Autism linked with rainfall in study

reuters. ^ | Tue Nov 4, 2008

[Prunetacos]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children who live in the U.S. Northwest's wettest counties are more likely to have autism, but it is unclear why, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Michael Waldman of Cornell University and colleagues were searching for an environmental link with autism, a condition characterized by learning and social disabilities.

They got autism rates from state and county agencies for children born in California, Oregon and Washington between 1987 and 1999 and plotted them against daily precipitation reports.

[Prunetacos]

"Autism prevalence rates for school-aged children in California, Oregon and Washington in 2005 were positively related to the amount of precipitation these counties received from 1987 through 2001," they wrote in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine...."

[allmost]

I guess they just didn’t like the numbers from Florida, Louisiana, etc. so they threw them out. Rain causes autism? You have got to be kidding. On second thought, they will probably get a taxpayer funded grant to study their conclusion...

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Fungus?

[Prunetacos]

“Rain causes autism?”

...”Perhaps infants and toddlers are kept are kept indoors in front of the TV more in rainy climates, and that somehow causes brain changes, they said. Or perhaps they breathe in more harmful chemicals while indoors.

Vitamin D deficiency caused by insufficient time in the sun might also be a trigger, they said.

“Finally, there is also the possibility that precipitation itself is more directly involved,” they wrote. Perhaps a chemical or chemicals in the upper atmosphere are transported to the surface through rain or snow.....”

[justkate]

It all depends on what the meaning of the word "is" "autism" is...

[dano1]

Rain Man?

[allmost]

From my initial post
"I guess they just didn’t like the numbers from Florida, Louisiana, etc. so they threw them out. "
Check your rain statistics.
Vitamin could be a contributing factor. The left coast seems to be big on soy milk, tofu, etc. and they would be lacking it.

[allmost]

Vitamin D that is.

[Prunetacos]

[KarlInOhio]

What is the correlation between the wettest counties in the West and the most densely populated ones? It could be either urbanism causes autism or it is more likely diagnosed in urban areas.

[Little Pig]

Consider too that the west coast is the first to receive the pollution clouds from Asia, and the rainiest counties are probably most likely to have that crap pulled down to ground level (think heavy metals, complex organic compounds).

[Pearls Before Swine]

Maybe its because they are closer to China, and the heavy Northwest rains wash out more of the pollutants. Just a thought — “pure as rainwater” seems to be relative to location.

[dragonblustar]

Fungus?

There are lots of liberals here.

[SunkenCiv]

The problem is, the autistic subjects of the study kept dividing the running totals of raindrops striking the windows by the number of current minutes they’d been alive.

Okay, dead time in purgatory for that one.

[piasa]

Perhaps they should consider granola and koolaid consumption as a possible factor.

[neverdem]

Bump & a ping

[happygrl]

That’s about the stupidest thing I’ve heard.

Rainfall=autism

Why don’t they measure how often these people shower?

[happygrl]

The left coast seems to be big on soy milk, tofu, etc. and they would be lacking it.

That would explain a lot of other "things" too as soy can cause hormonal feminization issues in males.

[GOPJ]

Fungus?

Could be...

[Prunetacos]