Brain development can be damaged by mercury and other environmental chemicals.
This is a lecture by Professor Philippe Grandjean who works at the University of Southern Denmark and Harvard School of Public Health in the United States. He tells in the presentation that there are 201 environmental chemicals currently identified as harmful for the brain. These toxic substances can cause the so-called brain drain, which means that the population’s skills decrease with more mental health problems and fewer highly intelligent people.
Grandjean also shows the magnetic resonance scanning of the brain when children make different finger movements. In children with high mercury levels are both right and left brain active instead of just one in children with low mercury load. This shows that the nerve impulses in mercury affected brains are not functioning optimally.