Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION WITH AUTISM

The Effects of Air Pollution with Autism

Savanna Barker
University of North Florida

THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION WITH AUTISM

Autism is becoming more prevalent amongst children and there is not one specific reason
as to why this neurodevelopmental disorder develops. About 1 in every 68 children is affected
with autism spectrum disorder. Autism affects numerous of children resulting in abnormalities
within certain human behaviors such as communicating in verbal and nonverbal characteristics
(Becerra, Wilhelm, Olsen, Cockburn, & Ritz, 2013). Although, there are research studies to
correlate various exposures to this particular disorder there is not enough information for one
exposure to be set apart from the rest. However, even though there are not many studies there are
some that have been done for the correlation between air pollution and autism. Air pollution has
been known to cause various negative health effects, but most importantly there have been
implications that it causes neurodevelopmental disorders during childhood (Becerra et al. 2013).
As autism continues to increase substantially, there becomes a greater need for more studies to be
done to get to a better understanding of how this disorder develops.
As there have been some studies done for the correlation amongst air pollution causing
certain neurological disorders, I began to study further to examine the correlation between air
pollution and specifically the disorder, autism, as there has been some evidence thus far.
Exposures to various toxins lead to long term effects on brain development (Bolton, Huff, Smith,
Mason, Foster, Auten, & Bilbo, 2013). Environmental factors such as air pollution have a huge
negative impact on the world we live in and ultimately result in health defects amongst the
population. Autism has been linked to exposure to air pollution such as carbon monoxide (CO),
nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), and particles with aerodynamic
diameter (PM10) (Jung, Lin, & Hwang, 2013). Living in urban and rural areas with higher
exposure to toxic pollutants showed a higher chance of developing a neurodevelopmental
disorder such as autism. Various studies have shown that air pollution during pregnancy and the

THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION WITH AUTISM

first year of life is associated with an increased risk of autism (Air Quality may affect infants
brains, 2013). Therefore the purpose of my paper is to address whether there is a correlation
between air pollution and autism. Given all that we know about air pollution and autism my
hypothesis would be a positive relation between this specific exposure and disease. Additionally,
more research needs to be done to show the correlation amongst air pollution and autism
spectrum disorder (Bainbridge, 2013).