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Undoubtedly, our children are our future. Our responsibility as adults is to do all we can to protect their health, and empower them to be happy, productive, and caring individuals.

But the reality is that patterns of illness in children have changed dramatically in this past century. The ancient infectious diseases have largely been controlled, like measles, mumps, and rubella. The major diseases now confronting children are chronic and disabling conditions:

• Asthma: incidence has more than doubled. It is the leading cause of admission of children to hospital and the leading cause of school absenteeism.
• Cancer: after injuries, is the leading killer of children in the United States.
• Leukemia and Brain Cancer: have increased in incidence, brain cancer by nearly 40% over the past three decades.
• Developmental Disabilities and ADHD: Neuro-developmental dysfunction is now commonplace, with learning disabilities affecting anywhere from five to 10 percent of all children.
• Birth Defects: The incidence of Hypospadias, a birth defect of the reproductive organs in baby boys, has doubled.
• Autism: has jump 400 percent in the last 20 years to 1 in 150 children

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. To me, as a medical detective, the increase in the incidence of childhood cancer alone is the first clue that something is going wrong. In fact, many chemical toxicants are known to contribute to causation of these diseases. They deserve special attention because most are preventable sources of harm. Children are at risk of exposure to over 15,000 high-production-volume synthetic chemicals, nearly all of them developed in the past 50 years. These chemicals are used widely in consumer and household goods like personal care products, cleaning supplies, pesticides, paints, toys, home furnishings, carpeting, electronics, plastics and even food and water. More than half are untested for toxicity and affect on human health.

We must understand an important fact: Children are especially sensitive to environmental toxins and more vulnerable than adults.

• Pound for pound of body weight, children have greater exposure to pesticides because they drink more water, eat more food and breathe more air than adults.
• Their unique behaviors put them at higher risk. They live and play close to the floor; and they constantly put their fingers into their mouths.
• Children’s metabolic pathways, especially in the first months after birth are immature. Generally they are less well able to metabolize, detoxify, and excrete toxicants than adults and thus are more vulnerable to them.
• Children are undergoing rapid growth and development, and their developmental processes are easily disrupted. From conception and throughout fetal development, exquisitely small toxin exposures can cause permanent impacts.
• Since children have more future years of life than most adults, they have more time to develop chronic diseases that may be triggered by early exposures.

In addition, we've learned that if a child (unlike an older child or an adult) is exposed to a chemical like lead or a pesticide during a critical early window of development, it can result in toxic effects, which are absolutely unique and can have absolutely devastating effects. In fact, many prenatal exposures leave the mother unscathed while causing injury to her fetus.

The growing brain appears to be the most sensitive, but scientists are also extremely concerned about the newest animal research suggesting that chemicals can alter gene expression. In essence, a single chemical exposure during a critical window of development can turn a gene on or off and subsequently predispose people to disease. Although the DNA is unchanged, isolated genetic alterations can be permanent, placing all subsequent generations at greater risk of diseases. Toxic exposures during these moments of heightened susceptibility can cause disease and disability in childhood and throughout life.

Tests for developmental effects are not routinely required before a chemical is used in everyday products. So, we have an incredible gap in understanding because in the United States, 80% of major chemicals in commerce have never been tested to see if they damage early development – the period of highest vulnerability.

What can you do to protect yourself and your children (whether you have kids now or are planning on having them in the future)? Take some simple steps to reduce exposure to toxins and chemicals in the environment, and create the healthiest possible home for your family.

(As seen originally on Goop!)

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy World.

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