An individual may be capable of coping with two very late nights each and every week without affecting his work output. The same individual may also have the flu once or twice each year, again without suffering any substantial ill effects. The science that deals with the effects of toxic chemicals on human behavior is named behavioral toxicology, and it is an integral part of orthomolecular medicine and psychiatry. Polluted air and water are all too well known. The lesser known forms, usually not even considered to be manifestations of pollution, are to an increasing degree turning out to be important causes of mental and physical handicap in the human population, especially when the impact occurs during the prenatal or early developmental stages.
Nutritional pollution includes sins of both omission and commission.
It includes the omission from the diet of crucially important vitamins and minerals, especially vitamin C, the B vitamins, as well as vitamin E and such minerals as magnesium, iron, and zinc. The effects are tragic. Foods supplying these nutrients, which are needed for proper health and development, have been replaced with junk foods, gross and damaging amounts of sugar, and other additives that are designed to be attractive to the eye and taste buds, whatever the cost to the rest of the body. Dr. Rimland also tells us that we must include in a list of pollution constituents those factors that could be called inadvertent. These forms of pollution include excess copper from water pipes, lead from auto exhausts, pipes, paints, toothpaste tubes and tinned foods, as well as pesticides and plastics.