Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has warned that five toxins in everyday goods—mold, pesticides, food chemicals, medicines, and ultrasound scans—may be fueling a “tsunami” of autism cases across the U.S.
Kennedy announced plans to commission studies to investigate these factors, noting that autism rates began rising in the 1980s, coinciding with the widespread use of ultrasound scans.
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Dailymail.co.uk reports: RFK Jr went on to suggest industries were profiting off of environmental toxins that are driving more autism diagnoses, an apparent nod to his vaccine skepticism and crusade against artificial food ingredients.
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Scientists and advocates for people with autism have criticized Kennedy’s position as harmful and misleading. Mainstream research describes autism as a complex condition largely shaped by genetics and multiple other contributing factors.
It comes after a Tuesday CDC report suggested the number of US children with autism rose to one in 31 in 2022, up from one in 36 in 2020 and one in 56 in 2016.
By comparison, early studies from the 1960s and 70s estimated autism rates to be as low as 1 in 5,000. Most researchers say the trend can likely be attributed to better screening and awareness — but Kennedy said that only accounts for ’10 to 20 percent’ of cases.
‘Doctors and therapists in the past weren’t stupid. They weren’t missing all these cases,’ RFK Jr told an abruptly called press conference today.
He also dismissed the idea that autism rates are being fueled by genetic factors, saying, ‘genes do not cause epidemics,’ adding that ‘it [the rise in autism] must be triggered or caused by environmental or risk factors.’
Kennedy told reporters: ‘We need to move away from the ideology that the relentless autism prevalence increase is simply an artifact of better recognition and better diagnostic criteria.
‘The epidemic is real. Only a small percentage can be charged to better recognition or better diagnostic criteria.
‘The answer is very clear and this is catastrophic for our country.’
Kennedy said he would announce a series of studies in the next two to three weeks to identify ‘precisely what the environmental toxins are’ that may be contributing to the rise.
His claim that the surge in autism cases is not due to better screening puts him at odds with the researchers behind this week’s CDC report.
The authors stated that the uptick ‘might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices.’
They also highlighted differences in insurance coverage.
But Kennedy said: ‘It’s time for everyone to stop attributing this rise to epidemic denial.
‘External factors, environmental exposures, that’s where we’re going to find the answer.’
RFK Jr promised ‘we will have some answers by September… there will be an answer for the American people very, very quickly.’
Dr Peter Marks, the FDA’s former top vaccine official, cautioned that the project’s rushed timeline and built-in biases are likely to produce flawed results.
Kennedy has appointed David Geier — who is known for promoting the debunked theory linking vaccines to autism — to lead the initiative.
The CDC report released earlier this week looked at autism rates in 16 monitoring sites across the US to predict the overall figure for the rest of the nation.
Researchers focused on four-to-eight-year-old children living in those areas in 2022.
Kids were counted as having autism if they had a diagnosis or were receiving special education for it.
Four-year-olds who didn’t have a diagnosis but showed signs of autism were labeled as ‘suspected’ cases.
While the overall rate was one in 31 children in 2022, boys remained at an increased risk.
Overall, one in 20 eight-year-old boys were diagnosed with autism in 2022 but in places like California it was as common as one in 13.
RFK Jr called the risk for boys ‘extreme.’
Kennedy also claimed that autism cases were not only becoming more common, but more severe.
He said about one in four autistic children are ‘profoundly’ disabled, meaning they are nonverbal and may be completely dependent on others for basic care.
The secretary said: ‘Autism destroys families and more importantly destroys our greatest resource which is children.’
While researchers in the CDC report said improvements in early identification of autism ‘have been apparent’ in recent years and could explain the rise, RFK Jr estimated as many as 85 percent of cases could instead be linked to environmental exposures.
He said: ‘We have to recognize we are doing this to our children and we need to put an end to it.
Research from Harvard, for example, found exposure to air pollution like particulate matter in early childhood may raise the risk of autism by as much as 64 percent.
While in the womb, exposure may raise risk of ASD by 31 percent.
The experts suggested particulate matter breathed in during early childhood or while in the womb may travel through the bloodstream and bypass protective layers in the brain, causing inflammation that hinders nerve development.
An Australian study published earlier this year also found boys exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) in the womb were six times more likely to be diagnosed with autism before age 11 than those without exposure.
That team suggested BPA – which lines plastic and metal food packaging, an ever growing pollutant in the modern world – was associated with neurological and behavioral changes associated with autism.
The US has also seen a surge in the use of synthetic pesticides, which some say could be a contributor, as well. Use of these chemicals increased 50-fold since 1950.
Some research indicates up to 80 percent of Americans have detectable levels of pesticides in their blood.
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced an emergency suspension of the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA or Dacthal) due to evidence suggesting babies exposed to it in the womb could be born underweight and with a decreased IQ and development.
Dr Walter Zahorodny of Rutgers University in New Jersey, who co-authored the CDC report and joined Kennedy at the press conference, said: ‘There is better recognition because there are more children with autism.
‘It’s not better awareness pushing the increase.’