15 Point Hit List (Neurotoxins and ADHD)

ADHD and Neurotoxins . . . . Connecting the Dots

My friend, Marie, used to rouse her three teenage children on Saturday mornings and begin the day by requiring everyone to help clean the house. I admired her determination to consistently teach this responsibility to her kids.

Interestingly enough, because Marie was so consistent I found that a curious pattern emerged.  Every Saturday afternoon, without fail, Marie's son exhibited hyperactive, "out of control" behavior after his cleaning chores.

Looking at the cause and effect of the son's behavior through my lens of awareness of how neurotoxic many cleaning chemicals are, I could see it would make sense that the son's central nervous system and brain could be reacting to these chemicals. Symptoms of neurotoxicity include lack of concentration, personality changes, depression, hyperactivity and the mimicking of psychiatric disorders.

Not being particularly "green," the cleaning products Sally bought for her kids to use were the standard store-bought fare readily available in supermarkets.
This brings to mind a couple of sad, but true, facts:

1. Just because it is on the store shelf does not mean that it is safe.

     2.  The government has very limited power to regulate manufacturers.  In fact,
products that kill 50% of lab animals through ingestion or inhalation can still receive the federal regulatory designation "non-toxic".

To name a few examples of neurotoxins found in such products:

1. VOCs  (furniture polish can contain VOCs) 
2. neurotoxic disinfectants
3.  petroleum distillates
4. fragrances (scented products are notoriously neurotoxic)
5.  and waxes (VOCs again in the solvents)
   

Pesticides take front seat in the arsenal of poisons that hurt the central nervous system and brain. After all, they are designed to kill. A new study reported in the June issue of Pediatrics, published online May 17, links organophosphate pesticide metabolites found in urine to a much higher incidence of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

"Each 10-fold increase in urinary concentration of organophosphate metabolites was associated with a 55 percent to 72 percent increase in the odds of ADHD," study author Maryse F. Bouchard, PhD, of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Montreal, told Medscape Psychiatry.

Another example of subtle neurotoxic exposure children suffer through that most adults miss is to the solvents in markers in art class. When my daughter was in school, one year the math class was the period after art class, and she said that the kids were always "off the walls" in math class. What a tragedy, and one that could so easily be avoided if schools stopped allowing neurotoxic art materials to be used. How many kids thought they were bad at math when the culprit was the colored markers?

I've often wondered why the dots haven't been connected by most people between neurotoxic chemicals and ADHD-type behavior. After all, if a neurotoxic chemical is known to cause depression, for example, and that chemical is being used, why do so few people (and almost no psychiatrists) say, oh my gosh, let's remove the neurotoxin?

At least one thing parents can do is to remove neurotoxins from the home. Here is the 15 Point Hit List. These are quick and easy solutions:

• Yes to "green" dry cleaning using C02, no to dry cleaning with perchlorethelene (and NO hanging clothes in bedroom closets until they have first aired out -sans plastic dry cleaner bags- in another less "lived in" room. We use the garage unless it is boiling hot and in the summer we use the well ventilated  mud room)

• Yes to vegetable-based Free and Clear detergents and cleaning products, no to cleaning products containing volatile organic chemicals (My company has great choices here).

• Yes to natural furniture polishes like those made by my company - or simple jojoba oil (a natural wax), no to furniture polish made of volatile organic chemicals.

• Yes to organic produce, no to highly processed foods.

• Yes to safe integrated pest management, no to synthetic pesticides (Request information for @ least two replacement products in this category). 

• Yes to water-based markers, no to solvent-based markers.

• Yes to food with natural food coloring, no to food with FD&C dyes

• Yes to cedar and herbs for moths, no to moth balls.

• Yes to natural essential oils for fragrance, no to synthetic perfumes and fragrances (Again my company hits a home run in this category!)

• Yes to efficient heating systems, no to kerosene, open gas, or other systems that could leak carbon monoxide.

• Yes to educating yourself about lead paint and other sources of lead, no to "hoping for the best"  if you live in a house built before 1978.

• Take your shoes off in the house.

• Filter your water - Brita works well (Also, have your tap water tested and do not be fooled into thinking bottled water is better).

• Do not smoke and stay away from second hand smoke.

Simple steps such as these can make a big difference. Being away from neurotoxins helps you have more serene sleep, babies are less fussy, children concentration is improved, people are calmer and the lifestyle helps you have a better sense of well-being.

