Risk of autism is up to 50% higher in children exposed to tr

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Risk of autism is up to 50% higher in children exposed to traffic fumes and air pollution

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic ... z2WaCrjVrL
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There's no way pollution can't have some sort of impact on us. Our technology has evolved faster than our biology.

My first reaction is post hoc, ergo propter hoc. While toxic assaults may very well play a role in autism incidence, it should also be noted that the amounts of pollution, both air pollution and heavy metals, has been decreasing dramatically every decade since the sixties. So, if pollution is really the cause, shouldn't autism rates be declining?

In the 1890's, a doctor named Max Nordau wrote a book titled "Degeneration". While not specifically about autism, he noted that rates of serious mental illness had increased exponentially since the turn of the nineteenth century in Europe. The difference? Noise and commotion as European societies became less rural, and more urban and industrialized. I'd like to see a study on the links between living in a quiet, still environment versus an urban environment. Why? Because I know getting away from noise and commotion makes all the difference in the world for me. And I would guess I'm not alone.

Psychology is a fairly new science (and the study and identification of Autism is very recent) it's really impossible to know whether the rates of autism anywhere have gone up or simply that it's being recognized more readily.

Society has had "freaks" since it's inception. Unfortunately for NT society, we no longer live in an era where "burning the witch" or locking them up permenatly in bedlam is an acceptable solution to the Autism problem. It still happens but it's supposdely frowned upon.

This article from the Huffington Post says maybe 10% more.

"Senior author Dr Mark Weisskopf, also from Harvard, said: 'Our results suggest that new studies should begin the process of measuring metals and other pollutants in the blood of pregnant women or newborn children to provide stronger evidence that specific pollutants increase risk of autism.
'A better understanding of this can help to develop interventions to reduce pregnant women's exposure to these pollutants.'"

That's a quote from the Mail article.

I wonder what this will lead to in terms of the "interventions."

Very good point.

Rather than toxins, I think a more likely cause of some cases of autism is funky autoimmune reactions.

Here's an abstract of the article:

Perinatal Air Pollutant Exposures and Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Children of Nurses’ Health Study II Participants
Environmental Health Perspectives

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1206187/

I agree, but funky reactions to what exactly?

I have to lean towards the posters above who pointed out that in developed countries air polution is dropping, which is the opposite effect that you'd expect from the paper.

Most probably to viruses or bacterial. That is, something completely unrelated to toxins.

I first starting considering this idea in response to claims that mercury in vaccine was causing autism. To me, if a child has a pronounced difference following a vaccine, it is much more likely that it's a funky autoimmune reaction.

Say roughly analogous to:

Guillain Barre Syndrome (which can be caused by either influenza or vaccine), or

PANDAS (antibodies to strep attacking basal ganglia of brain, one study showing involvement in about 50% of rapid-onset OCD cases in kids, although some doctors are skeptical about the whole thing)

One of the other posters noted that the study of autism is fairly new, thus we cannot be certain of much. But it sure seems to be to be on the increase. Further evidence is that if large numbers of children and adults had severe social deficits and the rest of ASD symptoms, I'm guessing it would have been noted even if not described in the terms we use now. I see little evidence for this.

So, if autism's etiology does indeed viral or bacterial, it must be some kind of new bug. But this doesn't make sense since there is at least circumstantial evidence that autism has existed for centuries.

Any thoughts?

It is also fair to note that traffic fumes and air pollution are more prevalent in urban areas, which is coincidentally where more autism is diagnosed.

Noise and commotion, traffic fumes and pollution, and medical expertise in Autism are all more common in urban areas than in rural areas.

Could it be that the correlation between urban areas an Autism diagnoses has at least as much to do with the availability of appropriately-trained and licensed mental-health professionals in urban areas as with pollution and noise?

Fnord, since I'm currently living in an extremely rural area, I can say that doctors who specialize in treating ASD's are as rare as hen's teeth, but I think most doctors now can recognize it. We do have some people with ASD's here.

Toxic fumes now? I thought it was meant to be the MMR jab?