New study finds California wildfire smoke linked to increased autism
Southern California finds increased rates of autism in children born to mothers exposed to smoking, although the reason is unclear
Svetlana Repnitskaya via Getty Images
A new study of more than 200,000 children in Southern California found a link between wildfire smoke exposure in mothers and higher rates of autism in children. The causes of autism are not completely known and are likely multifactorial, but new research builds on existing evidence that air pollution may be linked to autism.
the study, published on tuesday i Environmental Science and Technology, Data on children born in wildfire hot spots from 2006 to 2014 were analyzed. Pregnant women who were in their third trimester and exposed to smoking for at least one to five days were about 11 percent more likely to have a child who was diagnosed as autistic at age five than women who saw no smoking days. The more days mothers were exposed to smoking, the more likely their children were to be autistic: women who were exposed to smoking between six and 10 days were 12 percent more likely to have their child diagnosed by the age of five, while those who were exposed to smoking for more than 10 days were 23 percent more likely.
“This is one of the first large population-based studies to specifically examine prenatal wildfire smoke exposure and autism risk,” says Mustafizur Rahman, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University and author of the new study. “Our findings suggest that exposure to wildfire smoke during sensitive periods of pregnancy – particularly late pregnancy – may be associated with an increased risk of autism diagnosis in children.”
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Importantly, Rahman says, the study doesn’t identify a direct causal relationship between autism and wildfire smoke. Most experts believe that autism is complex and probably results from a combination of environmental and genetic factors.
Rather the study “highlights wildfire smoke as a potentially modifiable environmental risk factor that may contribute to risk in combination with other factors,” he says.
The study has several limitations. The level of exposure to smoke of some of the mothers in the study may have been different from what the researchers estimated. And wildfires can also be extremely stressful – an experience that may have also played a role.
David Mandel, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved in the study, says the paper’s connection between wildfire smoke and autism is “certainly concerning” and “deserves more attention.”
However, Mandel says that children of mothers who experienced high concentrations of wildfire smoke in their third trimester and did not move homes during the study period did not see higher rates of autism — which is not “the dose-response gradient that one might expect,” he says.
Autism and its causes have been a central focus of the Trump administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who in the past has claimed that autism is caused by a variety of environmental exposures, not all of which have been supported by solid science. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around one of 31 children Diagnosed as autistic before the age of nine.
The new study builds on previous research, showing that children whose mothers were exposed to fine particle pollution as well as diesel exhaust and higher rates of mercury were more likely to be autistic than children who breathed cleaner air.
Wildfires have become a perpetual threat in America, especially for Californians. according to According to the US Department of Agriculture, between 2003 and 2012, individual large wildfires in the western US burned for an average of 52 days, up from only six days in the 1970s and 1980s.
“As wildfires become more frequent and intense due to climate change, it becomes increasingly important to understand their potential long-term health impacts,” says Rahman.
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