Article by, Anne B. Boyd (Huffington Post)

Edited by, Soutenus

Read more: 

http://healthychild.org/blog/comments/neurotoxins_and_adhd_connecting_the_dots/#ixzz0vpgN43NO

What's Causing Cancer in North America?

This is a Canadian article but much of the article pertains to all of North America!

Chemicals may be one of the biggest reasons for cancer's epidemic proportions.

There are more than 85,000 chemicals that are currently licensed for use in North America. Less than half have ever been tested for human health risk and even fewer for potential environmental impacts (and even fewer have been tested for environmental impact).

Cancer in Canada is now projected to afflict one in every 2.2 men and one in every 2.6 women in their lifetime. In the 1930s, those numbers were less that one in 10. What's happening? Why are we now seeing what many are calling a "cancer epidemic"?

Some would suggest we are simply an aging population and cancer is a disease of the old. Not true. Recent statistics show that the net incidence rate of cancer has increased 25% for males and 20% for females from 1974 to 2005 - after correcting for the effects of aging.

Children are increasingly the victims. Researchers in Britain have shown that certain childhood cancers such as leukemia and brain cancer have increased by more than a third since the 1950s.

In Canada and in the U.S., hundreds of millions of dollars are raised and spent for cancer research and treatment. The elephant in the room, however, is the contribution of environmental toxins and whether many of the cancers striking North Americans can be avoided rather than simply managed.

The World Health Organization estimates that fully 25% of cancers worldwide are caused by occupational and environmental factors other than smoking. You don't have to look far for some potential chemical culprits.

THIS IS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO REPEAT:

There are more than 85,000 chemicals that are currently licensed for use in North America . Less than half have ever been tested for human health risk and even fewer for potential environmental impacts (and even fewer have been tested for environmental impact).

The U.S. Centers For Disease Control recently turned their attention toward pollution detection - not in the environment, but within the human body. Their study in 2002 found the presence of 81 different toxic chemicals, including PCBs, benzene and other carcinogens in their sampling of 2,500 people tested.

It is somewhat of a no-brainer that reducing exposure to known carcinogens will reduce the risk of developing cancer. Surprisingly, this simple logic seems to have been lost on our federal governments. Many chemicals that are scientifically demonstrated carcinogens or otherwise toxic are freely used without any legal obligation to identify them on the label. Some of these same chemicals are entirely banned elsewhere.

A trip to your local supermarket reveals a small sample of these hidden poisons:

• Mothballs contain either naphthalene or paradichlorobenzene, both of which are carcinogenic. A recent U.S. study linked mothball use to an increased incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. 

• Polycarbonate plastics used in food-grade plastic containers such as water bottles can leach Bisphenol A, an estrogen-mimicking chemical linked to a variety of disorders, including hormone-related birth defects, learning disabilities, prostate cancer and neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. 

• Several leading perfumes, nail polishes and other cosmetic products sold in Canada contain the endocrine-disrupting phthalates DBP and DEHP - both banned for use in cosmetic products in European Union countries. 

• Many leading brands of household laundry detergent contain trisodium nitrilotriacetate, another suspected carcinogen as well as an environmental pollutant.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs are common chemical fire retardants found in everything from foam mattresses to computer parts. They have similar properties to the now outlawed PCBs and are known neurotoxins and hormone disrupters. The most dangerous forms are now banned in the EU, though they remain legal in North America .

Chemicals that endanger human life also go down the drain and impact the environment. A gruesome example involved a dead orca that washed up south of Vancouver in 2000 that was so contaminated with persistent chemicals that Ottawa considered shipping the carcass to the Swan Hills toxic waste facility for incineration.

Like orcas, we are perched at the top of the food chain and are becoming the unwitting receptacles of many of the chemicals designed to make our lives more convenient.

Ballooning cancer rates are simply not worth whiter clothes or fewer moths. (Besides, there are natural, effective and affordable *alternatives!)

Cancer must be fought on many fronts. Research and treatment are undeniably important but so is environmental cancer prevention. It is therefore shocking that our governments are not moving faster to ban known and suspected carcinogens, and  requiring mandatory "right to know" labeling so that Canadians and Americans can better protect themselves and their families.

Anything less is quite simply putting the interests of the chemical industry ahead of human life.

SOURCE:  TorontoStar  June13th, 2005 / article by Mitchell Anderson     
Mitchell Anderson is a board member of the Labour Environmental Alliance Society, a Vancouver-based charity that educates the public on cancer prevention. 
Edited by Soutenus   
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