How Environmental Pollution
Impairs Brain Development
— and How to Protect the Brains
of the Next Generation

Other brain drainers

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Some chemical brain drainers do not belong to specific groups like metals and pesticides. Other brain-toxic chemicals, such as solvents, are toxic to the brain because their properties allow them to gain access through the blood-brain barrier, and they exert adverse effects on brain cells.

 

29
OCT
2018

Air pollution – brain pollution

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29 October, 2018. The most obvious brain drainers have already been discovered, such as mercury, lead, or organophosphate pesticides, but the list is much longer when it comes to suspected neurotoxicants. Many of them are mediated through food and water consumption. But, what about the air we breathe? This field is somewhat more complex, as the air pollution and its composition varies from place to place, with the season, time of the day, and other factors. Air pollution includes carbon...
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28
FEB
2017

Prioritizing brain drainers

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28 February 2017. A U.S. regulatory agency – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – took physicians and scientists by surprise late last year. The FDA warned that repeated or lengthy use of general anesthetic and sedation drugs during surgeries in children younger than 3 years or in pregnant women during their third trimester may negatively affect the development of children’s brains. Readers of this web site are familiar with the possible risks from anesthesia, which relies...
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15
JUN
2016

Endocrine disruptors in the brain

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15 June 2016. Today, two years after the original deadline, the European Commission published its conclusions that certain industrial chemicals should be classified as endocrine disruptors according to the definition proposed several years ago by the World Health Organization. This classification must rely on the weight of the scientific evidence. As could be expected, opinions differed substantially. Thus, industry organizations objected against consideration of this new type of risk,...
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19
OCT
2015

Flame retardants in TV sets and brains

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19 October 2015. Two new studies add to the already documented adverse effects of brominated flame retardants. These are substances that are mixed into plastics and textiles with the intention of preventing or delaying their bursting into flames if exposed to fire. This purpose seems beneficial, but that is not the whole story. The bad news is that evidence is building that these persistent compounds are toxic to human brains during development. A new study from California followed...
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28
JUL
2015

Does poverty cause brain drain?

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28 July 2015. Poverty has been linked to delayed or poor brain development. Thus, children from poor families get lower scores on standardized tests of academic achievement, and their grades in school and educational attainment are lower than those obtained by their better-off peers. Most recently, this was shown in a study that relied on magnetic resonance imaging of 389 US children and adolescents. The findings suggest that about 20 percent of the gap in test scores between poor...
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27
APR
2015

Alerting anesthetized decision-makers

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27 April 2015. General anesthesia in small children may cause damage to brain development, authors of an article in JAMA fear. Similar concerns have previously been raised at this site, but the concerns highlighted now emphasize some interesting parallels and differences from industrial chemicals in general. Now, see if the concerns raised by the three physicians ring any bells: They recommend “large, high-quality observational studies that include neuropsychiatric testing” to...
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31
MAR
2015

Thyroid dysfunction causes brain drain

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30 March 2015. Human brain development is critically dependent on the thyroid hormone. In the beginning of pregnancy, the fetus depends entirely on the mother’s hormone. Once the fetal thyroid begins to function, it relies on iodine from the mother’s thyroid hormone. If the mother is iodine deficient, the child may be mentally retarded. Even if maternal iodine intake is only slightly below what is needed, the child may suffer deficits in cognitive function, as indicated by...
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05
MAR
2015

Huge costs from chemical brain drain

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5 March 2015. Within the European Union, much concern has been expressed about chemicals that are endocrine disruptors, i.e., interfere with the hormone system. The attention at first focused on adverse effects like decreasing sperm quality and risks of breast cancer. A new report released today presents two huge surprises. First, the costs associated with endocrine disruption are enormous, the total being about €150 billion (or $200 billion) per year. This amount corresponds to no less...
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04
MAR
2015

Air pollution harms brain development

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4 March 2015. Air pollution from trucks harms children’s brain development, a new study from Barcelona, Spain shows. The researchers found that greater degrees of air pollution were associated with slowed development of brain functions in 2,700 primary school students. They were followed for a year with computerized testing every three months. The tests reflected working memory and attention span – functions that are under rapid development at ages 7-10 years. All children...
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“Only One Chance”

The book was released in mid-2013. It can be ordered directly from Oxford University Press – click here.

E-book versions are also available both for Kindle and Nook.

"Only One Chance shaves off layer after layer of ignorance, naiveté, and corruption as it exposes the hidden dangers from industrial chemicals. Grandjean's book reads like a thriller and gives us a unique chance to decide that the next generation's brains must be protected against toxic brain drainers." - Devra Lee Davis, PhD, author of The Secret History of the War on Cancer and National Book Award finalist.

See scientific journal reviews here and here.

A Danish version now available from Gyldendal: publisher page. E-book and audio versions are also available in Danish.

A French translation ("Cerveaux en danger") was published by Buchet/Chastel in February, 2016. A Kindle version is also available.

In a review for Le Monde, Hervé Morin writes: "La démonstration de Philippe Grandjean est implacable et désespérante... son ­exposé invite à l’indignation... il est plus que temps de protéger le cerveau des enfants." In Cerveaux & Psycho, André Picot concludes: “Dans cet ouvrage passionnant, Philippe Grandjean delivre un message clair: il est urgent d’agir, sans quoi le prix à payer pour les générations futures risqué d’être lourd. Merci à lui de nous informer si précisément, son témoignage nous est essentiel.”

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