Autism in the US Affects 1 in 88 People

In reading Andre Cicolella’s most recent and exciting book, Toxic Planet, we encounter some staggering numbers. It’s all part of his attempt to counter the mantra that “everything is fine, because life expectancy continues to increase.” It’s important to remember that the concept of life expectancy is based on an assumption devoid of any foundation, and that the future health of newborns will necessarily be identical to what today’s elderly are experiencing in their lives.

The numbers in this argument, which demonstrate the importance of the environment to public health, are so incredible that they immediately trigger skepticism. We think that there must be an error. One decimal point must be off, or there has to be one zero too many. As an example, a toxicologist, the president of the Environmental Health Network, writes that in the United States, autism spectrum disorders, such as autism, Rett Syndrome, or Asperger’s, affect “one child out of 88.” Come on, one in 88? That seems impossible. So, we checked. And what we discovered is even more disturbing.

For starters, the number itself is true. It’s not a typo or an exaggeration. And it wasn’t the result of some dubious or controversial study. The number was first published in March of 2012 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. To obtain this number, the CDC monitored fourteen sites across the United States starting in 2007, studying children with autism in the same elementary school age groups. They found something much more disturbing than the 1 in 88 ratio; the evolution of this trend is even more worrying. Through their study of the same communities using the same diagnostic criteria, the CDC determined that the prevalence of these disorders has increased by 78% between 2007 and 2012.

The Trail of Endocrine Disruptors

There is no evidence that this rise is a trend that will continue. But, the numbers are there. And the current speed at which the phenomenon has spread reasonably suggests that some non-environmental causes might be at work here. In fact, the U.S. population’s gene pool has not changed significantly in recent years, and neither has the average childbearing age, which is a risk factor. The CDC did note a valuable clue, however: In 2012, one out of 54 boys was affected, compared with one girl out of 252.

This susceptibility as a function of sex inevitably points us toward the trail of endocrine disruptors, ubiquitous synthesis molecules which interfere with the hormonal system and produce most of their effects during the fetal period. Of course, there is no scientific consensus on a possible link between endocrine disruptors and autism, only mere suspicion, which seems to be supported.

This information is not intended to create fear: Andre Cicolella is not selling anxiety. He simply argues, and rightly so, that public health policy should take the environment into account. The September environmental conference was an opportunity to examine this issue. The government, however, chose to ignore it.