurotoxic effect. The authors consider fluoride the NEXT EMERGING TOXIN. Just imagine how many pregnant mothers and children drink fluoridated water! Here is definitely a place for the Precautionary Principle.