The impact of household chemicals on children’s health

Posted on Aug 12, 2008 by Susie Collins in Blog, Research, Susie Collins

You know the synthetic chemicals that people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity say make them sick? Studies show they are some of the same chemicals adversely impacting children’s health.

Here’s a smart article about the links between every day chemicals found in our food & homes and the high incidence of asthma, learning disabilities, and attention deficit and other behavioral disorders in children.

My point in covering this topic is that the chemicals that are showing through mainstream peer reviewed studies to be extremely dangerous in the development of kids’ minds and bodies are the same chemicals to which people with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities are having adverse reactions. This is why people with MCS are called canaries: we were one of the very first groups to tangibly show– through physical reactions– the toxicity of “chemical flavours and preservatives in food, pesticides in fruit and vegetables, chemicals in cleaning compounds, fabric softeners, cosmetics and plastic, as well as vapours in vehicle exhaust, carpeting, paints and upholstery” (see in italics below).

As noted in the following article in the Daily Mirror, these are in fact the same chemicals now being linked to measurable diseases in children.

Today, diseases of children have shifted from the brief and simple infections to complex, chronic conditions. Many ADHD experts, lacking any concrete diagnostic answers, attribute the condition to genetic causes because most children with ADHD have a sibling with similar problems. However, the rapid increase in cases make it unlikely to be the result of genetic factors.

Kevin Cutler, naturopath writing about characteristics of children with ADD was struck by the fact that no matter what age, each child displayed the following characteristics.

An almost fanatical sugar or carbohydrate addiction

Signs and symptoms of rapidly fluctuating blood sugar levels

Environmental medical research is producing mounting evidence that environmental and chemical exposure factors can cause damage to the delicate brain growth factors in the unborn child during pregnancy.

An adrenal imbalance

Neurological harm has the potential to cause learning disabilities, hyperactivity and other child behavioural disorders.

Public exposure to identified chemical sources continue to grow and children are subjected to hundreds of chemicals neurotoxins simultaneously.

These include chemical flavours and preservatives in food, pesticides in fruit and vegetables, chemicals in cleaning compounds, fabric softeners, cosmetics and plastic, as well as vapours in vehicle exhaust, carpeting, paints and upholstery [emphasis added].

ADHD involves two sets of symptoms, inattention and a combination of hyperactivity and impulsive behaviours.

All children are more easily distracted and impulsive than adults. They are inconsistent, affected by momentary events and distracted by the immediate environment.

The testing of chemicals which takes place in children’s bodies as they are subjected to hundreds of chemicals simultaneously result in a range of allergies and sensitivities.

Drugs simply suppress symptoms allowing parents and teachers to continue with lifestyle practices that are clearly toxic to the child’s development.

We should be asking ourselves if ADHD is simply another disease arising from the choices we make about the way we live, the way we consume and the way we dispose of waste.