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What Causes Autism? A New Study Says Chemicals and Heavy Metals May Be to Blame

6/27/12 - By Alina Adams

For our second dedicated news post, we're taking a look at some new information about the possible causes of autism. With Playmate Jenny McCarthy getting press coverage for saying she knows what triggers the disease while various medical experts argue about its causes, it can be tough for parents to figure out who to listen to. While Time magazine recently reiterated that the study linking childhood vaccines to autism has been repeatedly debunked, its definitive cause remains a mystery.

However, some leading experts on autism, ADHD and learning disabilities have now published a list in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives of chemicals and heavy metals that they believe are more likely than even a genetic predisposition to trigger the onset of these diseases.

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Among the biggest culprits are:

  • Lead, such as the kind found in old paint, but also potentially lurking in ancient plumbing
     
  • PCBs
     
  • Automotive exhaust
     
  • Pesticides commonly used to spray non-organically grown fruits and vegetables
     
  • Non-stick cookware and waterproof clothing

The complete list, as well as tips for how you can avoid each of them without moving to a commune, is available on Rodale's website.

An earlier report published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, determined that damaging environmental effects could kick in even before birth. In the largest twin study of its kind, exposure to, among other things, pesticides and PCBs in the womb, was implicated in nearly 60 percent of observed autism cases.

About the Author

Alina Adams

Alina Adams - NYC Writer

Alina was born in the former Soviet Union, spent her teen years in San Francisco, and came to New York City to work for ABC Daytime and ABC Sports. She spent her pre-marriage/pre-kid years as a figure-skating researcher and producer for the U.S. and World Championships, the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and various professional shows.

After learning that international travel and resentful toddlers don’t mix, she switched to PGP Productions and its soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding Light, where she wrote New York Times best-selling tie-in books and developed interactive properties like AnotherWorldToday.com.

The birth of her third child (and the process of enrolling her two older kids into NYC schools—a full-time job in itself!) convinced Alina that she was not, in fact, Superwoman, and prompted her to leave TV and turn to writing books, including romance novels (Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga, When a Man Loves a Woman), figure-skating mysteries (Murder on Ice, On Thin Ice) and nonfiction (Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments).

In addition to contributing to Mommy Poppins, Alina blogs for Jewish parenting site Kveller.com and is in the process of turning her previously published backlist into enhanced e-books with multimedia features like audio, video and more. Follow her exhaustive and exhausting efforts to become a Mommy Media Mogul (is that a thing? If it isn’t, it really should be) at AlinaAdams.com and on Google+

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