Nature: Global Perspective on Effects of Environmental Exposures on the Nervous System. [View all]

[NNadir]

Last edited Sun Nov 22, 2015, 11:12 AM - Edit history (1)

I've heard of a theory - I don't know how credible it is - that the decline of the Roman Empire was in part connected to the use of lead piping throughout the empire. Sometimes, when the world looks increasingly crazy - and from where I sit it does - I wonder about the impact of neurotoxins being routinely distributed around the planet, and whether it is increasing the ratio of "mad hatters" to unaffected persons. It's worth contemplating. For instance, if one follows the primary scientific literature and regularly reads journals like (my personal favorite as an ACS member) Environmental Science and Technology, one can read all about the distribution of mercury (to follow on the "Mad Hatter Theme) the bulk of which is distributed to the environment by coal fired power plants. (Sorry Jenny McCarthy, preservatives in vaccines are trivial when it comes to mercury exposure compared to the planetary atmosphere.) In this year alone, which has not finished, already 52 scientific papers have been published in that journal in which "mercury" is a title word.

I tend not to focus too much on these papers anymore; they're just too depressing, too hopeless. Coal use on the planetary scale, irrespective of what you may have heard, is expected to rise more, not fall, particularly in poorer countries.

The current issue of Nature has a nice special section on neurological disorders, including this paper: A global perspective on the influence of environmental exposures on the nervous system. The authors are international.

Although I subscribe electronically to Nature, it appears that this entire section on neurological diseases is open access; anyone with a modicum of scientific knowledge can read the papers therein.

One notable feature of the "exposure" paper just linked concerns poverty; happily one of the authors is a Congolese scientist.

As my life winds down, one of the most disappointing things I see is how each year we in the American left are less and less concerned with human poverty; too often what passes for environmentalism comes down to debates about whether the Tesla electric car is the greatest human invention since the domestication of wheat, but hey, it is what it is.

Be all that as it may, this nice chart from the paper however gives a quick visual on the issue:



One notable feature from the paper's text notes that 85% of humanity lives in low or middle income countries and that the number of people who live in extreme poverty (defined as $1.25(US)/day) is now one billion people.

My impression is that in the United States, we couldn't care less. I have not heard a single word mentioning this fact from any candidate for President or in fact, any US President since maybe Lyndon Johnson. Hell, I haven't heard a single word about it from any candidate for any office.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend; be sure to put an electric car on your list for Santa; Christmas is coming.