Table 4.03. Major historical examples of environmental agents that have seriously affected human development.

Alcohol - thousands of years; fetal alcohol abuse syndrome.
Cigarettes - low birth wt., increased risk of miscarriage, mental retardation?
Lead - first noted in 1897 that only 61 children were alive out of 210 births in a group of women working with lead.
Rubella - effects first described in 1941 (cataracts, patent ductus arteriosus, stillbirth, deafness).
Thalidomide - 1959/62; phocomelia (delay in development of the limb buds in 10,000 infants.
Love Canal, PBB in Michigan, etc., etc.
Carbon Monoxide - from combustion devices