By Emma Fiala | The Mind Unleashed
The latest research out of New York University’s (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine is anything but encouraging.
A total of 162 million IQ points have been lost and 738,000 cases of intellectual disability gained in the United States thanks to exposure to flame retardants alone.
But the study published January 14 in the journal Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology didn’t stop there. Researchers looked at the effects of exposure to toxins like lead, mercury, pesticides, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (flame retardants) among children between 2001 and 2016.
Lead exposure resulted in a loss of 78 million IQ points among U.S. children, pesticides accounted for a loss of 27 million points, and mercury came in last with a loss of 2.5 million IQ points.
Leo Trasande, a pediatrician and public health researcher at NYU said:
“Kids’ brain development is exquisitely vulnerable. If you disrupt, even with subtle effects, the way a child’s brain is wired, [it] can have permanent and lifelong consequences.“
Most of the children negatively affected by these toxins were likely exposed in utero via common household objects, potentially setting them up for a lifetime of difficulties before having even been born.
Despite a parent or pregnant mother’s best efforts flame retardants, pesticides, and more can still find their way into the body. Flame retardants are found on a host of furniture items, electronics, and children’s clothing. Pesticides can be found on fresh produce and in food bought at a store or restaurant that was prepared with conventional produce. Lead can be found in many older homes but is still used today in commercial paint, including that used on children’s playground equipment.
The latest research takes the damaging and irreversible effects of these toxins a step further and looks at the economic impact of such a widespread problem and the results are grim. The effects of such pervasive childhood brain damage has cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars.
According to the researchers, one IQ point is worth roughly two percent of a person’s lifetime economic productivity. Trasande explained:
“If a child comes back from school with one less IQ point, maybe mum or the parent might not notice. But if 100,000 children come back with one less IQ point, the entire economy notices.“
