Explain the Rise in Autism

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by Eroberer
Another explanation is that I just watch too much TV.

Actually, too much TV too early in life is a theory that is gaining a lot of steam.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Guynemer


Actually, too much TV too early in life is a theory that is gaining a lot of steam.

As this recent article in Slate nicely recaps. Too long to quote in full, but here are some choice paragraphs:

Today, Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3. The researchers studied autism incidence in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. They found that as cable television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning around 1980, childhood autism rose more in the counties that had cable than in the counties that did not. They further found that in all the Western states, the more time toddlers spent in front of the television, the more likely they were to exhibit symptoms of autism disorders.

Waldman studied precipitation records for California, Oregon, and Washington state, which, because of climate and geography, experience big swings in precipitation levels both year-by-year and county-by-county. He found what appears to be a dramatic relationship between television viewing and autism onset. In counties or years when rain and snow were unusually high, and hence it is assumed children spent a lot of time watching television, autism rates shot up; in places or years of low precipitation, autism rates were low. Waldman and Nicholson conclude that "just under 40 percent of autism diagnoses in the three states studied is the result of television watching." Thus the study has two separate findings: that having cable television in the home increased autism rates in California and Pennsylvania somewhat, and that more hours of actually watching television increased autism in California, Oregon, and Washington by a lot.

Researchers might also turn new attention to study of the Amish. Autism is rare in Amish society, and the standing assumption has been that this is because most Amish refuse to vaccinate children. The Amish also do not watch television.

[mrmitchell]

Originally posted by General Ludd


I wasn't. However I was raised on the planet earth, after the atmospheric nuclear tests of the past six decades. There isn't a person on this planet who is safe from the radioactive particles released into our atmosphere by the deathmongers we elect to lead us. Even chernobyl had strong and immediate effects in most of europe, reaching to even the British Isles.

Yet you are almost certain to live much, much longer than most of your ancestors, and live less threatened by disease and infection, with a better life to boot. Miraculous.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Elok
And all before you reached the age where your Asperger's manifested itself? Impressive. I wonder what the autism rate is in Mexico City, or the industrial areas of the PRC?

EDIT: Victorian London must have been absolutely swimming with us nerds! Your average gentleman in a carriage ran over a dozen orphans each day who were staring at the fascinating patterns soot formed on the bricks.

I didn't realize the victorians knew how to split the atom and create synethetic fertilizers and poisons. I'm talking about pollution and contaminants in general, not coal specifically - infact I never even mentioned coal.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by mrmitchell


Yet you are almost certain to live much, much longer than most of your ancestors, and live less threatened by disease and infection, with a better life to boot. Miraculous.

Assuming the doctors can cut the cancer out of me quicker than it grows.

[lord of the mark]

"Researchers might also turn new attention to study of the Amish. Autism is rare in Amish society, and the standing assumption has been that this is because most Amish refuse to vaccinate children. The Amish also do not watch television. "

OTOH its at least as common amongst Chassidic Jews as in the general pop, AFAIK, and they also dont watch television (occasionally videos, but not much). I suspect the Amish not getting it is more a sign of a genetic factor.

[CrONoS]

I Don't know anything about genetics; but is genetics affected by some kind pollutions?

*Edit:
I thought pollution was able to cause damage to our DNA.

[Arrian]

Rufus: some interesting rebuttals of the TV hypothesis from Slate's fray:

http://www.slate.com/id/2151595/

Makes sense to me.

-Arrian

[Elok]

Originally posted by General Ludd
Assuming the doctors can cut the cancer out of me quicker than it grows.

Do you actually have cancer yourself, or are you being melodramatic? Anyway, WRT sanitation in general we're in far better shape than our ancestors. We have trace amounts of radiation from old atomic bomb tests, plus we have some exposure to pesticides. Unless there's something the government's not telling us, the last aboveground nuclear test in the continental U.S. was around the time of the Manhattan Project, and the worst nuclear accident we've ever had in this country was Three Mile Island--not even a full meltdown, and relatively recent to boot. Just how much credit do you give to radiation?

Compared to the insane amount of pollutants of all sorts ingested during the industrial revolution (not just coal; workers tended to inhale considerable amounts of whatever they were working on due to the vigorous action of the machinery and lax safety standards), plus the fact that our medicine is actual medicine as opposed to morphine mixed with horse urine and marketed as "Dr. Whitson's Patented Miracle Elixir," I think we've got a distinct advantage in terms of number of pollutants ingested. Oh, and have you perchance read or heard of "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair? People used to regularly eat trace amounts of wild rats, together with their feces and the poison that killed them, with every steak they had for dinner.

Even after the IR, there were plenty of hazardous chemicals in regular use; for example, the safrinol in sassafras oil is carcinogenic, but it was found in root beer for a good while. But it's been banned for decades now.

Come to think of it, radiation wasn't uncommon prior to the advent of nukes. I remember a story about a fairly common type of orange paint used on a series of plates which, when nicked, released radioactive isotopes due to some compound in it. Every time your fork scratched the plate you got a yummy dose of radioactive decay. Also, watches with glow-in-the-dark hands used to have a radioactive pigment painted on by factory workers. They'd suck on the brush to wet it, then dip it in the paint...supposedly some guys woke up in the middle of the night and noticed their wives' bones glowing through their skins. As we became more educated about radiation and its effects, crap like that got weeded out. I don't have a source, but I got both of these stories from the guys at the University of Maryland's reactor facility during a field trip, so I'm inclined to trust it.

