Scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine reported that mothers who had high levels of phthalates during their pregnancies were more likely to have children with poorer scores in the areas of attention, aggression and conduct.
I've not read the paper, but you may find the SciAm report of interest. Hat tip Ana.
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A 2.5 percent increase, which I assume is a hazzards analysis result, is nothing to sneeze at (sorry for the pun!)
Read again, David: "Children were 2.5 times more likely"...
Doh! TWIM.
Here is the paper
http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info%…
This is interesting. I think that what is happening is a disruption of the normal neurodevelopmental pathways that determine these things based on environment. An infant in a violent environment needs to be a more violent adult. The cycle of violence is well known, there must be physiology that mediates the cycle of violence and transduces exposure to violence into a more violent phenotype.
If phthalates are active in those pathways, then there is no threshold for them to exert an effect. The pathways are already actively regulating things, that is they are already in the "active range". Anything that affects those pathways will affect the outcome.