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Remember DDT? It's an insecticide that was banned worldwide for most uses more than 30 years ago, but which lingers in the environment and in our bodies to this day. In its heyday, DDT was sprayed massively over farms, forests and cities to control mosquitoes and other insects. I remember as a child swimming in an outdoor pool as a plane flew overhead spraying DDT over the entire city. People accepted it as normal.
We're just now finding out that there's a possible link between DDT and autism, a severe, often disabling developmental disorder estimated to impact more than 25 million people worldwide, and 15 children out of ever thousand in the US (one out of every 42 boys!). Autistic children have difficulties with communication and relating to people, and often repeat certain movements or behaviors such as rocking over and over again.
A long-term study involving over one million mothers and children in Finland found that high levels of DDE--a breakdown product of DDT that ends up in the fatty tissues of animals and humans--in the blood of pregnant women doubled the risk of a child developing autism with intellectual disability. This link remained strong even after controlling for factors such as the mother's age and psychiatric history.
DDT is one of many Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), potentially toxic man-made chemical compounds that accumulate in soil, water and air, in the foodchain and in our bodies. Other research has shown that 10 percent of us have high concentrations of 10 or more POPs in our blood, and that high concentrations of POPs in the body are associated with a variety of metabolic abnormalities, including those leading to metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart disease.
The current research is the first to reveal a link to autism. The authors suspect that DDT and its metabolite DDE may trigger autism because they lead to lower birthweight infants, and by interfering with the proper functioning of androgens, hormones necessary for the development of male characteristics.
"Unfortunately," says Alan Brown, an epidemiologist at Columbia University Medical Center, "[these chemicals] are still present in the environment and are in our blood and tissues. In pregnant women, they are passed along to the developing fetus. Along with genetic and other environmental factors, our findings suggest that prenatal exposure to the DDT toxin may be a trigger for autism."
Clearly, homing in on the environmental causes of autism can help us find ways to reduce the high and still increasing incidence of this extremely disruptive condition.
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We're just now finding out that there's a possible link between DDT and autism, a severe, often disabling developmental disorder estimated to impact more than 25 million people worldwide, and 15 children out of ever thousand in the US (one out of every 42 boys!). Autistic children have difficulties with communication and relating to people, and often repeat certain movements or behaviors such as rocking over and over again.
Autistic child and his mother
Credit: istock
A long-term study involving over one million mothers and children in Finland found that high levels of DDE--a breakdown product of DDT that ends up in the fatty tissues of animals and humans--in the blood of pregnant women doubled the risk of a child developing autism with intellectual disability. This link remained strong even after controlling for factors such as the mother's age and psychiatric history.
DDT is one of many Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), potentially toxic man-made chemical compounds that accumulate in soil, water and air, in the foodchain and in our bodies. Other research has shown that 10 percent of us have high concentrations of 10 or more POPs in our blood, and that high concentrations of POPs in the body are associated with a variety of metabolic abnormalities, including those leading to metabolic syndrome, diabetes and heart disease.
The current research is the first to reveal a link to autism. The authors suspect that DDT and its metabolite DDE may trigger autism because they lead to lower birthweight infants, and by interfering with the proper functioning of androgens, hormones necessary for the development of male characteristics.
"Unfortunately," says Alan Brown, an epidemiologist at Columbia University Medical Center, "[these chemicals] are still present in the environment and are in our blood and tissues. In pregnant women, they are passed along to the developing fetus. Along with genetic and other environmental factors, our findings suggest that prenatal exposure to the DDT toxin may be a trigger for autism."
Clearly, homing in on the environmental causes of autism can help us find ways to reduce the high and still increasing incidence of this extremely disruptive condition.
-----
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