The efforts of the U.S. government to stop the spread of dengue and Zika virus may have been producing another problem - autism. A new study released on Saturday found that mosquito killer sprayed from airplanes has something to do with the heightened incidence of children born with autism.
Autism A Result Of Mosquito Killer Sprayed From Airplanes?
Newsweek reports that during the summer months, many places in the U.S. are sprayed from airplanes with pyrethroids, a common class of insecticides used as mosquito killer. Steve Hicks, a physician and assistant professor of pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine, and his team examined the rates of autism cases in areas where aerial spraying are done every summer. They compared them with those areas where mosquito control is done primarily on the ground.
Hicks and his team found that the areas sprayed with mosquito killer from airplanes had 25 percent higher rates of autism diagnoses. Out of 19,000 kids living in the area, 159 of them were born with autism.
Tracing The Links
Hicks speculated that mosquito killer sprayed from airplanes may not be as precise as the physical act of dispersing pellets on the ground. He, however, added that further research has to be done to determine if the increased rate of autism is due to mosquito killer sprayed from airplanes or due to higher exposure to mosquito-borne diseases.
"I want to be careful not to cause a scare that we should be abandoning these pesticide spraying practices," Hicks stated. "We know that autism has a genetic component. It's not something that's caused solely by environmental risk factors."
Pregnant Women Affected
The recent study stemmed from a previous major research called "Childhood Autism Risks From Genetics and the Environment." The study discovered that pregnant women exposed to pyrethroids and two other common pesticides during their third trimester were more likely to give birth to children with autism.
Do you agree with the recent findings that mosquito killer sprayed from airplanes has something to do with the increased number of children with autism? Share your thoughts below.
