Autism and Intellectual Disability Linked with Environmental Factors

An analysis of 100 million U.S. medical records revealed that autism and intellectual disability (ID) rates are correlated with incidence of congenital malformations in newborn males, an indicator of possible congenital exposure to harmful environmental factors, such as pesticides. Autism rates — after adjustment for gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic and geopolitical factors — jump by 283 percent for every one percent increase in frequency of malformations in a county. Although autism and intellectual disability have genetic components, environmental causes are thought to play a role. The research team, from the University of Chicago, used congenital malformations of the reproductive systems in males as an indicator of parental exposure to toxins (male fetuses are particularly sensitive to environmental toxins). While the effect of vaccines was not analyzed as part of this study, the research team noted that the geographic clustering of autism and ID rates is evidence that if vaccines have a role, it’s a very weak one, as vaccines are given uniformly across the U.S. To read more about this study, click here.