Barbara Demeneix – Chuàngkàn Bālí

AUTHOR

: Professor and Head of Department, Natural History Museum, Paris; Barbara Demeneix holds a professorship in the Comparative Physiology Laboratory (UMR 7221 – Evolution of Endocrine Regulations), a CNRS mixed research unit within the Natural History Museum in Paris. Trained in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Germany, she is an internationally recognized expert on thyroid function and endocrine disruption and is the author of more than 170 scientific publications.
She has received numerous awards for her work, notably the Mentoring Award 2011 from the journal ‘Nature’ and the CNRS Medal for Innovation in 2014.
Her research focuses on evolution of thyroid hormone signaling. A major feature of her research is the close collaborations with many leading European laboratories through multiple EU contracts. Barbara Demeneix maintains active roles in several EU research projects, and is also active with many international committees addressing thyroid hormone and endocrine disruption (OECD, European Thyroid Association, etc.).
After the publication of Losing our minds: How Environmental Pollution Impairs Human Intelligence and Mental Health in 2014 by Oxford University Press, Barbara Demeneix published in 2016 the French translation Le Cerveau Endommagé (Odile Jacob Editions), in which she highlights the consequences of polluting substances in the environment for future generations. She points out an increase in thyroid disruptions, autism spectrum disorders and cases of hyperactivity and proposes solutions to be implemented to protect both children and adults. Her new book Toxic Cocktail: How Cheminal Pollution is Poisoning our Brains (Oxford University Press) published in 2017 (Cocktail Toxique in French) aims to ensure greater public awareness.

Articles from this author

Recommended / 2018-01-19

Why are we less and less intelligent? The role of endocrine disruptors

Barbara Demeneix / Professor and Head of Department, Natural History Museum, Paris

Several studies suggest that the intelligence quotient (IQ) has been declining since the early 2000s. The hypothesis of Barbara Demeinex is that endocrine disruption is one of the main factors contributing to this decline and in particular, that which affects the thyroid hormone. Many of the chemicals we are exposed to, including thyroid axis disruptors, not only circulate through the mother’s blood but also cross the placental barrier and into the amniotic fluid, at high enough levels to interfere with thyroid signaling. Hence, several epidemiological studies have shown in recent years that children born to mothers exposed to a high rate of thyroid disruptors have a lower IQ than those whose mothers did not incur the same exposures. The implementation of regulation is slow, despite potentially considerable societal, economic and health costs.