Autism vs. Environmental Factors

            Autism is a mental condition in which a person has difficulty communicating and interacting with others. It is often discovered during early childhood years. It was first discovered in the 1930’s and is characterized by imbalances of biochemicals including, deficiency in glutathione, redox imbalance, oxidative stress and many more imbalances. In the United States 1 in every 68 children is diagnosed with autism. Scientists wanted to research this because it’s been unclear if autism is caused by genetics or environmental factors. The hypothesis is that autism has been common before but in the past was under diagnosed.

            The scientists collected data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 1991 through 2010. They calculated prevalence by dividing the IDEA (Individuals With Disabilities Education Act) count by the total statewide public school populations. Then the trend for autism in each state was found by plotting prevalence vs. birth year. There was a chart attached to the article that showed a rapid increase of autism starting year 1985 to 2002.

            CDDS (California Department of Developmental Service) possesses one of the most reliable autism records in the U.S. It is a report that records 5 year olds and older with validated cases of full-syndrome autistic disorder. They then combined the CDDS and IDEA spreadsheets to conduct a new data table. California’s results supported the results from the first table. 

            There are many environmental factors that are suspected to cause autism including; lead, methylmercury, polychorinated biphenyls, organophosphate pesticides, and many more suspected factors. The list was created based on patterns that showed an increased risk of autism when these compounds were exposed. Beyond the top ten list the study included air pollution, mercury from fish, vaccines, and high fructose corn syrup.  From the top ten list a data search was conducted from the available trends in each suspected environmental agent over the time including the CDDS and IDEA autism data. “Priority was given to datasets with high temporal resolution that measured levels of suspect chemicals directly in bodily fluids or tissue of American women or young children” (Pg. 6).

            As a result of this experiment it was discovered that the 80% increase of autism in California was real. The California results were very similar to the U.S. results showing that it is similar for all over the U.S. Most of the suspected environmental factors had little to no effect in the cause of autism. The trends that decreased were, lead, PCB’s, dioxins, vehicle emissions, air pollution and PAH’s. Some treads that had a mix of results but recently have decreased were, organophosphate pesticides, and post child birth vaccines. During the years 1970-2005 these trends were increasing but started decreasing shortly after.

            There were a few trends that had flat results. Some of those were, Phthalates, atmospheric Hg, and total blood Hg. On the data these trends had very little impact on autism. There were some trends that were inconclusive during the experiment, which was bisphenol A (BPA). Data from 2003 was only available to the U.S. so therefore the data is inconclusive.

            From the IDEA results the hypothesis wasn’t supported. However from the California results it was concluded that the IDEA definition from California has increased from full syndrome autism to include some milder autistic syndrome disorders (ASD’s). So this then causes the question: Do the other 30 states include some milder ASD’s?