科學家警告說，有毒化學物質奪走了美國兒童超過1.6億個智商點

科學家警告說，有毒化學物質奪走了美國兒童超過1.6億個智商點

The chemicals we've long feared the most – heavy metals like lead and mercury – are less of a threat to kids' developing brains than they were two decades ago. But two new menaces may be taking their place: pesticides and flame retardants.

我們長期以來最擔心的化學物質——鉛和汞等重金屬——對兒童大腦發(fā)育的威脅比20年前要小。但是兩種新的威脅可能會取而代之:農藥和阻燃劑。

According to new research from New York University, flame retardants resulted in a loss of 162 million IQ points among children in the US between 2001 and 2016.

根據紐約大學的最新研究，2001年至2016年間，阻燃劑導致美國兒童智商下降1.62億分。

The study, published Tuesday in the journal Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, looked at the four chemicals known to impact the brain of a developing child most: lead, mercury, pesticides, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (otherwise known as flame retardants).

這項研究發(fā)表在周二的《分子與細胞內分泌學》(Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology)雜志上，研究了已知對發(fā)育中的兒童大腦影響最大的四種化學物質:鉛、汞、殺蟲劑和多溴聯(lián)苯醚(也稱阻燃劑)。

Leo Trasande, a paediatrician and public-health researcher at NYU who co-authored the study, described these pollutants as "hit-and-run" chemicals: Once a child is exposed to them, there's no reversing the damage.

這項研究的作者之一、紐約大學的兒科醫(yī)生和公共衛(wèi)生研究員里奧·特拉薩德(Leo Trasande)把這些污染物描述為“肇事逃逸”的化學物質:一旦兒童接觸到它們，就無法逆轉其危害。

Kids' brain development is exquisitely vulnerable, Trasande told Business Insider. "If you disrupt, even with subtle effects, the way a child's brain is wired, you can have permanent and lifelong consequences."

“兒童的大腦發(fā)育極其脆弱，”特拉森德告訴《商業(yè)內幕》。“如果你擾亂了孩子大腦的連接方式，即使是輕微的影響，也會造成永久性的終身后果。”

The study found that lead cost US kids 78 million IQ points during the 15-year period studied, while pesticides caused a loss of nearly 27 million IQ points during those years. Mercury, meanwhile, caused a loss of 2.5 million IQ points.

研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在15年的研究期間，鉛讓美國兒童損失了7800萬智商分，而農藥導致這些兒童損失了近2700萬智商分。與此同時，汞造成了250萬智商點的損失。