Friday, February 21, 2014

NEW EVIDENCE ON ADHD AND TOXIC CHEMICALS

In 1960 one of my longtime heroes, Rachel Carson, published Silent Spring. She stated that “From 1945 when the use of synthetic pesticides began in the United States, to the time Silent Spring was published, pesticide use increased about sixfold. In the ten years between the publication of Silent Spring and the banning of DDT in 1972, pesticide use increased tenfold, to about one billion pounds annually". 

Since then the total quantity of pesticides in terms of pounds has not increased; however, the actual toxicity of pesticides has increased ten to twenty times. (8) Figures from today estimate that less than 0.01 percent of the pesticides that are applied reach the target pests, which means that 99.99 percent of the pesticides that are applied pollutes the environment. About 35 percent of the food that is purchased has measurable levels of pesticide residues, with 1 to 3 percent having residues that are above accepted tolerance levels."

So this was up to 1972, and we can imagine what they could be now.           

Fortunately new studies are forging a link between toxic chemicals in our environment and ADHD,especially pesticides that contaminate much of our food: 

ADHD AND TOXIC CHEMICALS 

http://healthland.time.com/2014/02/14/children-exposed-to-more-brain-harming-chemicals-than-ever-before/?xid=newsletter-