Environmental Pollutants as a Cause of Mental Retardation

Brought to you by: Shelby Towater, Miranda Bradford and Riley Bowers

Environmental Causes

• Individuals with mild intellectual disabilities, those who require less intensive supports, make up about 90% of all persons with MR/ID. • The majority of those cases exhibit no evidence of organic pathology—no brain damage or other biological problem. • When no biological factor is evident in an individual with mental retardation, the cause is presumed to be psychosocial disadvantage, the combination of a poor social environment early in the child’s life.•Professionals sometimes use the term developmental retardation to refer to intellectual disability thought to be caused primarily by environmental influences such as minimal opportunities to develop early language, child abuse and neglect, and/or chronic social or sensory deprivation.

Key contributors to the cycle of environmentally caused retardation:

1. Limited parenting practices that produce low rates of vocabulary growth in early childhood.

2. Instructional practices in middle childhood and adolescence that produce low rates of academic engagement during the school years.

3. Lower rates of academic achievement and early school failure and early school dropout.

4. Parenthood and continuance of the progression into the next generation.

Prevention

• Biggest single preventive strike against mental retardation was the development of an effective Rubella vaccine in 1962. -When contracted to mothers during the first 3 months of pregnancy, it causes severe damage in 10% to 40% of unborn children. • Invasive diagnostic tests, such as Amniocentesis and Chorionic Villi Sampling, can confirm the presence of various disorders.• In the United States, women who are at risk for giving birth to a baby with a disabilities on the basis of the parents’ genetic backgrounds are commonly referred to genetic counseling.

Your pregnancy, the environment, and your baby.

• Toxic exposure through maternal substance abuse such as alcohol and environmental pollutants are two major causes of preventable intellectual disabilities.

•Alcohol • Smoking• Drugs• Poor nutrition

Alcohol, pregnancy and your child.

•Alcohol is now recognized as the leading teratogen to which the fetus is likely to be exposed. •The most severe result of alcohol use is fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a lifelong condition characterized by poor growth (in the womb, after birth, or both), abnormal facial features, and damage to the central nervous system.• The central nervous system damage may include mental retardation, delays in physical development, vision and hearing problems, and a variety of behavioral problems.• Frequent drinking (seven or more alcoholic drinks per week, including liquor, wine, and/or beer) or binge drinking (four or more drinks on any one occasion) greatly increases the risk that your baby will suffer from FAS.

Smoking while pregnant? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

•Smoking cigarettes is probably the No. 1 cause of adverse outcomes for babies.• When you smoke during pregnancy, that toxic brew gets into your bloodstream, your baby's only source of oxygen and nutrients.• Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including truly nasty things like cyanide, lead, and at least 60 cancer-causing compounds. .• A shortage of oxygen can have devastating effects on your baby's growth and development.• On average, smoking during pregnancy doubles the chances that a baby will be born too early or weigh less than 5 1/2 pounds at birth. Smoking also more than doubles the risk of stillbirth.

Say NO to drugs.

•Studies have shown that consumption of illegal drugs during pregnancy can result miscarriage, low birth weight, premature labor, placental abruption, fetal death, and even maternal death.• Marijuana, like cigarette smoke, contains toxins that keep your baby from getting the proper supply of oxygen that he or she needs to grow.• According to the Organization of Teratology Information Services (OTIS), during the early months of pregnancy cocaine exposure may increase the risk of miscarriage. Later in pregnancy, cocaine use can cause placental abruption.• Using heroin during pregnancy increases the chance of premature birth, low birth weight, breathing difficulties, low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), bleeding within the brain (intracranial hemorrhage), and infant death.

Malnutrition

•A poor pregnancy diet can lead to various nutritional deficiencies.• Eating too little (or too little of the needed foods) increases the risk of giving birth to a baby who may be born too soon or too small, have birth defects, or have breathing and blood chemistry problems at birth. • You may develop malnutrition if you lack of a single vitamin in the diet.

What causes an intellectual disability?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyjFJ19DF9Y

Works Cited

"Drinking Alcohol during Pregnancy | BabyCenter." BabyCenter | Homepage - Pregnancy, Baby, Toddler, Kids. Baby Center, Oct. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. <http://www.babycenter.com/0_drinking-alcohol-during-pregnancy_3542.bc>.

 "Using Illegal Drugs during Pregnancy : American Pregnancy Association : American Pregnancy Association." Promoting Pregnancy Wellness : American Pregnancy Association. American Pregnancy Association, May 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. <http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/illegaldrugs.html>.

Woolston, Chris. "How Smoking during Pregnancy Affects You and Your Baby | BabyCenter." BabyCenter | Homepage - Pregnancy, Baby, Toddler, Kids. Baby Center, Apr. 2011. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. <http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-smoking-during-pregnancy-affects-you-and-your-baby_1405720.bc>.