Did Monsanto, General Electric, Westinghouse, and Bayer cause a generation of children with ADD?

There is no debate that Monsanto created an industrial toxin called a PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl), and with the help of major license holders such as GE, Westinghouse, and Bayer produced over 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs, an environmental disaster which is now directly linked to the cause of learning disabilities and ADD in children.

PCB production is banned in the United States; however, PCBs are slow to degrade and actually become more toxic as they degrade. PCBs accumulate in the fat of fish and animals, and much of our nation's food supply contains low levels of PCBs. Eighty-three percent of Americans have PCBs in their fat, indicating a widespread level of exposure by our entire population.

Approximately 12% - 17% of women have a genetic susceptibility to PCB exposure in terms of causing breast cancer, wherein low levels of exposure double the risk for breast cancer and higher levels of PBC exposure quadruple the risk for breast cancer.

When PCBs oxidize as they degrade and interact with other pollution, highly toxic compounds are formed. The addition of one oxygen molecule produces a furan, whereas two oxygen molecules produces a dioxin. Furans and dioxins are extremely poisonous. The health risk of these to adults, at current levels of exposure, is influenced in part by genetic susceptibility. However, the health risk to a fetus may be quite high regardless of genetic susceptibility. Because these poisons are fat soluble they will attract to adipose tissue, the liver, breast tissue, and nerves.

A new study shows that low level exposure of PCBs during pregnancy may significantly interfere with the normal development of the nervous system, resulting in functional damage to nerves adequate to cause learning disabilities and ADD. Children with the highest blood levels of PCB-related furans and dioxins are significantly more likely to have learning issues. Monsanto, General Electric, Westinghouse, and Bayer have done everything in their power to not spend the 50 billion or more needed to clean up their widespread contamination of the environment, as I fully explain in Chapter 14 of Fight for Your Health. One consequence just became painfully clear – a generation of children with neurological impairment and defective brain circuitry. While nutrition is the best hope to compensate for some of this damage, it will be difficult to fully correct developmental neurologic abnormalities.