Maternal Residence Near Agricultural Pesticide Applications and Autism
We evaluated the overarching hypothesis that maternal residence near agricultural pesticide applications in California's Central Valley during defined time periods of gestation could be associated with ASD among children. We employed a staged analytic strategy designed to exclude associations due to multiple testing using a priori criteria. Risk for ASD was consistently associated with residential proximity to organochlorine pesticide applications occurring around the period of CNS embryogenesis; this association appeared to increase with dose and was attenuated with increasing distance of residence from the field site. These findings suggest that the possibility of a connection between gestational exposure to organochlorine pesticides and ASD requires further study.