You may see the pillar that suggests grandparents and ancestors, and think little of it. You need to think again.

The September 2006 issue of the journal Endocrinology contains a study that underscores the potential damage an environmental contaminant (such as pesticides and fungicides) can cause.

Whatever a person may suffer from today as an adult (including cancer, diabetes, and kidney disease) could be the result of one of their great-grandmothers being exposed to an environmental toxin during pregnancy. That toxin exposure affects all of her descendants.

But as yet no one knows for how many generations.