Elizabeth Hartline Green

An unsurprising addition to the autism causation list: Pesticides

One of my favorite students I have ever taught was a little boy named Clay*. Clay loved the Power Rangers, always told the truth, insisted on fairness, and had to have his mom come in once a week to go through his disaster of a desk. On my last day with my class, Forrest drew me a picture of a stick figure with a big heart that said on the top “I will mis u Mrs. Heartline; I lov u” (the picture was on my fridge for months). He insisted on taking a picture with me so that I could remember him, and left me notes under my desk when I wasn’t looking. All of these things are relatively normal for a student, but a big deal coming from Clay, because Clay had been diagnosed as having a type of autism.

Of all the diseases of the modern age, few have so utterly confounded researchers as much as autism. Autism is a disease that impairs social interaction; often those who are autistic have a hard time communicating with others and interpreting social cues, engage in repetitive behavior, are resistant to change and variance, and have highly selective and exclusive interests. In its most severe manifestations, those with autism have no language skills and are unable to function without extensive assistance from others. There is no cure for autism, though intensive behavioral therapy for young children can improve functioning.

There has been a tremendous spike in the past thirty years in the number of children diagnosed with autism and what are classified as autistic spectrum disorders, which are similar to autism but less severe. No one really knows if this is due to changes in diagnostic criteria or an actual rise in incidents. Because here’s the tricky part about autism—no one knows what causes it, though it affects at least 1 in 150 children.

People have puzzled over the cause of autism for years, with blame ranging from uncaring mothers to vaccines and television watching. An interesting preliminary study done in California, though, found extremely high rates of autism in children of mothers who lived near fields sprayed with certain types of pesticides—28% of the children in the study developed autism.

Though the study involved a small number of participants, and further research needs to be done on the link, the findings are fascinating. No other pesticide has found to be linked to autism, but this type (organochlorides, of which the banned chemical DDT is one) can be found in trace amounts in food and possibly in cotton. The two legal types of organochlorides in the U.S., endosulfan and difocol, have been linked to kidney, liver, endocrine, reproductive, immuno, sense organ, and neuro disorders, and both are suspected to cause birth defects and cancer. Scared yet?

I’m usually not one that buys into the organic movement, and my wallet usually wins the battle when I’m faced with paying several dollars more for an organic product. The more that I hear about these types of chemicals, though, the more concerned I become about my health and the health of my family. More pressing, though, is the danger to those that live or work on or near farms that use these chemicals.

Clay is one of the highest-functioning autistic children that I have ever met. He was lucky to have parents that were empowered to be involved with his education, and who had insurance to pay for therapy several times a week. Another child with autism that I worked with, Benjamin*, had been in schools in rural Georgia for four of his five years in school, and had essentially been given no special education services. Benjamin was so low-functioning that he was almost uncontrollable, and his parents described a steep decline in his skills as he aged. Another child, Lucas*, had been in foster care most of his life and, though his foster mother wanted to place him in therapy, she did not have a car to take him to sessions. How many more children are out there whose parents do not have the resources to fight this vicious disease, children of migrant workers scrapping to make ends meet or children of farmers stuck in poorly funded rural schools?

We don’t know the causes of autism, and it may be many years before we do. But this link to pesticides is eye-opening, the more so because the other dangers of these chemicals are well-known and they are still used. The need for increased governmental protections against pesticides is great, because the danger is real and the costs are high, both to our environment and to our children.

*All of my students’ names have been changed to protect their privacy.

Elizabeth Hartline Green: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 7:00 AM, Aug 06, 2007 in Environmental Justice
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