The figure is something to think about. According to a study by researchers at Davis University in California, published this Monday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a pregnant woman who lives near a farm using pesticides has a 66% higher risk of having a autistic child.
Although the researchers refuse to infer a cause and effect relationship, this study worries the inhabitants of the United States, where the number of cases of autism has risen sharply in recent years, affecting one in 68 children in 2010, instead one in 150 children in 2000.
To arrive at these results, the researchers matched data on pesticide use in California with the addresses of 1,000 people who participated in a study of families with autistic children.
The result ? "We found that several types of pesticides were more commonly used near homes where children developed autism syndrome or had developmental delays," says one of the authors, Irva Hertz-Picciotto, vice chair of the Department of Science and Public Health at the University of California Davis.
The researchers also found that the risk of autism was even higher when contact with pesticides occurred in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, when the developing fetal brain could be particularly sensitive.
Janie Shelton, a Davis University graduate and lead author of the study, cautions:"While we still need to look at whether certain subgroups are more susceptible to pesticide exposures than others, the message is very clear:pregnant women should be careful to avoid contact with agricultural chemicals”.
