Folic acid may mitigate autism risk from pesticides
In the study, children whose mothers took 800 or more micrograms of folic acid (the amount in most prenatal vitamins) had a significantly lower risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) -- even when their mothers were exposed to household or agricultural pesticides associated with increased risk. The study appears today in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives . "We found that if the mom was taking folic acid during the window around conception, the risk associated with pesticides seemed to be attenuated," said Rebecca J. Schmidt, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and first author on the paper. "Mothers should try to avoid pesticides. But if they live near agriculture, where pesticides can blow in, this might be a way to counter those effects." In the paper, which used data from the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment (CHARGE) study, researchers looked at 296 children between 2 and 5 who had...