Why do we poison our children?
The Need for New Law
‘A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg’. It’s an old chestnut from Biology but it does make a point. Survive to procreate. Lifeforms put themselves in danger and spend a lot of energy reproducing and raising the juveniles.
It’s bad enough that there are adults, pedophiles, sweat-shop owners, child soldier recruiters and other scum. But on top of that we go through our daily lives degrading and polluting the air, water and soil the young need to grow and thrive. We create industries which, again, actively and knowingly, produce foods that are health destroying. Other industries continually fabricate new molecules and materials which are sent out into the environment, many have been shown to be extremely long-lived toxins. We build environments that are dangerous and of types to which we are simply not adapted. Then we try and raise healthy, well-balanced children in these strange places.
Childhood non-communicable diseases.
Over the last fifty years the instances of childhood NCDs have risen rapidly.
Childhood asthma- tripled
Childhood obesity - quadrupled
Male reproductive defects such as cryptorchidism and hypospadias - doubled
Childhood cancer - up by 35%
1 in six children born today have neurodevelopment disorders.
1 in 36 children born today diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders
Chemicals
There are about 350,000 synthetic listed on the Global chemicals inventories. Less than 20% of these synthetics have been tested for toxicity. Children have lower body masses, compared to adults, their internal organs are still developing. This means that children tend to be damaged by synthetic chemicals more than adults. We’ve known this for decades. The synthetics that have been tested are mainly pharmaceuticals which have to undergo rigorous testing before going to market. The annual global production of synthetic chemicals is ~2.3 billion tonnes.
In today’s world chemists working for our industries develop new synthetic molecules. In many countries there is no real legal necessity for these molecules to be tested for toxicity. These synthetic molecules are used in our ultra-processed foods, in the pans we use to cook with, in the clothes we wear and in the soft toys we give to our kids. They are in the pillows, sheets and duvet we pile on our children’s beds. They are everywhere and many of them have been revealed as being toxic.
Exposure to BPA (bisphenol A ) in the womb linked to wheezing and poorer lung
PFAS are found in many consumer products and are linked to cancer and other health problems
A third of the tested plastic products released toxic substances, including five out of 13 products intended for children.
Childhood exposure to phthalates and bisphenols is positively associated with measures of obesity including BMI and waist circumference and hip circumference.
Imagine that a biologist discovers an animal that behaves in a similar way, creating toxic environments for it’s young. How would said biologist explain this? It goes against everything we currently understand about evolution and animal behaviour. Such an animal would be an enigma. Would the biologist come to the conclusion that the species was an aberration and behaves in such a way because the adults are ill too? Or perhaps the biologist would theorise that maybe this strange animal releases toxic molecules into the environment and feed some directly to it’s young as some sort of ‘what doesn’t kill, makes stronger’ treatment? It’s difficult to say, in any case such an animal exists, Homo sapiens sapiens, the clever one.
Trying to understand why we abuse, damage and kill our young by getting them to eat, breath and absorb toxic molecules is very difficult. Trying to understand it is made even harder when we take into account that we know we are doing it and we understand the consequences.
15 years ago, or so, an appeal was launched by a global group of scientists. The appeal was that governments change and qualify plastic waste as toxic waste. Nothing much has changed since, plastic production increases year on year.
At the beginning of 2025 another group of scientists appealed to governments to change the law and require systematic pte-market testing of new synthetic chemicals. The paper is called “Manufactured Chemicals and Children’s Health — The Need for New Law”
We could take this even further and bring in a law that states that any action, behaviour, product, by-product or system that harms children is abusive. For example, putting a ‘forever’ toxic molecule out into the environment where it will harm our young is a form of child abuse and must stop.