The relationship between autism and air pollution

Pregnant women exposed to high levels of air pollution are twice as likely to have children with autism than those who live in a low-pollution environment.

This is the conclusion in a latest study published in the Journal of Environmental Health issue dated June 17.

This scientific work was carried out on a large scale by Harvard University experts since 1989. American scientists conducted research on 325 women with autistic children and 20,000 women with children. normal development.

During the course of the research, the scientists used air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency and adjusted a number of other factors such as income sources, education levels and smoking. to calculate the level of pollution absorption in pregnant women.

The results showed that babies whose mothers lived in environments with high levels of diesel or mercury were twice as likely to have autism compared to children whose mothers lived in lower air pollution areas. Meanwhile, the risk of the disease will be up to 50% for young children whose mothers live in environments with many dangerous contaminants such as lead, manganese, methylene, chloride, and synthetic metals.

With this result, research leader Andrea Roberts expressed concern about the risk of autism for children in the context of a seriously degraded world environment.

According to Ms Roberts, up to 20% to 60% of women in this study live in an area where the risk of having a child with autism is high depending on the type of contaminant.

From the findings, the scientists recommend that regular monitoring of the amount of metals and other pollutants in the blood be needed for pregnant women to better understand whether these substances increase the risk. Autism in children or not.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests a mental disorder. This disease affects children's thoughts, behaviors and interactions with other children. Currently, this disease tends to spread widely in countries around the world. In the United States, 1 in 88 children has this disease, and in the UK this rate is 1/100.