8mo ago

Air pollution emerges as critical environmental risk factor for autism, emerging topic review finds

www.eurekalert.org

The timing of exposure appears crucial, with heightened vulnerability during prenatal development and early childhood when critical neurodevelopmental processes occur.

The research suggests that individuals with genetic predisposition to ASD may be more vulnerable to the harmful effects of air pollution exposure

The implications extend beyond individual health to public policy. How might cities need to adapt their urban planning to protect vulnerable populations? What role could air quality monitoring play in prenatal care?

Actually I don't see why anything would be done to orevent development of autism, when not much was done for all the already known damage that actual urban development cause

Link to the actual article:

https://bm.genomicpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/BM0115-Amal-2024.pdf

21 comments

... It really is a shame that they still make it seem that being autistic is a problem...
If they found that it increases your chances of being gay or something, I'm sure their language would be much more respectful (if they published it at all).
- I mean being autistic is a problem, in the same way losing a leg is a problem. It's not something to make a fuss about and definitely not something to hate people for, but people with even high-functioning autism definitely struggle with many things, and when you get to low-functioning autism it's a straight up disability.
  
  I'm of the opinion that a lot of the "problems" with autism come from societal issues and lack of education rather than an innate thing.
  Everyone has problems they need to work through. It's just that autistic people don't get the support they need.
  
  I feel like there needs to be more programs designed to get Autistic people in technical jobs. Obsession with a topic will quickly make you an expert. Get them in a position where the hard skills are assumed to be easy and the soft skills are the stuff to learn.
- I think many Autistic people are in denial. I think some people think that changing there identity will make Autism go away. Spoiler: it doesn't
  You can absolutely change your identity. However, changing your identity is not an effective way to hide from your problems.
**This is fake, not peer reviewed and an attempt to sell a fake cure by a quack. **
If this gives off Andrew Wakefield vibes to you, you are not alone. The "journal" is a huge red flag since the homepage is full of blatantly AI generated images (see below). It appears to have published very little else and appears to have been set up by the second name on the paper and corresponding author, Haitham Amal.
Amal, looking at his LinkedIn, appears to have also recently been appointed to the position at Neuro-nos, a company that describes itself as developing a non-FDA medical cure for autism and dementia.
I'm absolutely not saying that it can't be the case, nor that reducing pollutants from cars (and making more of them) would benefit everyones health. Just in this case, it is a blatant scam that will likely end up subjecting autistic children to god knows what side effects so this guy and his friends can make more money.
- The image is AI generated slop from their website. I highlighted it due to the clear mistakes in the generation.
Urban development doesn't cause air pollution. Cars cause air pollution.
There's a difference.
- How many cars and how much they are driven and **how ** they are driven, depend on urban development.
  Urban development -> cars -> pollution
  If you want less cars going around, design your cities to allow and incentivize people not to use them. See recent developments in Paris as an example:
  https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/paris-olympics-city-reduce-air-pollution-rcna153470
- Industry also causes air pollution and plenty of it. It's more visually segregated in developed countries. But as an example, have you ever explored the Pakistani factory video genre on Youtube?
- ¿Por qué no los dos?
  
  Because dense urban development is good, actually, and we don't need people posting pro-sprawl misinformation.
This has nazi europe vibes when you actually read it
I really want to see studies of the percentage of autistic children born in urban areas versus rural areas.
Despite this shady website, I have heard this theory before.
- I've also heard it before. In the Netherlands there is a city with unusually high amounts of autism, it is also where Philips is located. The company used to have enormous factories and around 100k employees which is a lot for the Netherlands, especially back in 1970. Of course, the pollution from the factories might have an effect, but importing engineers, mechanics, and other technical experts from all around the country to move into their company towns might have an effect too.

21 comments