New study links autism to air pollution

Children exposed to air pollution while in the womb and during their first two years may have a higher chance of developing autism, U.S. researchers found.

Led by Doctor Evelyn Talbott at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, the researchers said children with autism were 1.4 to two times more likely to have been exposed to the toxins styrene and chromium.

The team’s study involved two subject groups: families with an autistic child and those without. The children were born between 2005 and 2009 and from the same six southwestern Pennsylvania counties.

Talbot was quoted as saying the results “add to the growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures, such as air pollution, to autism spectrum disorder.”

Statistics show that cases of children with autism have increased eight-fold in the last two decades.

Talbot’s finding was presented at the American Association for Aerosol Research annual meeting in Orlando on Thursday.