On Monday, the Mount Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center (CEHC) awarded actress and The Honest Company founder Jessica Alba its Champion for Children Award for her work creating environmentally-safe, kid-friendly, affordable products for kids. The award was presented by world-renowned children's health advocate and Director of the CEHC Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, who, along with his team at the CECH, warn that environmental hazards (especially exposure to toxic chemicals in everyday consumer products) have caused an uptick in U.S. health problems, including:
- Asthma, which has increased 300% since 1970
- Autism , which increased 80% from 2007 to 2012 and today affects 1 in 50 kids
- Obesity, which has increased 300% since the 1970s
- Type II diabetes, which increased 33% between 1992 to 2002
- Leukemia and cancer—childhood diagnoses are up 40% since the 1970s
Landrigan and CEHC Deputy Director Robert O. Wright said that since these rates of these conditions have skyrocketed so quickly in recent years, they believe the cause must be a combination of genetic susceptibility and environmental exposure. According to Wright, childhood contact with chemicals can lead to health problems decades later—but since it's hard to go back in time, the cause-and-effect is hard to track. Wright says, for example, that childhood exposure to lead—which was present in many children's products 40 to 50 years ago—may be causing the increase in Alzheimer's among adults today. Moreover, endocrine-disrupting chemicals like DDT and phthalates—which interfere with the body's natural hormones and are currently common in everyday products like plastic bottles, metal food cans, detergents, flame retardants, food, toys, cosmetics, and pesticides—have already been linked to weight gain, diabetes, and metabolic health problems...all of which have been on the rise in recent years.
CEHC researchers are therefore looking for ways to track the relationship between common chemicals and disease. They've found, for one, that by analyzing baby teeth they can see what chemicals kids were exposed to before they were born and when. They can then use this information to determine if there's a link to that exposure and childhood illnesses including autism, ADHD, and asthma.
So armed with this knowledge, what can parents do now to protect their kids from environmental hazards? Landrigan warns that the top risk for pregnant women today is synthetic chemicals like pesticides and plastics (BPA). He and Wright say it's important to know where chemicals like BPA and phthalates are found and avoid products containing them, and to eat fresh and organic foods whenever possible (find out more about common household chemicals at the National Institutes of Health website, ToxTown.nlm.nih.gov).
"Parents need to be aware that during pregnancy and early infancy, kids have an exquisite susceptibility to environmental hazards, and they need to protect themselves," said Landrigan. "Parents should do anything they can to reduce their exposure. Buy organic foods as much as possible. Buy products that are tested and safe. Flame retardant [which has been recently associated with hyperactivity and lower intelligence] is a problem today in mattresses and carpets. Older homes, or those built before 1977, can have problems with lead paint. And there is no safe level of lead."
But according to Landrigan, awareness is just the beginning. "You can't shop you way out of this. You can be an intelligent consumer...but we have to change the way people think. There has been a groundswell lately in awareness of this issue today that was not here 5 to 10 years ago."
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