Finding environmental causes of childhood problems is like trying to pick out a criminal from a lineup of 100 look-alikes. There are many suspects, and proving that a certain substance is responsible requires not only ruling out alternatives but also gathering convincing evidence against the right culprit. So scientists have come to rely on prospective studies, in which they follow mothers during pregnancy, tracking which exposures occur, then keeping tabs on children three, five, or 10 years into childhood to see how they fare. Even those studies reveal only correlations, not causes. But they do raise strong concerns. Take autism, which afflicts one in 68 children, an increase of 290 percent since 2002. In June, researchers at the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (MIND) Institute at the University of California, Davis, reported that pregnant women who lived near fields and farms treated with certain chemical pesticides had a 67 percent increased risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder or another developmental delay kiwimagonline/toxins
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 20:10:42 +0000