Pesticide Exposure During Pregnancy Linked to Autism, Study Suggests
Lisa Egan
ReadyNutrition.com
June 23rd, 2014
A new study suggests that pregnant women who live within a mile of spaces where certain commercial pesticides are applied appear to have an increased risk of having a child with autism.
Proximity to agricultural pesticides in pregnancy was also linked to other types of developmental delays in children.
The risk appeared to be highest for women who lived near farms, golf courses and other public spaces that were treated with pesticides during the last three months of their pregnancies.
This isn’t the first study to make this connection, as lead author Janie F. Shelton, from the University of California, Davis, pointed out:
“Ours is the third study to specifically link autism spectrum disorders to pesticide exposure, whereas more papers have demonstrated links with developmental delay.”
The new study does not prove a link between pesticides and autism, but pesticides all affect signaling between cells in the nervous system, so a direct link is plausible, said Shelton in an email to Reuters Health.
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