Barbara Demeneix is a biologist. Internationally recognized for her work in endocrinology on the thyroid hormone and endocrine disrupters, she has been at the forefront in the development of original and innovative technology enabling an identification of environmental pollutants. She received the Médaille de l’Innovation from the CNRS. She is director of the “Évolution des regulations endocriniennes” laboratory at the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
May our children remain intelligent and healthy! Unbeknownst to us, our body absorbs and retains a disturbing amount of pollutants issuing from the chemical industry and found throughout our environment. And these environmental pollutants have harmful effects on our health and on that of our children. Affecting the development of embryos in the first weeks of life, recent studies have linked them to a disturbing increase in neurological disorders (autism spectrum, attention deficit, hyperactivity…) and learning difficulties. By interfering with the activity of thyroid hormones, they could potentially, for the first time in the history of humanity, also be at the origin of an overall decrease in cognitive performance in human beings. In the face of this alarming prospect, Barbara Demeneix, a world renowned specialist in endocrine disrupters, suggests what concrete measures can be taken--today and for the future--to protect our brains.