Social Ecology of Children's Vulnerability to Environmental Pollutants - Essay Example

"Social Ecology of Children's Vulnerability to Environmental Pollutants" is a great example of a paper on child development. In their journal article “Social Ecology of Children's Vulnerability to Environmental Pollutants” authors Weiss and Bellinger's forcefully argued how most neurotoxic chemicals that exposed children to various ailments are regarded as main causes as toxicants but the ensuing environment where these toxicants were present is treated as mere confounders and thought as irrelevant or not important to the etiology of disease in many clinical studies. This cavalier treatment of the social ecology distorts the significance of environmental influences to the ills these toxicants cause and misleads the clinical researchers from pinpointing the real cause. In early environments, such influences are significant because these are embedded in a biologic substrate that persists throughout life (Weiss & Bellinger 1479) and should not be ignored.

A very specific example is that of trace elements from the metal of lead. In the early studies conducted on the toxicity of lead, initial results indicated its adverse effects were that it was confined to children of families belonging to the lower socio-economic levels. Children from upper-class backgrounds were thought to be free from the toxic effects of lead exposure (unless lead-in cord blood exceeded a certain level). The effect of the environment was not in a way considered in exposure known in epidemiological studies as an “effect modifier” (Weiss & Bellinger 1480) which prevented early interventions. If designing a new study, then it is the methods section that should be altered to include the social environment as a key variable.

Theories by Sweet et al. pointed to income levels as partly determined by skin color due to racial discrimination against African-American citizens. Those with lighter skins tend to have higher incomes (less discrimination) so there is less financial stress that results in lower blood pressure (Sweet et al. 2253). Their theory is sociologic and an alternative explanation is a psychosocial stressor like anger, resentment, and anxiety from discrimination.

 

 

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