what an assuming post. one scientist links autism to essentially the use of roundup in agriculture and with no further ado you find a conspiracy involving monsanto and the fda. another sky is falling post. and by the way, those bottom two links you posted are the exact same story just reposted in different locations. there may be a link but in your own linked stories, the caveat is cited that there may be other toxic substances which induce autism thus negating the findings without further and broader studies to establish links and disprove coincidental circumstances.  there were just findings released from another study involving 116,000 female american nurses which show a possible link between air pollution of certain types during pregnancy and autism in the offspring. and some people want to cut the epa budget?
Autism and Air Pollution: New Study Bolsters Suspected Link
By Bill Briggs
Pregnant
women may nearly double their risk of giving birth to a child with
autism by inhaling smog spewed by vehicles or smoke stacks, according to
a new Harvard study that could help unlock the deepest autism mysteries.
The research, released Thursday, fortifies previous scientific findings that linked air pollution to autism.
And it offers fresh insights by showing women in their third trimesters
seem most vulnerable if they breathe in elevated levels of tiny
airborne particles emitted by power plants, fires and automobiles.
"We found an association
that was specific to pregnancy and especially to the third trimester,
identifying a window, which might shed a light on processes that are
happening that can lead to autism," said Marc Weisskopf, the report's
senior author and associate professor of environmental and occupational
epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The higher the exposure rate, the greater the risk, he found.
Tying those mini toxins
to the final trimester may offer a compelling clue, Weisskopf added,
because so much neuronal growth occurs during those three months — "a
time when brain development could be affected."
The findings appear online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
The Harvard team focused
on pregnant women who took part in the Nurses' Health Study II, a group
of more than 116,000 female U.S. nurses who agreed to be tracked
starting in 1989. Researchers amassed data on where participants lived
while pregnant and crosschecked air-pollution readings for those areas
as recorded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Among those mothers,
Weisskopf and his colleagues identified 245 children who were diagnosed
with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during the time period examined.
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