Air pollution and Autism in Denmark.
Beate Ritz1, Zeyan Liew2, Qi Yan2
1Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, USA; Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Environmental Epidemiology (Philadelphia, Pa.)
|April 23, 2019
Summary
Early infancy exposure to air pollution, particularly sulfur dioxide (SO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), is linked to increased autism spectrum disorder (ASD) risk in children. Pregnancy air pollution exposure showed no significant association with ASD.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Epidemiology
- Pediatric Health
- Public Health
Background:
- Previous research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and air pollution primarily focused on prenatal exposures.
- A critical window for environmental influence on neurodevelopment may occur in the immediate postnatal period.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between early life exposure to common air pollutants and the risk of ASD and its subtypes.
- To examine exposures spanning both the prenatal and immediate postnatal periods in a large Danish population.
Main Methods:
- A nationwide case-control study utilizing Danish registers, including 15,387 children diagnosed with ASD and 68,139 matched controls.
- Air dispersion modeling (AirGIS) estimated exposure to NO2, SO2, PM2.5, and PM10 at maternal residences from 9 months pre- to 9 months post-pregnancy.
- Conditional logistic regression adjusted for parental age, socioeconomic indicators, and maternal smoking.
Main Results:
- Postnatal exposure to NO2, PM2.5, PM10, and SO2 was associated with an increased risk of ASD.
- Sulfur dioxide (SO2) showed the strongest association (OR 1.21 per IQR increase), followed by NO2 (OR 1.08) and PM2.5 (OR 1.06).
- Associations were more pronounced for exposures in recent years (2000-2013) and in urban settings; pollutant effects were specific to autism and Asperger diagnoses.
Conclusions:
- Air pollutant exposure during early infancy, but not during pregnancy, is associated with an elevated risk of autism and Asperger diagnoses in Danish children.
- These findings highlight the postnatal period as a critical window for environmental influences on autism risk.
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