Mirmiran and S. De Boer LONG-TERM

LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF CHEMICALS ON DEVELOPING BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR M. MIRMIRAN and S. DE BOER 

A common example of neurobehavioral teratogenic effects caused by polluted food is the Minamata disease. In a number of areas in Japan methylmercury from industrial waste accumulated in fish which was one of the main sources of the food of the local population. Another case of poisoning with methylmercury occurred in Iraq, where people consumed grain seed treated with a methylmercury fungicide. Women with only minimal poisoning symptoms gave birth to children that showed many neurological and behavioral abnormalities, such as mental retardation, coordination deficits and seizures (refs. 12, 13). 

Lecithin is another food constituent which has been shown to cause neurobehavioral teratogenic effects in rats. It is added to foods as an emulsifier, but it is also present in soy lecithin preparations which are consumed as healthy food supplements. Soy lecithin preparations contain various phospholipids which can be incorporated into the brain as membrane constituents or acetylcholine, and conceivably may affect brain development if available in high levels. Pregnant dams were fed a lecithin-enriched diet (prepared by adding a commercial soy lecithin preparation) from gestational day 7 until weaning. Subsequently, the pups were also fed this diet. Treated pups showed faster rightening responses on postnatal days 1 and 2 and slower 

Neuropeptides are a new class of potential teratogenic drugs about to be marketed and suggested to have teratogenic effects (ref. 48). 

Children of women addicted to opiates, cannabinoids or alcohol or chronically treated with benzodiazepines during pregnancy are often born with withdrawal symptoms, and/or show retarded behavior and various other abnormalities when growing up. Therefore, relatively extensive research has been performed in this field. Animal studies have shown that behavioral abnormalities found in laboratory animals treated prenatally with these substances extended well into adulthood (ref. 8). For instance, children 

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