Four chemical classes cost US public 270 million IQ points over 15 years

Working out how early chemical exposure may later affect a person’s cognitive functioning is tricky and controversial, but a new study led by researchers at New York University (NYU) claims to have done this. The team has calculated that in utero chemical exposure resulted in more than a million cases of intellectual disability in the US between 2001 and 2016. The researchers blame polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) flame retardants and organophosphate pesticides for the vast bulk of that cognitive loss. PBDEs alone caused nearly 740,000 cases of intellectual disability during the study period.