Autism, Intellectual Disability = Environmental Factors
Environmental factors appear to be linked to the rising incidence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and intellectual disability (ID), new research shows.
Investigators at the University of Chicago in Illinois found that ASD and ID rates correlated at the county level with the incidence of genital malformations in male newborns, an indicator of possible congenital exposure to harmful environmental factors such as pesticides.
“We don’t know which precise factors, but we do know for sure that some environmental factors, such as pesticides, some prescription drugs, and environmental lead all generate birth defects in children,” the study’s lead author, Andrey Rzhetsky, PhD, professor of genetic medicine and human genetics at the University of Chicago.
“The idea here was to use those birth defects as combined indicators of environmental states, and indeed we found a strong correlation, much stronger than what would be expected,” Dr. Rzhetsky said.
The findings were published online March 13 in PLoS Computational Biology.
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