We're playing Russian roulette with chemicals and kids

Putting the next generation of brains in danger

By Saundra Young, CNN

The biggest window of vulnerability to chemicals occurs in utero, during infancy and early childhood, experts say.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Two scientists are sounding the alarm over chemicals and brain development
• They are calling for a worldwide overhaul of the regulatory process
• The American Chemical Council says the review is "highly flawed"
• The researchers say impacts could include ADHD and dyslexia

(CNN) -- The number of chemicals known to be toxic to children's developing brains has doubled over the last seven years, researchers said.

Dr. Philip Landrigan at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and Dr. Philippe Grandjean from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, authors of the review published Friday in The Lancet Neurology journal, say the news is so troubling they are calling for a worldwide overhaul of the regulatory process in order to protect children's brains.

"We know from clinical information on poisoned adult patients that these chemicals can enter the brain through the blood brain barrier and cause neurological symptoms," said Grandjean.

"When this happens in children or during pregnancy, those chemicals are extremely toxic, because we now know that the developing brain is a uniquely vulnerable organ. Also, the effects are permanent."

The two have been studying industrial chemicals for about 30 years. In 2006, they published data identifying five chemicals as neurotoxicants -- substances that impact brain development and can cause a number of neurodevelopmental disabilities including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, dyslexia and other cognitive damage, they said.

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