How can we improve the identification of and response to environmental threats to childrens health?
Although progress has been made toward quantifying the risk environmental hazards pose to children, our ability to identify environmental threats to children’s health and then develop effective strategies to address them must improve. While a great deal is known about some hazards, researchers are just beginning to understand others more fully. For example, increasing scientific attention has been focused on the potential effects of synthetic chemicals on the hormone system. These chemicals — known as endocrine disruptors — may pose a major hazard to children. A number of chemicals, including organochloride pesticides such as DDT and chemicals such as PCBs, can cause endocrine disruption in wildlife and laboratory animals. Because very low levels of chemicals that block or mimic reproductive and thyroid hormones can determine the course of prenatal development, there is substantial concern about the potential for birth defects and alterations of normal growth and development in child
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