How we ‘exhaust’ our future generations

“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.” This quote by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a French naval officer, inventor, explorer and researcher, couldn’t be more relevant today. The genocide in Syria has once again created a furore and the world is condemning this inhuman and barbaric act. The impact of this genocide and the effect of chemicals on future generations will be disastrous. Kids would have damaged DNA and diminished IQ levels, because chemicals will harm them even when the fetus is developing in the womb.

Twenty five per cent of kids in Hyderabad suffer from asthma, autism and other birth defects which are spiralling according to a recent research. Fifteen per cent of kids are being born with a learning disability

Lata Jain

Most of us commute by cars. One of the drawbacks of living in big cities is this discovery: pesticides and other industrial chemicals mix with car exhaust and this invisible toxic smog penetrates the womb which harms human beings at every stage in life. Pesticides cause birth defects, damage the DNA and expose children to diseases later in life, especially cancer. Pesticides are everywhere. Municipalities spray DDT along the roads. Aerosol sprays form a mist of chlorinated poison that float across the city. Factory farm food too is laced with fungicides, insecticides and herbicides.

Automobile smog combined with pesticides is a real threat to human health. The exhaust of cars and trucks, which we all take for granted, is so harmful that, it surpasses nature's protective barrier in the womb, the placenta, and injures our babies. The number of cars and trucks keep increasing which is not a good sign.

“We already know that air pollutants significantly reduce fetal growth, but this is the first time we've evidence that they can change chromosomes in the uterus”, said Dr Pereira, adding that the kind of genetic changes that occur have been linked to an increased risk of cancer.

Twenty five percent of kids in Hyderabad suffer from asthma, autism and other birth defects which are spiralling according to a recent research. Fifteen percent of kids are being born with a learning disability.

Dr Pereiras emphasised three major causes of genetic deformation and disease in the womb and childhood: Pesticides, vehicle exhaust, and stress. Cars and trucks produce many chemical combinations. But gasoline and oil are basically hydrocarbons. When they are burned, they emit particles called Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).

There are many types of PAH's, and some of them are highly carcinogenic, causing cancer and are mutagenic, creating mutations of DNA in the womb. All PAH's contain benzene. PAH's are found in all sorts of petrochemicals like solvents and dyes, as well as burnt gasoline. Roofing tar, creosote, and coal-fired power plants are strong sources of PAHs.

Babies and kids are far more sensitive to environmental toxins than adults which affects children both mentally and physically. Science has proved that exposure to pollution sets up pre-natal changes that can determine major diseases in childhood, or even much later in life.

These pollutants also reduce birth weight, meaning more chances of illness, or even reduced IQ in later life. Again, PAHs, from auto exhaust, and other carbon burners, has now been proved to reduce the survival of human offsprings.