Environmental toxins and learning disorders

Environmental toxins and learning disorders
http://www.northjersey.com/news/83226217_Environmental_toxins_and_learning_disorders.html?page=all

"At a recent family party, a friend asked me to introduce her to another friend about whom I had spoken in the past. I had mentioned that they both have sons with similar learning disabilities and she wanted to meet this other friend and compare notes. Strangely, it took me a moment to figure out who she was talking about. That's because – it suddenly occurred to me – almost half of the 20 or so families at our happy gathering included a son (yep, they were all boys) with a serious neurological issue. In fact, eight out of 38 children at the party, or about 21 percent of my contemporaries' children have a learning disorder (LD), defined by the Learning Disorder Association (LDA) of America as "a neurological disorder that affects one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language. The disability may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations."

This can't be typical. Can it? It never used to be like this. Did it? Well, I certainly don't remember in my childhood that every other family had a kid who had serious problems with their schoolwork. Which seems to indicate that the incidence of learning disorders like ADHD, autism, auditory and various central processing disorders, dyslexia and apraxia, have skyrocketed in recent years. And, if that's true, why is this happening?"