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Over the past four decades, the prevalence of autism, asthma, ADHD, obesity, diabetes, and birth defects has increased substantially among children throughout the world. Not coincidentally, more than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed and released into the global environment during this same period. Today the World Health Organization attributes more than one third of all childhood deaths to environmental causes.
Children's environmental health is a new and growing discipline that responds to the expanding threat of chemical and environmental hazards to child health. Amid mounting evidence that children are especially sensitive to their environment-and that exposure during their developmental "windows of susceptibility" can trigger cellular changes that lead to lifelong disease and disability-there is a compelling need for continued scientific study of the relationship between children's health and
their environment.
Children and Environmental Toxins: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an authoritative yet accessible question-and-answer guide to the "silent spring" of threats in our collective backyard. As the burdens of environmental toxins and chronic disease continue to defy borders, this book will be an invaluable addition to the conspicuously sparse literature in this area.
List of contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Changing diseases in a changing environment
- Patterns of childhood disease - then and now
- Environmental changes
- Chapter 2: New chemicals and new childhood chemical exposures
- Explosive growth of chemicals
- Early warning signs
- Gaps in safety and toxicity testing
- Childhood exposure to new chemicals
- Chapter 3: Children's unique vulnerability to toxic chemicals in the environment
- Unique windows of vulnerability exist in children
- Children process toxic exposures more slowly than adults
- Children's higher metabolism rates make different demands on their bodies than adults
- Childhood exposures can incubate for many years and may cause adult disease
- Exposures are proportionately greater in children than in adults
- Normal hand-to-mouth behavior increases their exposure to toxins
- Children live closer to the ground and have different exposures than adults
- Other risk factors compound the problem
- Chapter 4: The links between childhood disease and toxic chemicals in the environment
- The increase in autism, ADHD, and other problems of the developing brain
- The increase in male birth defects, early puberty in girls, and testicular cancer in young mem
- The increased incidence of asthma and allergies
- New links between household toxins, obesity, and diabetes
- The links between childhood exposures and adult disease
- The growing problems with reproduction
- The increases in childhood cancer
- Chapter 5: A Guide for Parents: Keeping Your Child Safe from Environmental Toxins
- An environmental checklist for your home
- Over 100 ways to protect your children and promote health as they grow
- At home
- 10 ways to make baby's room safer
- 8 ways to avoid asthma and allergy attacks
- 10 practical ways to prevent lead poisoning
- 25 ways to minimize your child's exposure to endocrine disruptors
- 9 cautions about pesticides
- 11 ways to reduce exposure to unsafe foods
- 14 tips for avoiding exposure to household chemicals
- 6 ways to grow your child into a healthy adult
- At day care
- 10 ways to make day care safer
- At school
- 10 ways to make school safer
- In the neighborhood
- 10 ways to make the neighborhood safer
- Tips for future moms and dads
- 10 ways to protect future children
- Chapter 6: A Call to Action:
- Children's health, toxic chemicals and you
- Policy and legislation: where we stand now
- Evidence-based prevention
- US standards vs standards in other countries
- Consequences of our current situation
- A call for a new public health revolution
- New ways to protect children from environmental toxins
- Our call to action - community based actions, state initiatives, federal legislation
- Career opportunities for the future of public health
About the author
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, M.Sc., is Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine and Founding Director, Children's Environmental Health Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Mary M. Landrigan, M.P.A., is a health educator who spent 25 years at the Westchester County Department of Health.
Summary
Over the past four decades, the prevalence of autism, asthma, ADHD, obesity, diabetes, and birth defects has increased substantially among children throughout the world. Not coincidentally, more than 80,000 new chemicals have been developed and released into the global environment during this same period. Today the World Health Organization attributes more than one third of all childhood deaths to environmental causes.
Children's environmental health is a new and growing discipline that responds to the expanding threat of chemical and environmental hazards to child health. Amid mounting evidence that children are especially sensitive to their environment-and that exposure during their developmental "windows of susceptibility" can trigger cellular changes that lead to lifelong disease and disability-there is a compelling need for continued scientific study of the relationship between children's health and their environment.
Children and Environmental Toxins: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers an authoritative yet accessible question-and-answer guide to the "silent spring" of threats in our collective backyard. As the burdens of environmental toxins and chronic disease continue to defy borders, this book will be an invaluable addition to the conspicuously sparse literature in this area.
Foreword
Best book in the category Environmental Health in the American Journal of Nursing's book of the year awards
