We wrote about this book already on another page on our site, but I wanted to write a few more words about it here. The title is “Raising Children Toxic Free,” by Herbert L Needleman, M.D., and Philip J. Landrigan, M.D. In my other review of this book I focused specifically on the chapter in this book on Asbestos, since we are an Asbestos Removal focused business. However, he also covers many other environmental toxins that affect children, how you can identify them, and how you can make sure your children are not exposed to them. Asbestos is one, but there are many others. Many, like asbestos, can even be in your home and need to be removed by a professional.
I want to include another short excerpt from the preface of this book because he gives some great information about why children, in particular, are more vulnerable than adults to exposure to asbestos and other environmental toxins. The threat to them is really more dangerous and their protection is more urgent. He also talks about how anxiety about these toxins can plague parents and what to do about it. Here is an excerpt from the book:
Our children inhabit a fundamentally different world than the one in which we were raised. In many ways their world is a better one. Most children in developed societies today are better fed and better educated than children a generation ago; many once lethal childhood diseases have been virtually eradicated; and the life span of an infant today is likely to be longer. At the same time, the children of today face hazards that were neither known nor imagined just two decades ago. The amount of available lead in our world is hundreds of times greater than that present in the 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment through new consumer commodities, industrial products and food. Only a fraction of these have been tested for human toxicity. We are by default conducting a massive clinical toxicological trial. And our children and their children are the experimental animals
Each day carries new hints of the earth’s vulnerability and signals that time may be running out. We read of events started by man but slipping past human control. It has become easy to believe that we are swimming in a toxic soup and that every food, plant, pesticide or appliance carries a singular risk. The forces that produce pollution seem remote and mysterious, and many people are pessimistic about controlling environmental spoilage and disease. Parents, facing this torrent of poorly understood threats, are frequently tempted to turn their attention away to matters they feel they can control.
The Vulnerability of Children
Many toxicants are greater threats to children than to adults. There are numerous reasons for this:
adxasbestos removal.com 125 S Clark St Chicago, IL
I want to include another short excerpt from the preface of this book because he gives some great information about why children, in particular, are more vulnerable than adults to exposure to asbestos and other environmental toxins. The threat to them is really more dangerous and their protection is more urgent. He also talks about how anxiety about these toxins can plague parents and what to do about it. Here is an excerpt from the book:
Our children inhabit a fundamentally different world than the one in which we were raised. In many ways their world is a better one. Most children in developed societies today are better fed and better educated than children a generation ago; many once lethal childhood diseases have been virtually eradicated; and the life span of an infant today is likely to be longer. At the same time, the children of today face hazards that were neither known nor imagined just two decades ago. The amount of available lead in our world is hundreds of times greater than that present in the 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment through new consumer commodities, industrial products and food. Only a fraction of these have been tested for human toxicity. We are by default conducting a massive clinical toxicological trial. And our children and their children are the experimental animals
Each day carries new hints of the earth’s vulnerability and signals that time may be running out. We read of events started by man but slipping past human control. It has become easy to believe that we are swimming in a toxic soup and that every food, plant, pesticide or appliance carries a singular risk. The forces that produce pollution seem remote and mysterious, and many people are pessimistic about controlling environmental spoilage and disease. Parents, facing this torrent of poorly understood threats, are frequently tempted to turn their attention away to matters they feel they can control.
The Vulnerability of Children
Many toxicants are greater threats to children than to adults. There are numerous reasons for this:
- Children absorb a greater proportion of many substances from the intestinal tract or lung. For example children take up approximately half of the lead that they swallow while adults absorb only about one-tenth.
- Children indulge in more hand-to-mouth activity than adults and transfer more foreign substances into their bodies through this route. Because of their smaller size, and the fact that they often play in the dirt, they are closer the source of many pollutants.
- Children take in more air, food and water per pound of body weight than adults.
- Children’s biology is different. Their immune system is less developed, and may be less protective. For some toxicants, the body has developed biochemical detoxifying mechanisms; in some instances, these are less developed in children.
- Cells that are developing are generally more vulnerable than cells that have completed development. This is particularly true for the central nervous system. The brain increases in complexity at an extraordinary rate during fetal life, and this continues after birth until at least the third year. During brain development, cells move from their initial position in the embryo to their final position in the brain. As they travel. These cells trail branches and send out a complex web of connecting fibers to meet and connect with other preselected fibers from other nerves. The specificity of these connections is highly important in determining the precision and quality of brain function. Small doses of neurotoxins can alter the process of migration and laying down connections. As a result, deficits occur at doses that would be harmless or transient in the adult.
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