title: Autism spectrum disorder prevalence and proximity to industrial facilities releasing arsenic, lead or mercury.
abstract: Prenatal and perinatal exposures to air pollutants have been shown to adversely affect birth outcomes in offspring and may contribute to prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For this ecologic study, we evaluated the association between ASD prevalence, at the census tract level, and proximity of tract centroids to the closest industrial facilities releasing arsenic, lead or mercury during the 1990s. We used 2000 to 2008 surveillance data from five sites of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) network and 2000 census data to estimate prevalence. Multi-level negative binomial regression models were used to test associations between ASD prevalence and proximity to industrial facilities in existence from 1991 to 1999 according to the US Environmental Protection Agency Toxics Release Inventory (USEPA-TRI). Data for 2489 census tracts showed that after adjustment for demographic and socio-economic area-based characteristics, ASD prevalence was higher in census tracts located in the closest 10th percentile compared of distance to those in the furthest 50th percentile (adjusted RR=1.27, 95% CI: (1.00, 1.61), P=0.049). The findings observed in this study are suggestive of the association between urban residential proximity to industrial facilities emitting air pollutants and higher ASD prevalence.
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design (BERD) Core, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: Aisha.S.Dickerson@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Aisha S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Dickerson
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design (BERD) Core, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences (EHGES), University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: Mohammad.H.Rahbar@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Mohammad H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rahbar
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics, and Environmental Sciences (EHGES), University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: Inkyu.Han@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Inkyu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Division of Child Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA. Electronic address: Amanda.Bakian@hsc.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Amanda V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Bakian
authors.affiliation: Division of Child Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA. Electronic address: Deborah.Bilder@hsc.utah.edu.
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bilder
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Electronic address: rharrin5@jhu.edu.
authors.forename: Rebecca A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Harrington
authors.affiliation: Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. Electronic address: sydneyp@u.arizona.edu.
authors.forename: Sydney
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pettygrove
authors.affiliation: Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53726, USA. Electronic address: mdurkin@wisc.edu.
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Durkin
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Family Health, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. Electronic address: rkirby@health.usf.edu.
authors.forename: Russell S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kirby
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Organization and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35205, USA.. Electronic address: mslay@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Martha Slay
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wingate
authors.affiliation: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: bsr4@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Lin Hui
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA. Electronic address: zahorodn@njms.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Walter M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Zahorodny
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX 77054, USA. Electronic address: Deborah.A.Pearson@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.affiliation: Division of Biostatistics, University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, USA. Electronic address: Lemuel.A.Moye@uth.tmc.edu.
authors.forename: Lemuel A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Moyé
authors.affiliation: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. Electronic address: xzb1@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baio
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis*; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D007854:Lead / Q000032:analysis*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D015995:Prevalence; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D007854:Lead; D008628:Mercury; D001151:Arsenic
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Distance; Environment; Metals; Pollution