Killer cocktails

Professor Philippe Grandjean, of Harvard School for Public Health, recently published in the Lancet an extensive list of chemicals, to which exposure in the womb or early in life can be very harmful to brains and can lead to learning disabilities and developmental problems. Five - lead, mercury, PCBs, toluene and arsenic - are already well documented. The others include pesticides, carbon monoxide, fluoride, manganese and common chemicals like acetone, benzyl alcohol and perchloroethylene, a chemical used in dry cleaning.