Why Should Parents Be Concerned About Their Children’s Exposure To Toxic Substances?

Children are more vulnerable to toxic harm than adults because they are smaller, consume more air, food, and water for each pound of body weight than adults, and they put more things into their mouths.

Accordingly, children are more susceptible to damage from environmental threats because their bodies, brains, organs, and central nervous system are undergoing extensive growth and development throughout infancy and early childhood.

NEW RESEARCH on Children’s Exposure from Toxics in the Environmental

Exposure to toxics can cause irreparable damage to a child’s health and cognitive abilities. New research from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned that chemicals in the environment are implicated in asthma, acute bronchitis and upper-respiratory infections, cancer, mental retardation and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Scientific conclusions about what might be a “safe” threshold of exposure have been continuously revised downward. What ten years ago was considered a “safe” level of mercury for human consumption is now known to be a harmful level. Lead and asbestos, once commonly used and promoted as safe, have proven to be harmful at any level of exposure.

HOW DO CHILDREN COME INTO CONTACT WITH TOXIC SUBSTANCES?

Children are exposed more often to environmental threats that adults and they are more vulnerable to toxins from the time they are in the womb through adolescence.

Children can come into contact with toxic substances while in the womb, through exposure that is incurred by the mother. Usually such exposure is unwitting, for example, women from Michigan who ate two to three meals of PCB-contaminated fish per month during pregnancy had children with lower birth rates, memory deficits, and lower IQ’s.

Children's exposure to environmental threats is far greater than that of adults. Children’s reflexes and natural curiosity cause them to place their hands and other objects in their mouths and rub their noses and eyes. Consider that children often crawl and lay down on the ground, on carpets, or the floor. This allows the transfer of contaminants from their hands to their nose and mouth. Children are frequently involved in outdoor play and sports, making it more likely that they are breathing air pollutants deeper into their lungs.

By these actions, children eat and breathe-in potentially contaminated dust and soils, lead paint, household chemicals, garden chemicals, and all sorts of chemical additives found in upholstery, carpets, fabrics and plastic surfaces.

SIMPLE CHANGES CAN PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN

The best thing parents and children can do is follow the Precautionary Principle, which urges all of us to use caution when dealing with substances that are suspected of causing health problems. Whenever possible, parents should try to use an alternative instead of harmful chemicals.

See the ota website on reducing toxics in your home for more information (www.oregontoxics.org). Also see In Harm's Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development Project, a report by the Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility http://www.igc.org/psr/ihw.htm

Two examples:

1. Plastics leach harmful chemicals into our foods. Parents can try to avoid micro-waving or heating food up when it is wrapped in plastic cling-wrap, and substitute wax paper or dishware (non-plastic) instead.
   
   
2. As we walk on pavement, parking lots, dirt and other surfaces that contain deposits of pollutants, these substances cling to the bottom of our shoes. We can cut back on how much of these pollutants get into our homes by placing mats at entry doors, wiping our feet, and taking off our shoes before entering the house.