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Environmental exposure to pesticides, before birth and during the first year of life, has been associated with an increased risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder, according to the largest epidemiological study conducted at this time. this day on this link.
The study, published Wednesday in the BMJ newspaper, found that pregnant women living less than 2,000 meters from a highly polluted agricultural area in California had children 10 to 16% more likely to develop autism and 30 % more likely to develop severe autism that affected their intellectual ability. If children were exposed to pesticides during their first year of life, the risk that they develop of autism increased by 50%.
Although the results do not prove that pesticide exposure has caused children to develop autism, they raise concerns about the consequences of pesticide exposure, a difficult problem for pregnant women or new mothers to control. .
"I hope these results will motivate some policy makers to think about effective public health policy measures to protect vulnerable populations living in areas that may place them at greater risk." , wrote the senior author of the study and the Fielding School of Public Health to Ondine von Ehrenstein, an associate professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, told Time Magazine. "Raising public awareness may be the way to eventually change agricultural practices and policies."
The study examined nearly 3,000 autistic children diagnosed born between 1998 and 2010 and compared them to more than 35,000 other undiagnosed children, Health Day reported. Von Ehrenstein told Time that she had examined the exposure to 11 pesticides specifically related to intellectual disability in animals and smaller human populations. The pesticides studied included diazinon, permethrin and chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos has recently been the subject of controversy as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the leadership of Andrew Wheeler, has called for a new trial after a court ordered the agency to ban the pesticide considered dangerous by its own scientists.
The BMJ study also looked at the exposure to air pollution, as well as the economic status of the mother and whether she lived in an urban or rural area and found that the & BM a a et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et et pesticide exposure further increased the risk of autism when these other factors were taken into account. However, Amanda Bakian, assistant professor of psychiatry for children and adolescents at the University of Utah, who co-authored an editorial in the BMJ in connection with the study, said at the Day of health that he had important limitations:
"This work examined the impact of pesticide exposure within 2,000 meters of a person's home," she said. "And the researchers have limited their analysis to outside air exposure – not to the indoor air of your home – in a very agricultural area of California's" breadbasket. "So we can not not necessarily generalize the results to apply them to other contexts or environments, "said Bakian.
"And the other important point is that while this study corroborates and builds on previous work, it also suggests that all children exposed to the same pesticides will not develop autism," he said. she added.
Scott Badesch, CEO of the Autism Society of America, told Health Day that studies like this one were important to understanding autism and its causes.
"We also call for other research like this, which could lead to specific public health actions and interventions for individuals and families," he said.
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