Research Links Autism to Environment

Autism among U.S. children has reached epidemic proportion. And it's getting worse by the year.
Since the '70's, there has been a 60-fold increase in American children with autism. Currently one in every 100 U.S. children and one in every 58 boys are being diagnosed with autism. That's over 2.6 percent of all male children in America. The number of autistic children expected to reach adulthood in the next 10 years along with their caregivers will exceed the population of Rhode Island and cost an estimated $27 billion in additional care beyond the almost $60 billion being spent on current autism-related costs.
Under the specter of an autism epidemic sweeping America, Senator Barbara Boxer (CA) convened hearings last week on the "State of Research on Potential Environmental Health Factors with Autism." The result?
Experts agree that the primary explanation for the dramatic increase in autism is toxic environmental exposure and gene-environment interactions. New research shows that even low-dose, multiple toxic and infectious exposures may be a key factor to the onset of autism.