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proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
15. If this was ho-hum nothin', paradoxically, it'd be plastered all over the media.
Mon Mar 17, 2014, 10:14 PM
Mar 2014

Last edited Tue Mar 18, 2014, 10:45 AM - Edit history (1)

Here's a huge takeaway:

http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1003518#s3

DISCUSSION EXCERPT

Our results have implications for the ongoing scientific quest for the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders.

We provide evidence that routinely expanding the scope of inquiry to include environmental, demographic and socioeconomic factors, and governmental policies at a broad scale in a unified geospatial framework.

It appears that detailed documentation of environmental factors should be recorded and used in genetic analyses of ASDs and failure to do so risks omitting important information about possibly strong confounders.



Scant online coverage includes:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/scientists-link-child-autism-air-pollution-1440465

Women living in the top fifth of areas with high levels of air pollution were more than twice as likely to give birth to a child with autism than those in less polluted areas. Those with the greatest exposure to these pollutants were another 50 times more likely to have a child born with autism.

"The environment may play a very significant role in autism, and we should be paying more attention to it," Rzhetsky wrote in the study, which was published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/03/17/3414061/vaccine-truthers-autism/

By Tara Culp-Ressler on March 17, 2014

We don’t know everything about autism, but research in this area continues to advance. Most experts believe that autism is caused by some combination of genetic and environmental factors that varies from one child to another. Over the past several years, we’ve learning more about just how influential those environmental factors can be.

A large study published this month, which relies on the data from 100 million medical records here in the U.S., found a significant association between autism and “harmful environmental factors.” University of Chicago researchers studied genital malformation in boys, a type of birth defect that’s already been linked to exposure to pesticides, and found a strong link with autism rates. A one percent increase in those defects corresponded to a 283 percent increase in autism.

“This gives an indicator of environmental load and the effect is surprisingly strong,” Andrey Rzhetsky, a professor of genetic medicine and human genetics and the lead author of the study, said in a statement. Rzhetsky wants to use data from the Environmental Protection Agency to do follow-up research into the potential link between autism and toxins.

Rzhetsky’s study adds to a growing body of research that suggests the environment could play some sort of a role in autism rates. Previous work in this field has found that kids who live in areas with high pollution rates are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with the disease. Kids with autism are more likely to have been born to a mother who lives with 1,000 feet of a freeway, and tend to have unusually high levels of exposure to air-pollutant chemicals. Researchers are quick to clarify that this doesn’t mean pollution single-handedly causes autism — it’s just one of the complex factors that can contribute to a kid’s risk of developing the disease, and something that should be investigated further.

Plenty of other evidence has already linked air pollution to a host of health issues, like heart damage and respiratory disease. This past fall, the World Health Organization officially classified it as a carcinogen. “The air we breathe has become polluted with a mixture of cancer-causing substances,” Kurt Straif, the head of the WHO department that ranks cancer-causing agents, explained at the time.

Again, "Researchers are quick to clarify that this doesn’t mean pollution single-handedly causes autism — it’s just one of the complex factors that can contribute to a kid’s risk of developing the disease, and something that should be investigated further."
More. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #1
STUDY: “Environment and incentives affect the incidence of autism and intellectual disability" proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #2
Previous OP: How Environmental Toxins Can Cause Autism proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #3
Respectful Insolence critiques study, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, more. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #4
Nice reporting in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, WaPo, LA Times... Oh, wait, NOTHING. (nt) proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #5
Mind if I take it though and forward it nadinbrzezinski Mar 2014 #6
Actually, here's explicit validation from GoTeamKate: "Stop Making the Conversation Controversial." proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #7
True, and thanks for the links by the way nadinbrzezinski Mar 2014 #8
You're welcome. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #12
Discussion continued. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #9
Study suggests potential association between soy formula and seizures in children with autism. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #10
More links from Dr. Martha Herbert. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #11
Dr Martha Herbert: "A Whole Body Approach to Brain Health," 3/21 @ 3pm. Free and open to the public! proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #18
PLOS ONE - Soy Infant Formula and Seizures in Children with Autism: A Retrospective Study proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #13
The existence of clusters of autism is old news. KamaAina Mar 2014 #14
If this was ho-hum nothin', paradoxically, it'd be plastered all over the media. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #15
This message was self-deleted by its author proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #16
Related. proverbialwisdom Mar 2014 #17
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»"Environmental, Stat...»Reply #15