Autism link to air pollution raised
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Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#2Are the rates of autism occurrences falling in the US and Europe? With the huge reduction in the number of people smoking, the end of leaded petrol, requirements for catalytic converters in cars, and most of the manufacturing industry being exported to the far east, presumably particulate pollution is far lower than was during the post-WWII years. If this research is correct there should be a corresponding drop in the numbers of autistic children.
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#3Are the rates of autism occurrences falling in the US and Europe? With the huge reduction in the number of people smoking, the end of leaded petrol, requirements for catalytic converters in cars, and most of the manufacturing industry being exported to the far east, presumably particulate pollution is far lower than was during the post-WWII years. If this research is correct there should be a corresponding drop in th…
I would like to propose a new hypothesis. Autism rates are linked to the incidence of people non-ironically drinking fruit juices to cleanse themselves of "toxins."
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#4Are the rates of autism occurrences falling in the US and Europe? With the huge reduction in the number of people smoking, the end of leaded petrol, requirements for catalytic converters in cars, and most of the manufacturing industry being exported to the far east, presumably particulate pollution is far lower than was during the post-WWII years. If this research is correct there should be a corresponding drop in th…
A correlation would certainly help back up their suggestion (but not prove), but lack of one wouldn't necessarily mean they were wrong as it would be impossible to control against other possible factors.
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#5Are the rates of autism occurrences falling in the US and Europe? With the huge reduction in the number of people smoking, the end of leaded petrol, requirements for catalytic converters in cars, and most of the manufacturing industry being exported to the far east, presumably particulate pollution is far lower than was during the post-WWII years. If this research is correct there should be a corresponding drop in th…
Unfortunately, I don't think there are historical numbers on Autism diagnoses that fit with our current understandings. The widespread recognition and frequent diagnoses of autism is a relatively recent phenomenon.
In other words, even if rate of incidence is declining, rate of diagnoses has sharply risen in recent decades, complicating the data.
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#6Are the rates of autism occurrences falling in the US and Europe? With the huge reduction in the number of people smoking, the end of leaded petrol, requirements for catalytic converters in cars, and most of the manufacturing industry being exported to the far east, presumably particulate pollution is far lower than was during the post-WWII years. If this research is correct there should be a corresponding drop in th…
The keywords is "presumably". There should only be a drop if your hypothesis is correct which given population growth, car ownership trends and overall economic growth is doubtful.
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#7http://www.epa.gov/air/airpolldata.html
There are probably more APIs out there. Autism numbers by location should be known. Simple correlation could go a long way to check the consistency of the hypothesis.
EDIT: The autism data needed would be age of diagnosis, to map it to the proper air quality metric.
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#8Are the rates of autism occurrences falling in the US and Europe? With the huge reduction in the number of people smoking, the end of leaded petrol, requirements for catalytic converters in cars, and most of the manufacturing industry being exported to the far east, presumably particulate pollution is far lower than was during the post-WWII years. If this research is correct there should be a corresponding drop in th…
maybe. i'd also be interested in population growth and migration into urban areas.
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#9Are the rates of autism occurrences falling in the US and Europe? With the huge reduction in the number of people smoking, the end of leaded petrol, requirements for catalytic converters in cars, and most of the manufacturing industry being exported to the far east, presumably particulate pollution is far lower than was during the post-WWII years. If this research is correct there should be a corresponding drop in th…
That's good point, because the rate is, of course, escalating.
It is interesting that these sorts of articles ("BPA exposure associated with 7 point IQ decrease" was a recent one on the HN front page) seem to gloss over the fact that when these exposures were higher, the Flynn Effect continued unabated. Lead is another substance that, although nasty, is blamed for IQ declines, yet, when lead levels were highest, average IQs continued to rise. Now that lead levels are plumbing new lows, is there evidence that those "lost" IQ points have been gained by younger generations? If BPA is banned, I am sure that there will be scant evidence of those 7 IQ points coming back in a generation or 2 (if anyone bothers looking). Your point about inter-generational autism rates is similar.
I'm not an expert, but I can't take these sorts of environmental toxicity studies seriously anymore.
Re: Autism link to air pollution raised
#10Yet another example of meme-science. Only idiots would try to explain a complex, subtle phenomena to a single environmental factor.