Researchers from the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts have recorded that three chemicals in combination with each other can cause nerve cell development problems that alone or in pairs does not occur. The three common pollutants tested were bromoform, chloroform, and tetrachlorethylene. The implications of the study are that these neurologically toxic chemicals may explain the increased rates of autism, especially in Brick Township, New Jersey were these pollutants were dumped.

In the year 2000 scientists believed that the contaminants were at too low of a level to have caused the increased incidence of optimism that this study, which appears in the January 2005 issue of Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, seems to explain. The field of toxicology which has long studied the effect of single chemicals, is now being forced to look at the effects of multiple toxicants when combined. When these chemicals were tested alone or in pairs they had no significant changes to neurological development even levels 1000 times those in the mixture. But together they affected protein involved in neurological pathways and a key regulator of neuronal growth.

When assessing levels of toxins through tests like the Environmental Pollutants Panel from U.S. Biotek, it is important to understand that high levels of toxins need not appear for there to be a toxic effect. The field of multiple toxic contamination and their effects on human health is in its infancy and is very difficult test for. It is our hope that more research funding will be targeted towards this field.