Yet more research has suggested that air befoulment may be tie to a slimly increase risk of autism in children .
Researchers study over 130,000 births in the Canadian urban center of Vancouver from 2004 to 2009 . From this cohort , around 1 percent were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) by age 5.However , if their mother lived in a neighborhood with higher grade of airborne nitric oxide – a pollutant commonly associated with automobile traffic – while fraught , the risk of ASD jumps to 1.7 percent .
Even when controlling for the child ’s sex , month and class of birth , mother ’s age and birthplace , and income , they found it was only prenatal exposure to gamey levels of nitric oxide ( and to a slightly lesser extent , PM2.5 and atomic number 7 dioxide ) that look to increase odds for ASD .
The study – write this hebdomad in the journalJAMA Paediatrics – is robust with a huge sample distribution size , but some independent expert are apprise caution before declare it a causal factor of autism , highlighting that the increase is relatively mild .
“ Imagine 1,500 giving birth in the Vancouver area , where the study took place . If they are like the nascence canvas in this research , 15 of the children will be diagnosed with ASD , ” Professor Kevin McConway , Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics at The Open University , who was not involve in the study , explained .
“ Imagine now that pollution round Vancouver get bad , so that the average level of nitric oxide in the air went up by 10 percentage per billion . If nitric oxide is really affecting ASD risk to the extent measured in this study , that would chair to about 1 extra ASD diagnosing in the 1,500 child . ”
Although other enquiry has register how line befoulment canfind its way into the placentaand harm the fetus , this research did not establish a causal nexus between air pollutants and autism . It ’s also deserving considering that the streets in Vancouver are not particularly consort with polluted air , compared to other urban center .
“ It ’s easy to find coincidental variety in the environment at the same clip that the routine of people receive autism diagnoses addition , " Dr James Cusack , another independent expert and Director of Science at Autistica , comment on the findings . " This sketch does not allow for grounds that aura pollution cause autism . ”
Nevertheless , the potential link between pollution and ASD continues to grow . Just a few weeks ago , another studywas print that associated dirty air with an growth in ASD , add to thegrowing tilt of similar studiesthat have also softly pointed into this direction . For the meter being , however , more evidence is needed before anyone startle to any bluff closing .
“ Perhaps air contamination does really affect ASD risk , or perhaps it does n’t , ” concluded Professor McConway . “ This new study adds more evidence , but in my thought , we ’re a very long fashion from know . ”
