Top 8 Reasons Why Children Are Highly Vulnerable to Toxic Chemicals

1. Children's immune systems and metabolic pathways, especially in the first months after birth, are immature. Their ability to metabolize, detoxify and excrete many chemicals differs from adults.

2. Faster metabolism in children speeds up their absorption of chemicals or contaminants.

3. Children drink more water, eat more food and breathe more air than adults in relation to body weight, which implies that children will have substantially heavier exposures than adults to any toxins that are present in water, food or air.  

4. Fetal exposures to toxins (e.g. exposure in the womb) are at greatest risk of all. Because cellular structures change so rapidly during embryonic and fetal growth, a toxic exposure at the wrong moment can permanently alter normal development in subtle or serious ways. The central nervous system is especially vulnerable.

5. Carcinogenic and toxic exposures sustained early in life (including prenatal exposure) appear more likely to cause a disease than similar exposures encountered later in life, because the organs of children are not yet fully developed, and chemicals may interfere with the development of their neurological, endocrine and immune systems.

6. Infants receive their highest exposure to pollutants at home, where they spend the most time, and where the family has the most mitigation control.

7. Carpet cleaners can be extremely toxic to children, who tend to play and crawl around on the carpets. The fumes given off by carpet cleaners can cause cancer and liver damage.

8. Cleaning products are among the products most frequently ingested accidentally by children.

In summary, because a child's developmental features, physiological entirety, and metabolic pathways are different from yours and mine, children are more vulnerable to carcinogenic effects than similarly exposed adults.