Socioeconomic circumstances

Poverty produces its own culture, its own environment, and in most industrialized countries, and countries that are now rapidly industrializing, the culture of poverty and its environment provide ripe ground for the dissemination of dangerous chemicals in air, water, and food—particularly neurotoxins. The neurotoxins discussed in this book are for the most part community neurotoxins. The degree of exposure and the severity of their impact outcome depend as much on socioeconomic circumstance as on individual biology. Impacts of the prenatal... 

Some children in various parts of the world are exposed to toxic chemicals or to hazardous environments in unique circumstances. Globally, millions of children are exposed as a result of special socioeconomic and cultural settings. Examples are described briefly... 

From items such as those contained in the component subtests listed in Table 3, a test score, equivalent to a test age, is derived. The IQ is computed as the quotient of the test age, based on the performance of a standardized population of children, divided by the child s chronological age. A child who is average for his or her age will yield an IQ of 100. An above-average child will obtain an IQ above 100. There is some dispute about the interpretation of an IQ based on a standardized population significantly different in ethnic background and socioeconomic status from the child being tested so that exposure conditions and the child s other environmental circumstances should not be confounded. 

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