In the Feb. 14 New York Times Sunday Review, op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof, calls for a “public health revolution focused on the roots of many pathologies” caused by chemical toxins that Americans and others around the world are exposed to (the lead-poisoned water in Flint, Michigan being just one example). In addition to lead, he describes widespread poisoning by PCBs, flame retardants and pesticides as examples but also includes toxic stress among the toxins that impact children even before they are born. Kristof holds up the work of 21st Century Dr. Snows (the British doctor who discovered the cause of cholera in London’s drinking water) including scholars led by David L. Shern and linked readers to the report “Toxic Stress, Behavioral Health, and the Next Major Era in Public Health” by Shern, Andrea K. Blanch and Sarah M. Steverman. This explicit inclusion of toxic stress among the usual environmental toxins is a valuable and appropriate expansion of the debate about the current public health crisis of which Flint is only a small part. Here is an excerpt about toxic stress from the column:
Fortunately, we have some new Dr. Snows for the 21st century.
A group of scholars, led by David L. Shern of Mental Health America, argue that the world today needs a new public health revolution focused on young children, parallel to the one mounted for sanitation after Snow’s revelations about cholera in 1854. Once again, we have information about how to prevent pathologies, not just treat them — if we will act.
The reason for a new effort is a vast amount of recent research showing that brain development at the beginning of life affects physical and mental health decades later. That means protecting the developing brain from dangerous substances and also from “toxic stress” — often a byproduct of poverty — to prevent high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which impairs brain development.
To read the rest of the article, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02...amp;emc=rss&_r=0
Photo caption: Lead in old, peeling paint is just one substance that permanently harms children’s development.
Photo credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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