Monitoring Toxic Body Loads in Children
By Anne Stanton

Some extremely poisonous substances have been multiplying in our global ecosystem for the last 60 years,[1] which now means four or five generations of humanity have been assimilating these new poisons. Today, babies are born carrying a “toxic body load”.[2] These children then struggle to develop normally in an environment riddled with sources of toxic exposure. If you were in charge, what would you do about it?

In Australia, all federal health-monitoring initiatives seem stalled by budgetary limitations, and those in charge cite lack of local scientific data as an excuse for inaction. As the information age gains momentum, these excuses are wearing a little thin! A global focus is needed. Projects already underway in the US, Europe and Canada are tracking the effects of environmental exposures on childhood asthma and cancer, as well as children’s learning, growth and development. The statistics are so disturbing that Australia needs to take action now.  

Asthma, Cancer, Emotional Illness and Developmental Disorders

In the US, the Environmental Health and Safety Task Force is concentrating on four areas - asthma, injuries, cancer and developmental disorders. The Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) at Columbia University, sponsored a conference this year on "The Health of our Children in the Urban Environment".[3] Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, told the delegates that public health is based on the principle that responding to the most vulnerable members of the population, especially children, is the best way to protect the nation's health.

CCCEH has been conducting studies on mothers and their babies in the immediate neighborhood of Columbia University, in Northern Manhattan. They are pioneering the use of biomarkers - molecular changes in blood or urine - to track the effects of environmental exposures. Preliminary results showed that air quality tests suggest virtually universal exposure to two toxic pesticides during pregnancy. Biomarkers in maternal blood and blood of the umbilical cord showed high rates of exposure to allergens, air pollutants and secondhand tobacco smoke.

In the UK, the Department of Health predicts that one in seven British children will be taking prescribed drugs to control their behaviour by 2007.[4] Other statistics are just as disturbing. At present, it is estimated, one in five children has a mental or emotional illness at any given time, while one in 20 suffer from depression.

New guidelines issued this year by the British Government's medicines watchdog, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), contained further disturbing news about the drug Ritalin, a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Nice has reported that far from being over prescribed, as many critics allege, the drug is under prescribed. In 1994, 4,000 prescriptions for Ritalin were made out to children. Since then, the amount of prescriptions has been doubling every year. Last year, it leveled off, increasing from 126,500 prescriptions to 157,900. But Nice suggests that in England and Wales, there are another 48,000 children who should be on Ritalin.     

The Health of Canada's Children is the name of a report issued recently by the Canadian Institute of Child Health.[5] While standards exist for many environmental contaminants, they are designed to protect 155-pound (70-kilogram) adults, not 15-pound (seven-kilogram) children, and their cumulative impact is largely unknown, the report notes. Dr. Graham Chance, chairman of the advisory group that oversaw publication of the report, believes the situation in Canada is critical.

We are exposed to this soup of chemicals, but we don't know the cumulative, long-term effects on our children's health," he said. "There are major gaps in our knowledge, and we can't afford to allow that situation to persist. Statistics in Canada mirror those in other developed nations. According to the report, there has been a 25% increase in the rate of childhood cancers in the past 25 years. Certain types of cancers have risen dramatically, including acute lymphocytic leukemia, tumours of the central nervous system and bone tumours. All of them are believed to be influenced, at least in part, by exposure to environmental contaminants. Sources of pollutants examined in the report include building materials such as insulation and particleboard, upholstery and furnishing, appliances such as gas stoves and kerosene heaters, cleaning agents, second-hand smoke and pesticides. The authors also speculate that there may be a link between attention and other learning disabilities and exposure to environmental contaminants, and notes that "most substances to which children are exposed regularly, such as food additives and pesticides, have not been evaluated for their potential to affect brain development."

Wake Up Australia

Children are the ideal target population for health monitoring, since some very good basic data can be collected through schools and local GPs, not to mention parents.  Australian children are clearly not immune to environmental contaminants, as our public health statistics show. Yet most Australians are still unaware of the danger to their children’s health.

Dr. Trevor Hancock, chairman of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, asserts that  the public must take the impact of environmental contamination on children more seriously. He said that it is illogical that people who would not dream of abusing a child think nothing of passing on to their children and grandchildren an environment that has been abused.

"The environment is perhaps the ultimate determinant of our health and the health of our children. Yet over the course of the past century we have radically altered the environment in which children develop -- starting in the womb, their first environment," he writes.

"Today's children are born with a body burden of synthetic, persistent organic pollutants - the consequences of which will not be known for another 50 years or so."
The Health of Canada's Children, Dr. Trevor Hancock, chairman of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

FOOTNOTES