As far as the TV bit goes, do we know that this is causation rather than plain correlation? Given that autistics are not usually interested in social interaction and may be fascinated by colors and patterns, could it be that autistic kids just wind up watching more TV earlier?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Elok


Do you actually have cancer yourself, or are you being melodramatic?

One in three people will develop cancer in their life time, these days. That means, acording to statistics, there are 10 people who have participated in this thread that either have cancer or will have cancer. My point was that the only reason we live longer is because we have learned ways to keep people alive despite all the **** that they are exposed to, while previously it was primarily matters of survivial and sustanance that determined the length of ones life - and that is still just as relevant today to anyone who is not a part of the "ruling class" ie. a westernised/first world country.

Anyway, WRT sanitation in general we're in far better shape than our ancestors. We have trace amounts of radiation from old atomic bomb tests, plus we have some exposure to pesticides.

You say that asthough having mutagens, poisons, and radioactive particles contaminating the entire food chain and ecosystem is a minor thing - a side note. The radiation let loose by atomic testing, and the radiation continued to be produced by nuclear powerplants, underground tests, and the nuclear weapons still being developed and produced will remain with humanity forever. It is a cummulative effect that will outlast humanity, and there is no way of erasing it.

It's true that workers in the early industrial era where exposed to all sorts of things, but that certainly doesn't mean that the things they have been exposed to can't be at fault. Diss makes a good example with the mercury, as victorians certainly where driving themselves mad with the handling and consumption of merucury. That is where the experesion "mad as a hatter" comes from, as mercury was used in the making of hats.

Unless there's something the government's not telling us, the last aboveground nuclear test in the continental U.S. was around the time of the Manhattan Project, and the worst nuclear accident we've ever had in this country was Three Mile Island--not even a full meltdown, and relatively recent to boot. Just how much credit do you give to radiation?

Oh, and have you perchance read or heard of "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair? People used to regularly eat trace amounts of wild rats, together with their feces and the poison that killed them, with every steak they had for dinner.

Have you read "fast food nation" by Eric Schlosser? Not much has changed in that regard.

Come to think of it, radiation wasn't uncommon prior to the advent of nukes. I remember a story about a fairly common type of orange paint used on a series of plates which, when nicked, released radioactive isotopes due to some compound in it. Every time your fork scratched the plate you got a yummy dose of radioactive decay.

That sounds more like a ceramic glaze that contains uranium oxide. The Fiesta Ware made in the 1920s contained it.

Also, watches with glow-in-the-dark hands used to have a radioactive pigment painted on by factory workers. They'd suck on the brush to wet it, then dip it in the paint...supposedly some guys woke up in the middle of the night and noticed their wives' bones glowing through their skins.

Is this supposed to be puting me at ease with all the radioactive fallout that has been released into the atmosphere - that we breath in?

As we became more educated about radiation and its effects, crap like that got weeded out. I don't have a source, but I got both of these stories from the guys at the University of Maryland's reactor facility during a field trip, so I'm inclined to trust it.

And yet the facilities that produce nuclear weapons have workers who regularily handle uranium, and release radioactive waste directly into rivers and the air. This has happened routinely in russia, and more discretely in the united states, but it doesnt' really matter where it happens as all pollution ultimately has a global effect. When nuclear weapons where first being produced a study was done in the united states to determine how much radiation a worker can be exposed to before the risks become too great that number is now refered to as the worker's "recomended dosage".



Incidentally, I lived in sudbury for a while. Nickel capital of the world and one of the largest mining centers in North America. While living there I think I saw more people with down's syndrome than I previously had in my entire life, and it's not that huge a population. It's only common sense that puting chemicals, heavy metals, plastics, ect... into our bodies is going to effect the development of a human.


Just down the road from Sudbury is Elliot Lake (I also lived there for a year), where much of uranium used to fuel the cold war was mined, along with the refinement of Sulphur. Donw river from there is Serpent River - a native reserve and toxic waste dump. There are incredibly rates of cancer and birth defects in the community. How radioactive is the river? I can't say, as the government has never been willing to do a test. The children growing up there 20 or 30 years ago where avised to avoid the giant piles of yellow-green industrial waste that scattered the landscape between their village and the river. Kids today don't have to worry about that though, because the government dug a big hole and covered the waste with dirt. Now pow-wows are held on top of it all. What we don't know or can't see can't hurt us.

[Pekka]

joncha,

[Arrian]

One in three people will develop cancer in their life time, these days

Yeah, because we live longer now. If you live long enough, you will get cancer. I've no doubt that industrial contaminants do have an impact, and obviously it would be best if we work to reduce that impact by reducing emissions (solid, liquid and gaseous) into the environment, while cleaning up old messes.

-Arrian

[Odin]

The leading cause of cancer is breathing oxygen, FACT!

[MRT144]

Originally posted by Arrian


Yeah, because we live longer now. If you live long enough, you will get cancer.
-Arrian

thats what i said. and the fact our infant mortality aka the weaklings survive is another.