Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution was associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorder, a new study finds. Pregnant women in Vancouver who were exposed to the highest level of environmental nitric oxide, an airborne, traffic-related pollutant, were more likely to give birth to children later diagnosed with autism, the researchers say.
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Lief Pagalan, lead author of the study and a member of the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University, cautions that the study published [November 19] in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, showed only an association between prenatal exposure to nitric oxide and autism rates. It did not prove that air pollution caused autism.
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Pagalan and his colleagues analyzed the records of 129,436 children born in Vancouver from 2004 through 2009.
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The odds of developing autism among children prenatally exposed to higher levels of PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) were 1.04%, the odds of autism in children exposed to higher levels of nitrogen dioxide were 1.06%, and the odds of autism in children exposed to higher levels of nitric oxide were 1.07%.
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Pagalan said that because there’s no cure for autism, “identifying environmental risk factors helps identify opportunities for prevention.”
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