Autism mixtures

What do Gulf War Syndrome, Katrina Cough, Aerospace Syndrome, and epidemic increases in the incidence of autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), birth defects, asthma, mailroom illness, spontaneous abortion, and many cancers have in common Each of these can be associated with a single causative agent, but each can also be associated with environmental exposure to chemical mixtures that do not contain any of the known causative agents. 

Our inability to defend ourselves against new chemicals and mixtures often results in epidemics of disease. For example, asthma, autism, infertility, and many cancers affect different parts of the body and seemingly have different etiologies. All, however, can be related to a combination of genetic predisposition and environmental exposure to chemicals. All are less prevalent where chemical exposures are lower, for example, in rural areas. All have known single chemical exposure causes and they can all be related to low level exposure to chemical mixtures. The toxic effects of chemical mixtures are explored in the chapters that follow. 

There are no known direct studies on the toxic effects of chemical exposures on the developing fetus. It is known, however, that children of tobacco smokers (tobacco smoke is a mixture of multiple lipophiles and hydrophiles) have unusually high incidences of ADHD, autism, and other developmental disorders. These and other mixture effects are examined more closely in subsequent chapters. This chapter has aimed to alert the reader to the fact that toxic exposure begins at conception and impacts the fetus throughout gestation and beyond. 

Whether the increases in autism reported in this study are entirely attributable to the named organochlorine pesticides alone or to combinations of these with other chemicals remains unknown. As discussed in Chapter 14, pesticides are almost never applied as pure substances, but are formulated with solvents, surfactants, disbur-sants, and other additives to increase efficacy. Also, pesticides are generally applied as mixtures of different materials to address multiple pest problems. ... 

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