Re: healthy immigrants

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/12/05, michael perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have only glanced at the article.  One possible implication -- given
> our social darwinist society -- might bethat immigrants are fitter than
> we are.  Our forefathers believed that immigrants were the most fit to
> control the land when they were stealing it from the indigenous
> population.  I don't think that our leaders would accept that thesis --
> that the immgrants are the most fit -- today.

Related is research that I've heard about (but haven't read) about
autism. I don't know how reliable the research is, but according to
it,  if you stay in your home country for all your life, you and your
children are more likely to have autism than if you move between
countries. This is true no matter what country you are in.

The theory is as follows: If you stay in country X, you get too much
of X's pollutants. If you stay in Y, you get too much of Y's
pollutants. Either of the different kinds of pollutants can cause
autism; in this view, there isn't a single environmental cause. If you
move between countries, on the other hand, it's likely that you won't
get enough of either X's pollutants or Y's pollutants to get autism.

-- 
Jim Devine
"Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let
people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.