Autism Risk Doubled - As researchers discovered a connection between air pollution exposure and autism, pregnant women exposed to high levels of particulate pollution have an increasing risk of having a child with autistic spectrum disorder. Based on the latest statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 out of 68 children are diagnosed with autism.
On Thursday, Harvard School of Public Health scientists reported that autism risk doubled during pregnancy if mothers are exposed to high levels of air pollution. According to The Huffington Post, the new study showed the greater the exposure to fine particulates emitted by fires, vehicles and industrial pipes, the greater the risk for having an autistic child.
The research also supported earlier scientific findings that connected air pollution in doubling the risk for autism. The team, who led the study, used air pollution data from the US Environmental Protection Agency to estimate the women's exposure depending on when they were pregnant and where they lived at the time, NBC News reported.
"We found an association that was specific to pregnancy and especially to the third trimester, identifying a window, which might shed a light on processes that are happening that can lead to autism," Marc Weisskopf stated, who is the report's senior author and associate professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
In their study of 1,767 children, the Harvard School of Public Health discovered that autism risk doubled when expectant women were exposed to high levels of pollution. According to BBC News, the study suggests that pregnant women should minimize their exposure to pollution, which WHO estimates causes over 3 million deaths per year.
Researchers studied 245 children and 1,522 without. The strongest link was with fine particulate matter, invisible specks of mineral dust, carbon and other chemicals smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), which enter the bloodstream and cause damage throughout the body.
"Particulate matter air pollution does vary across the country both in time and space. More urbanized areas tend to have higher levels because of traffic, but rural areas can have higher levels than one might think because regionally transported components can come from far away," Weisskopf said.
Though little association have found with air pollution from larger sized particles, Fox News reported that researchers found exposure to PM2.5 significantly doubled the risk for autism during pregnancy. They also hope to discover the biological mechanisms the particles are generating that lead to autism.
The latest findings about autism risk doubled was published online in Environmental Health Perspectives' journal. Because of the autism-pollution link, experts suggest pregnant women to stay away from places that are consistently exposed to high levels of air pollution.
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