Thing is, if you’re looking for non-genetic causes of autism, there’s a huge one staring us in the face.
Agricultural pesticides often kill by damaging nervous systems. Human neurological development is the most complex choreography of nerve cells that there is. It’s not a big stretch to think that exposure to tiny “safe” quantities of neurotoxins during critical periods of brain development might be playing a role. (That would assume a slightly leaky placenta, but that’s not unknown.)
Thing is, if you’re looking for non-genetic causes of autism, there’s a huge one staring us in the face.
Agricultural pesticides often kill by damaging nervous systems. Human neurological development is the most complex choreography of nerve cells that there is. It’s not a big stretch to think that exposure to tiny “safe” quantities of neurotoxins during critical periods of brain development might be playing a role. (That would assume a slightly leaky placenta, but that’s not unknown.)
There was even a paper about it recently: Relationship between Autism Spectrum Disorder and Pesticides: A Systematic Review of Human and Preclinical Models (2021). They found an association with only one, gestational exposure to organophosphate chlorpyrifos, but that’s a common pesticide. And interesting that specifically exposure during pregnancy, not infancy, not childhood, that showed the correlation.
I wonder if RFKjr would be as happy to rail against agribusiness.