United States: New research suggests that air pollution breathed in by women during pregnancy might increase the risk of their baby’s developing autism.
A study looked at the latest research and found that babies with a genetic risk for autism were more likely to develop it if they were exposed to four common air pollutants during pregnancy.
Such pollutants are believed to enter the bloodstream as the child breathes them in early in life or while still in the womb. There, they can go around the protective shields of the brain; leading to inflammation, alteration of how nerves work or get wired.
As reported by the msn.com, it is worth stating that autism has been on the increase globally in the last few decades. A study conducted last year highlighted the fact that the rates for kids and young adults in US have increased almost three-folds and, as per the current overall ratio, three in every 100 children are autistic or, have ASD.
Dr Haitham Amal, the head of the department of Laboratory of Neuromics, Cell Signaling and Translational Medicine at Hebrew University of Jerusalem noted that they were attempting to identify as to what might be causing this increase in disease.
His lab has been mainly concerned with the study of nitric oxide (NO), gas evolved in the burning of fuel as used in cars.
Dr Amal said: ‘My laboratory research has indicated that NO is very involved in ASD,’
This comes amidst revelation by the American Lung Association that 39 per cent of the US population lives in area with high amount of air pollution including some of the chemicals highlighted in the new paper.
then go to the map below to see how exactly the air in your town or anywhere matches up.
Many of the most polluted cities were: Phoenix, Arizona, San Jose, California and Eugene, Oregon. Companies such as the EPA are monitoring these chemicals that pollute and they report so as to give you a feel of your degree of risk.
In the new study that is published in the journal Brain Medicine, Dr Amal and his team reanalyzed studies done on children with autism, the studies that used human cells and the studies that used mice.
They studied four different components to air pollution: PM2.5, NO x, SO 2 and O 3.