My friend Sally used to corral her three teenage children to clean their house every Saturday morning. I was envious of her chutzpa to demand this of her kids, but the part of the story that was always tragic to me was that every Saturday afternoon without fail, Sally's son Sam was sent to his room for hyperactive, "out of control" behavior.
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 would buy for her kids to use were the standard store-bought fare readily available in supermarkets. Examples of neurotoxins found in such products include VOCs (furniture polish can contain VOCs), neurotoxic disinfectants, petroleum distillates, fragrances (scented products are notoriously neurotoxic,) and waxes (VOCs again in the solvents), to name a few.
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 are eleven quick solutions:
Yes to "green" dry cleaning using C02, no to dry cleaning with perchlorethelene (and hanging clothes in bedroom closets);
Yes to water-based markers, no to solvent-based markers;
Yes to natural furniture polishes 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 food with natural food coloring, no to food with FD&C dyes;
Yes to safe integrated pest management, no to synthetic pesticides;
Yes to cedar and herbs for moths, no to moth balls;
Yes to natural essential oils for fragrance, no to synthetic perfumes and fragrances;
Yes to vegetable-based Free and Clear detergents and cleaning products, no to cleaning products containing volatile organic chemicals;
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.
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.
Follow Annie B. Bond on Twitter: www.twitter.com/anniebbond
The unconscionable administrating of Meds to young brains, created by Pharma's is a devestation yet to be exposed. Overtime doctor's who follow the Pharma's criteria will wake-up. Wake-up to better and more healthy treatment...our future generation is victimized by the almighty powers they are subjected to...a sad scenario.
It's like saying a friend's cigarette triggered your throat cancer. Maybe, if you married them, and your cancer showed up 20 years into the marriage. But not if you just met them for dinner once a week.
Too much extrapolation from anecdote.
The problem with your post is that it is more shrill than scientific, though it poses as a scientific article. I see no careful application of the scientific method.
I am not defending chemicals - definitely, less is more in that category. But you seriously misunderstand and misrepresent ADD/ ADHD, when you posit that toxins somehow "cause " ADD et al. ADHD is part of the autistic spectrum, and its studies increasingly support its genetic component.
See:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=wOH&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=systemizer+autism&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/06/pesticide-contaminated-produce.html
So, you don't need to go perfectly organic to reap the benefits of careful shopping. As they put it:
"While the group says eating vegetables and fruits treated with pesticides is better than not eating vegetables and fruits (at all), the guide points out that consumers can lower their pesticide consumption by almost 80% by avoiding conventionally grown varieties of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables."
the toxins and neurotoxins mentioned in this article doubtless also have an adverse impact on people, young and old, but i suggest that what we are really looking at is an invented industry of psychiatry and pharma. sure, clean up the household act. trust the holistic and naturopathic methods more than the shrinks and their drugs. spychiatry still administers speed to the kids. this in turn leads to bad mood swings. then they get the kid on anti-depressants. a couple of years of that and they get the kid on an anti-psychotic designed to produce psychosis and a terminal victim of spychiatry.
i've been using illegal drugs, (no speed since teen years as my rapid metazolism can't handle it and anyway, the big one, meth, is the only illegal drug that causes brain damage...), since 1968 and only got in trouble with alcohol, the legal one. i'm somewhat expert on the topic and i will state flatly that the psychiatric pharma is the WORST DOPE ON EARTH. better off snorting drano than doing prozac.
got a kid going nuts? get em off the IV of sugars and suggest a bit less twittering and a little more physical activity.
back in 1970, the average american consumed 10 teaspoons of sugars a day and kids 14 tsp a day. that is now 20 tsp a day for americans as a whole and 24 tsp a day for kids but the study showed heavy binging on sugars often took a kid to over 40 tsp of sugars, mostly HFCS, daily.
pile 24-40 tsp of sugar on a table... remember al pacino in 'scarface' with that mountain of cocaine he's dipping his head into? very little difference. not satisfied with the green wonders of nature; we take green coca and turn it into white powder; green opium and turn it into white powder; green sugar cane and turn it into white powder. now add to this a hyper-accelerated society in the throes of the revolution of electronic media...
The standard treatement for ADHD is a stimulant, which helpe restore the exectutive functions of the brain and allows the patient to focus on what they are doing. They also need to develop new habits to compensate for what they are lacking.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=wOH&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=systemizer+autism&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
This is independent of environmental toxins. Not to defend toxins by any means, but to claim toxins "cause" ADD/ADHD is just not proven by any means. The point is, true ADD'ers have a distinctively different brain type from birth, traceable to family genetics. That's not something that toxins create. It's endemic to the individual's genetics.
Which neurotoxin is this????
Are there too many to list?
Also, my niece is a pediatric fellow at a very highly regarded hospital. To date, she has had 15 minutes of instruction on ADHD and that was in med school.
I make my own Windex using water and vinegar with a drop of dish soap. Try it!
Full strength white vinegar is a good weed killer too. Just spray it on. It's cheap!
i recycle the natural cleaners and fill them with water/a bit of truly natural detergent and yes, let the kids help.
we "girls"had to help clean the whole house on saturdays, in the 50s, we loved it when those sprays came in and used them profusely.
We had to wax the floors too.
We can still spray....just make your own eco-friendly cleaners.