Harvard School of Public Health has revealed that pregnant women who live in polluted areas, double their risk of giving birth to an autistic child, especially boys. The researchers found that the biggest offenders are diesel particulates and mercury.
Lead author and research associate in the HSPH Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences Dr. Andrea Roberts reports, “Our findings raise concerns since, depending on the pollutant, 20 per cent to 60 per cent of the women in our study lived in areas where risk of autism was elevated. I think this study adds a lot of weight to the evidence that there may be something in pollution that is causing the risk of autism to increase.”
The researchers examined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s data that was published in the journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, which assessed pollution exposure in the areas where the 116,430 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study II lived. Of those sampled, 325 had children with autism and 22,000 weren’t affected. They also adjusted for the influence of factors such as income, education, and smoking during pregnancy.
Air pollutants lead, manganese, methylene chloride and combined metals known to affect brain function and to affect the developing baby, though the links are weaker, were found to have associations with autism risk as well.
In a press release, senior author Marc Weisskopf, associate professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology at HSPH, adds, “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.”
