Published online September 6, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 120 No. 3 September 2007, pp. 647-648 (doi:10.1542/10.1542/peds.2007-1298)
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COMMENTARY

Can We Turn a Toxin Into a Tonic? Toward 21st-Century Television Alchemy

Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH

Departments of Pediatrics and Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute, Seattle, Washington

Abbreviations: TV, television

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

When pediatricians think about environmental exposures during childhood, they might think of lead, pesticides, or dust mites. But truthfully, the greatest environmental exposure for most children is television (TV): they spend more time watching it than they do in any other wakeful activity, and it has significant effects on their health and well-being.1 Many of us routinely ask about lead, pesticide, or dust-mite exposure in selected patients, but we rarely ask about TV exposure.2,3 Perhaps this is because although we recognize the enormous presence that TV has in American childhood, we are not sure to which type of environmental exposure it is best likened. Is it like lead, a proven neurotoxin?4,5 Is it like alar, the presence of which on apples in the 1980s caused widespread panic but ultimately proved to be harmless?6 Or, is it like fluoride, which when added to our water supply has demonstratively improved the oral health of children?7 The reality is that TV can be likened to all 3, which has hampered a coherent national dialogue on the topic.8 For too long we have viewed TV monolithically and asked: "Is it good or bad?" Whether TV is good or bad for children depends . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Address correspondence to Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, Child Health Institute, 6200 NE 74th St, Suite 210, Seattle, WA 98115-8160. E-mail: dachris@u.washington.edu


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