HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Korrick, S. A Articles by Bellinger, D. C Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Korrick, S. A Articles by Bellinger, D. C Topic Collections Related Articles

Invited commentary: persistent organic pollutants and childhood learning and behavioural disorders

¹ Department of Medicine, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
² Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr S A Korrick
Channing Laboratory, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA; susan.korrick@channing.harvard.edu

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In this issue of Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, Lee et al¹ (see page 591) demonstrate an association of both learning disabilities (LD) and attention-deficit disorder (ADD) with concurrent serum levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) among 12–15-year-old participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999–2000). For example, among children with detectable versus non-detectable levels of heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (HPCDD), the adjusted prevalence odds ratios (95% CI) for LD and ADD were 2.08 (1.17 to 3.68) and 3.41 (1.08 to 10.8), respectively. This is perhaps the first published study to describe a potential POP-associated increased risk of LD or ADD. Previous studies have primarily assessed continuous cognitive or behavioural measures among generally healthy populations. LD and ADD are clinical end points that have obvious public health impacts in terms of childhood (and adult) morbidity as well as educational, . . . [Full text of this article]

Related Articles

In this issue

Carlos Alvarez-Dardet and John R Ashton
J. Epidemiol. Community Health 2007 61: 561. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]