Skip to main content

BPA and Autism Spectrum Disorder


Officescope.com
Autism Spectrum Disorder is simply defined as a communicative and social disorder. However, there is no simple answer to how one should educate a student with ASD. The symbol for autism is a puzzle piece: this symbol is a perfect metaphor, because the method of educating someone with ASD is a puzzle, but so the cause.
I believe environmental factors from our modern era of chemicals and artificial foods and products can have a huge impact on neurodevelopment. In addition to this, modern humankind has a diet eccentric to biological tradition, which may play a roll in how the human body (and mind) develops. And, this diet is buttressed through technology that is dependent and integrated with chemicals that are unique to our era.
A few years ago, the Huffington Post published this article that references a study, which links BPA to ASD. Last year CNN:Health linked similar findings. The University of Virginia found BPA had an immediate effect on the social life of the offspring of mice exposed to BPA, with persisting effects in the following generations of offspring. Even the National Institute of Health has found BPA to be an extremely suspect player in this puzzle: “After examining the current science on BPA in 2007, the National Toxicology Program concluded that the chemical is of some concern for its potential effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and children. BPA is also being investigated for its potential role in obesity, diabetes, reproductive disorders, cancers, and other health problems.”
www.thesleuthjournal.com

If that is the case, then we must conclude that we have seriously compromised the future of the environment as well as our species because BPA is found in everything, from water bottles to tempered glass, paint and Pepsi; it is especially prevalent in baby toys and feeding tools. Bisphenol A has been banned or restricted in many countries including Germany, the UK, China, Canada, and in baby products in many US states including Minnesota, Conecticuit, and California. The silver lining: we may have found a cause of ASD. Or, we just have another piece to a convoluted and emotionally charged enigma.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Horse of the Apocalypse

Here I am, my second blog entry. What I have to say, I am not sure, I have so much to say but nothing to talk about. I watched I Am Legend the other day; in spite of video-game type CGI, the film was pretty decent. I cannot say it was memorable, as far as an apocalyptic film goes, it rose just above mediocre. Children of Men is far more entertaining, deep, and plot driven. If one were to spend two hours, the latter would be better time spent, especially considering the production quality. Speaking of the apocalypse, the presidential race is heating up quickly. Apparently, Mike Huckabee has something to offer as a presidential candidate. I did not know the GOP is so interested in perpetuating the Bush foreign policy that they are willing to support a pseudo-clone of the current commander-in-chief our nation so dearly admires. Ron Paul receives little-to-no attention from the media compared to other candidates but he has the money and grass roots attention (including a priva...
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Virtue

There is a pseudo-virtue that I cannot help but see as necessary to make it through a successful workday. I don’t know what to call it except a collective mindset . Many tasks at any job can be done by one person but they are often time consuming and messy. If another person steps in the job runs smoother; we know this ad idiom, "two heads are better than one." The ethic is not complicated but it contradicts a very American sentiment, individualism. Where I work, if one person fails to do something, everyone fails. If one person succeeds, likewise, everyone succeeds. Though not commonly perceived, such is life outside of work. Independent of whether the society adapts the collective mindset , any single individual can have one making society a better place. I cannot consider this pseudo-ethic as a sane dictum of governance, I am a libertarian after all; though it would undoubtedly be pleasantly enculturated if each person took it upon him or herself to look after ea...
3 comments
Read more

My Heart Bleeds

I am not a scientist or philosopher. I have not exhausted the depths of scientific discovery or waded into the philosophical postulations of all the “why”s and “how”s of existence and nature and purpose. Nor am I an artist –not in any traditional sense– but I do have a sense of what is communicated in arte. Even bad arta; an expression of one’s self, being, perception, and experience. One of my favorite artists is Bob Dylan. He confuses me and I have discovered why confusion is admirable. He doesn't communicate an answer or direct interpretation of life; but rather, the confusion we all feel about war and love, beauty and pain. Dylan, in many ways, combined a strange string of sounds and words that give a substantive realization to the pain that nurtures the human heart. Beauty is not found in an evasion of life, but rather an embrace of it. Recently, I had been given a bit more struggle than I cared to accept; but, as I was denied any control over my life and accepted th...
4 comments
Read more