Rami Saadeh and James Klaunig
Contrary to the old saying, children are not small adults. Children are different from adults in their response to environmental stressors because of their special body composition, which continuously changes as they grow. Children’s development at each stage of their life needs special consideration, especially that harmful exposures might impact their normal development, and increases their susceptibility to diseases later in life. This paper reviews children’s biological characteristics, and their normal developmental changes that make them more susceptible to environmental exposures. The paper will also discuss ways in which this normal development is influenced by environmental toxicants especially early life exposures, as well as the possibility of disease development. In this review, asthma is used as an example of a respiratory disease influenced by environmental toxicants, and methods of risk assessment used to predict such a disease are discussed.
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