Environmental factors likely behind autism epidemic
From PANUPS:
Changes in doctors’ diagnoses cannot explain the sevenfold increase in autism since 1990, a new study shows. Rather, “It’s time to start looking for the environmental culprits responsible for the remarkable increase in the rate of autism in California,” said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, an epidemiology professor at University of California, Davis who led the study.
In California alone, more than 3,000 new cases of autism were reported in 2006, up from just 205 in 1990. The increase had previously been attributed to a change in diagnoses, but the new study concludes that those factors can’t explain most of the increases, reports Marla Cone of the Environmental Health News.
“Mothers of autistic children were twice as likely to use pet flea shampoos, which contain organophosphates or pyrethroids, according to one study that has not yet been published,” says Hertz-Picciota. “Another new study has found a link between autism and phthalates, which are compounds used in vinyl and cosmetics.
Other household products such as antibacterial soaps also could have ingredients that harm the brain by changing immune systems,” she added.