- READ MORE: Study finds microplastics cost US $250 billion a year in healthcare
By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com
A common plastic additive found in everything from pacifiers to metal food cans to even paper receipts has been linked to an increased risk of autism in boys.
The new research, which tracked the development of over 600 infants, found that higher levels of chemical bisphenol A (BPA) in a pregnant mother's urine more than tripled the chances that a young boy would develop autism symptoms by age two.
Worse, those same boys were six times more likely to be diagnosed with autism by age 11 — compared to those whose mothers had lower BPA levels during pregnancy.
BPA, a chemical intended to harden plastics and prevent metals from rusting, among other uses, has also been linked to higher risks of obesity, asthma, diabetes, and heart diseases across over two decades of increasing scrutiny on the compound.
In addition to surveying over 600 human children, tracked since 2010, the study also tested lab mice to track the effect BPA has on brain development and autism. Photomicrographs of cortical neurons in lab mice (above) show the damaging impact of BPA.
It has also been has been dubbed a 'gender-bending' chemical due to its apparent role spurring hormonal and sexual disruptions in humans, fish and other species.
But the new study not only identified the apparent link, it also uncovered evidence toward unravelling the specific chemical reactions that contribute to autism cases.
'Our work is important because it demonstrates one of the biological mechanisms potentially involved,' epidemiologist and public health physician Dr Anne-Louise Ponsonby, said in a statement on her team's study.
'BPA can disrupt hormone-controlled, male fetal brain development in several ways,' Dr Ponsonby explained, 'including silencing a key enzyme, aromatase, that controls neurohormones and is especially important in fetal male brain development.'
Aromatase, the new study noted, helps to convert some male sex hormones in the brain, known as neural androgens, into neural estrogens.
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