United States: Breath in polluted air during pregnancy may increase chances of developing autism, research shows.
More about the news
Latest studies published that babies with an inherited or a genetic predisposition risk for autism, exposed to four prevalent air pollutants, were more susceptible to developing the condition.
It is believed that if the said air toxins are inhaled in early childhood or while in the womb, they get into the bloodstream.
Then, they can enter the area under the skin and avoid the body’s prevention layers, especially of the brain, leading to inflammation, alteration of nerve functionality, and development, Daily Mail reported.
Autism rate in the US
Autism cases have been increasingly reported across the globe during the last couple of decades. A study conducted recently proved that in America, the rates have increased almost threefold in kids and young adults, and one in every 98 children has autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Dr Haitham Amal of the Department of Laboratory of Neuromics, Cell Signaling, and Translational Medicine University of Hebrew Jerusalem said at the time, they were attempting to find out what could be causing this increase in disease.
What more have the experts found?
His lab has been most dedicated to nitric oxide (NO), a gas liberated when fuel burns in our cars.
Dr Amal stated, “My lab has shown that nitric oxide plays a major role in ASD.”
This comes at a time when the American Lung Association has estimated that 39 percent of the US population lives in an area with a high amount of air pollution, including some of those chemicals used in the new paper, Daily Mail reported.
The worst polluted cities included Phoenix in Arizona, San Jose in California, and Eugene in Oregon.
Just like the EPA, these pollutive chemicals are being monitored and reported so you would somehow know your level of exposure.
In this new study, published in the Brain Medicine journal, Dr Amal and her team summarized the studies on children with autism, human cell studies, and mouse models.