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In a recent NY Times op ed.  Nicholas Kristof talked about the recent CDC report that nearly 1% of all children on are somewhere on the autistic spectrum.   This is a dramatic increase from a few decades ago, when autism was extremely rare.

Now, some of this increase is clearly due to improved diagnosis.  Many children currently diagnosed as severely autistic,  would have simply been labeled as mentally retarded.  Other’s with more mild symptoms (including some that have been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome would have just been called a little weird.  Indeed, we know several children that are mildy autistic, but fully functioning in school and other settings.

But, it is becoming increasingly clear, and increasingly mainstream that chemicals we are exposed to in our daily life have an impact on development.  Kristof quotes and article by Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, professor of pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and chairman of the school’s department of preventive medicine.

Dr. Landrigan told me that he is increasingly confident that autism and other ailments are, in part, the result of the impact of environmental chemicals on the brain as it is being formed.

“The crux of this is brain development,” he said. “If babies are exposed in the womb or shortly after birth to chemicals that interfere with brain development, the consequences last a lifetime.”

Kristof points to another study

One peer-reviewed study published this year in Environmental Health Perspectives gave a hint of the risks. Researchers measured the levels of suspect chemicals called phthalates in the urine of pregnant women. Among women with higher levels of certain phthalates (those commonly found in fragrances, shampoos, cosmetics and nail polishes), their children years later were more likely to display disruptive behavior.

Of the 80,000 chemicals registered in the U.S.  200 have been tested for safety.

Kristof finishes with some advice

“There are diseases that are increasing in the population that we have no known cause for,” said Alan M. Goldberg, a professor of toxicology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. “Breast cancer, prostate cancer, autism are three examples. The potential is for these diseases to be on the rise because of chemicals in the environment.”

The precautionary principle suggests that we should be wary of personal products like fragrances unless they are marked phthalate-free. And it makes sense — particularly for children and pregnant women — to avoid most plastics marked at the bottom as 3, 6 and 7 because they are the ones associated with potentially harmful toxins.

One of the problems that Kristof doesn’t mention is that many body care products do not fully label their ingredients, so it is almost impossible to know if there are Phthalates in them.  That is why we recommend body care that is completely free of synthetic fragrances, colors, and preservatives. Our preference is for body care that is organic or 100% natural.  You can find a variety of soaps, lotions, and other natural body care at Kate’s Caring Gifts

Disclosure: Earth Friendly shopping is owned by Kate’s Caring Gifts

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