Susceptibility of Children to Environmental Xenobiotics

Abstract

The growth of interest in paediatric environmental health reflects a widespread recognition that the impact of the environment on children's health is of major importance for this and succeeding generations. Children have a greater vulnerability to the adverse health effects of many environmental toxicants and xenobiotics than do adults, by virtue of their smaller size, increased weight‐adjusted intake of toxicants, developmental differences in body systems and functions, overall physiological and toxicodynamic differences, and differences in the environments they inhabit, the air they breathe, the foods they eat and the behaviours they display every day. The overall impact of such adverse effects of the environment, manifested by subsequent poorer health and the need for costly healthcare services, is amplified by the longer lifespans of children and is associated with intergenerational transmission of harmful effects, to the detriment of mankind. Conversely there is also great potential for averting such harmful effects by improving the quality of the environment and sparing children the consequences of such exposures.

A retrospective review of cytogenetic studies on methyl isocyanate with special reference to the Bhopal gas tragedy: Is the next generation also at risk?

“…Anthropometric studies in adolescents carried out by Ranjan et al [72] identified selective growth retardation in boys either exposed to the toxic MIC gas as toddlers or born to the exposed patients but not in girls. Based on survey studies conducted by Irani and Mahashur [74] on children exposed to MIC and complaining of persistent respiratory, gastrointestinal and eye problems, Woolf and Sandel [73] state that there are still many unanswered questions concerning the long-term residual effects of MIC exposure on the health of children, which require specific and cohort-based cytogenetic studies and their appropriate interpretation.…”