New insights on pesticide exposure and autism

Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by nerdponx on Thursday September 06, 2018 @08:43AM (#17925793)

METHOD: The investigation was derived from the Finnish Prenatal Study of Autism, a national birth cohort study based on a nested case-control design. Cases of autism among children born between 1987 and 2005 were ascertained by national registry linkages. In cases of childhood autism and matched control subjects (778 matched case-control pairs), maternal serum specimens from early pregnancy were assayed for levels of p,p'-DDE and total levels of PCBs.
RESULTS: The odds of autism among offspring were significantly increased with maternal p,p'-DDE levels that were in the highest 75th percentile, with adjustment for maternal age, parity, and history of psychiatric disorders (odds ratio=1.32, 95% CI=1.02, 1.71). The odds of autism with intellectual disability were increased by greater than twofold with maternal p,p'-DDE levels above this threshold (odds ratio=2.21, 95% CI=1.32, 3.69). There was no association between total levels of maternal PCBs and autism.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide the first biomarker-based evidence that maternal exposure to insecticides is associated with autism among offspring. Although further research is necessary to replicate this finding, this study has implications for the prevention of autism and may provide a better understanding of its pathogenesis.

This would be more convincing if someone went and correlated DDT contamination levels in a region with autism levels in the same region.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by Bjartr on Thursday September 06, 2018 @09:45AM (#17926196)

Why is that more convincing? Since people can move around, and your exposure levels during pregnancy won't necessarily line up with the environment the child lives in (and thus informs the rate of autism statistic), I would expect this serum assay to be a more convincing measure. Am I missing something?

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by nerdponx on Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:45AM (#17927076)

People don't move around that much, especially not in the first few years of their life.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by alexandercrohde on Thursday September 06, 2018 @10:24AM (#17926503)

What you're missing is that most chemical damage to infants is done in-utero, at their most vulnerable time (why you don't drink when pregnant).

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by Bjartr on Thursday September 06, 2018 @12:25PM (#17927394)

No, I explicitly accounted for that, which is why I mentioned that measuring the rate of autism (which is measured as the number of people diagnosed with autism in a region) might not line up with exposure during pregnancy (which could have occurred in a different region entirely, especially if the autism diagnosis lags behind the birth)

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by alexandercrohde on Thursday September 06, 2018 @02:42PM (#17928473)

What are you talking about? Region and location has nothing to do with this study.

They took the serum of the pregnant mother, measured that for the pesticide, and found it was a statistically significant predictor of autism.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by nerdponx on Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:00PM (#17931561)

The whole thread is responding to my suggestion that you ought to also find a geographical relationship between DDT application and autism.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by alexandercrohde on Friday September 07, 2018 @02:26PM (#17936521)

Oh, shit, you're right. I didn't read your part not-in-italics.

Well, I suck. I was rude and incorrect. Thank you for taking the time to keep me humble.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by codyb on Thursday September 06, 2018 @06:01PM (#17930018)

Perhaps you could discount the results based on county or state migration records?

Although it seems plausible some families might move to places with better care which might affect how you weight your values.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by superpie on Thursday September 06, 2018 @08:47AM (#17925815)

Has anyone found the full text of this tax funded study published anywhere that's not charging $35 to read it?

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by throwfast1 on Thursday September 06, 2018 @10:20AM (#17926478)

https://sci-hub.is/10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17101129

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by nerdponx on Thursday September 06, 2018 @09:01AM (#17925905)

I have the same complaint. If you aren't affiliated with university library, or for some reason you aren't willing to use Sci-Hub, then probably not.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by bjourne on Thursday September 06, 2018 @09:37AM (#17926133)

Why would you not be willing to use scihub? http://sci-hub.tw/10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17101129

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by nerdponx on Thursday September 06, 2018 @09:40AM (#17926158)

I'm perfectly willing. But open access to taxpayer-funded research shouldn't be illegal.

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Re:New insights on pesticide exposure and autism by gowld on Thursday September 06, 2018 @01:03PM (#17927668)

EU is on it. https://www.sciencealert.com/europe-accelerates-sweeping-ove...

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