Lead Babies: Breaking the Cycle of Learning Disabilities, Declining IQ, ADHD, Behavior Problems, and Autism by Joanna Cerazy Med & Sandra Cottingham Phd

Author:Joanna Cerazy Med & Sandra Cottingham Phd
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Health & Fitness, Diseases, Learning Disabilities, Family & Relationships, Children With Special Needs, Nervous System (Incl. Brain)
ISBN: 9781601641922
Publisher: Kunati Inc.
Published: 2009-04-30T21:00:00+00:00

C H A p T E R 7

Lead and Fertility: Women and Men

For most couples, fertility is not a problem. For some others,

the longing to become a parent remains unfulfilled. Reproductive

problems have become common in modern society and some seem

to be growing in their incidence. Nearly 6.1 million Americans are

struggling to become parents. In the United States, infertility is

currently estimated to affect more than two million couples. That

translates into one couple in twelve finding itself unable to have

children.

Among other factors, infertility can be caused by problems

with ovulation, problems with sperm, age, reproductive infections,

damage to reproductive organs, genetic makeup, smoking,

drinking, drugs, immunological, anatomic or thyroid problems

as well as exposure to radiation and certain chemicals, such as

pesticides. That environmental exposure to toxins can be a cause

of infertility is well documented. Dibromochloropropane, a soil

fumigant used to control insects on fruit crops, became notorious

because of its ability to either decrease or eliminate sperm

production in exposed workers. During the 1970s, a group of

young men working in a plant producing this pesticide noticed that

none of them had been able to father a child, despite the fact that

in the past some of them had been fertile. After an examination,

it became apparent that their sperm counts had been seriously

decreased. In some, the count was zero. The longer the men

were employed as pesticide production workers, the lower their

sperm counts became. A follow-up study of the exposed workers

found that recovery occurred in some men while others became

permanently sterilized.82 Production of DBCP was stopped in the

United States, but unfortunately this is not a story with a happy

ending. DBCP is still used in other countries and more alarmingly,

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of hundreds of other synthetic chemicals produced and used daily,

most of them have never been properly tested for their toxicity

to human reproductive systems. We are being exposed daily to

numerous toxins, on the safety of which there is very little data.

For a growing group, this may mean that their dream of becoming

parents is increasingly unrealistic.

That lead is detrimental to fertility was known long ago.

Roman women who ingested lead from their food, cosmetics and

kitchenware, and who used lead preparations as a contraceptive,

suffered from infertility. It has been hypothesized that it was

lead-caused infertility that contributed to the fall of the Roman

Empire. Luxurious foods such as mulled wine, grape syrup and

preserved fruit could only be afforded by the aristocracy. As now,

the subtle low-level lead exposure was hard to detect or diagnose

and was often confused with other conditions such as alcoholism.

As a result, sterility and high rates of miscarriage followed, and

the lead-poisoned aristocracy was replaced by their slaves,

who did not have access to these culinary luxuries.83 In the late

1800s, lead’s ability to cause abortion was recognized by women

employed in pottery and white lead factories. In 1860, French

scientists found that wives of lead workers were more likely to

have troubles conceiving and had higher rates of miscarrying.

Later, in 1881, lead was reported to cause birth defects as was

evidenced by growing numbers of children born with excessively

large heads (macrocephaly).84

Prenatal exposure to lead starts long before conception.

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