Autism's rising rates increasingly blamed on toxic chemicals

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Autism's rising rates increasingly blamed on toxic chemicals.

<http://huff.to/LDy4uF>

By Lynne Peeples

Huffington Post 27 May 2012

To date, science has not directly linked any environmental exposures

with any of the disabling behavioral and cognitive conditions that fall

along the autism spectrum. But rising rates of autism along with the

increasing breadth and reach of synthetic chemicals raises questions for

which scientists are beginning to offer a few answers.

As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in

April, autism now affects an estimated one in 88 kids. Among boys, the

burden is even higher: about one in 54. And the ramifications of the

rise go beyond the child, the family and even the school. In decades to

come, individuals with autism are now expected will account for one in

88 adults, meaning society will pay the price in terms of lifetime care

and other medical expenses. All told, managing autism already costs the

country $35 billion a year.

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