Numerous children in the U.S. today suffer from autism. Many parents ask, can this condition be prevented?
Fox reports on the many chemicals linked to autism.
A massive amount of research has been done in the past decade on the causes of autism. Experts have found that certain chemicals might spark the disease.
“The number of industrial chemicals with known links to neurodevelopmental disabilities like autism has more than doubled in the past seven years. As rates of autism and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) increase worldwide, researchers believe widespread exposure to these chemicals among children may be contributing to a ‘silent epidemic’ of people with neurodevelopmental disabilities,” according to Fox.
Various toxins are linked to autism.
Fox reports, “Researchers added six new toxins to a list of chemicals believed to pose a threat to the brains of fetuses and young children: manganese, fluoride, chlorpyrifos, dichlorodiphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT), tetrachloroethylene, and the polybrominated diphenyl ethers.”
Manganese and fluoride are found in drinking water in some countries but not in high concentrations in the United States. But some are found in every day foods that we consume. One doctor from Mount Sinai who took part in the study told Fox, “Chlorpyrifos is an organic pesticide … 10 years ago it was banned for household use, but it is still extensively used in agriculture and can be found in lots of fruits and vegetables. And the list gets scarier: Tetrachloroethylene, which has been linked to deficient neurological function and increased risk of psychiatric diagnosis, is a common solvent used in dry cleaning. Another chemical on the list, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, is a type of flame retardant frequently found in couches.”
And the chemicals greatly affect how the brain develops thus causing serious conditions such as Autism. A physician from Harvard who has released much research on these chemicals explains, “If some chemical gets in to the developing brain, whether lead or methylmercury, and either kills brain cells or disrupts cell division or cell migration, those connections are lost and the brain is not as complete as it should have been. And the consequence is a child whose intelligence is reduced and attention span shortened, etc. The human brain is a wondrous creation, and extremely complex, but the price of that complexity is vulnerability.”
