Indoor Air Quality and Autism: Could it be the cause?
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April is Autism Awareness Month to help people understand the condition and the parents with autistic children feel relieved of all the misunderstanding surrounding their autistic children.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes difficulty in social interactions and restricts behavior and interest to some repetitive subjects that might lead to financial burden over time.
Despite all the scientific research, the cause of autism is not identified. However, there are really good studies that are pointing to some very interesting facts.
The Air We Breathe
According to this Harvard study, air pollution is directly linked with autism in children. The meta-analysis shows that exposure to fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) significantly increases the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The risk is higher if the exposure occurs during early childhood or the third trimester of pregnancy.?
Exposure to 10 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter of air (mcg/m3) increased the ASD risk by 64% if the exposure occurred during early childhood and 31% if it occurred during prenatal periods.
PM2.5 is any particle not larger than 2.5 microns in diameter that is generated by all sources of air pollution such as industrial emissions, car exhaust, and power generation, just to name a few.
The data also reveals that diagnosis among children has increased from 6.7 per 1,000 people in 2000 to 16.8 per 1,000 people in 2014. The possible contributing factors are identified as “genetics” or “environment” with the air we breathe being the biggest factor in the environment.
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Some studies even suggest that the sensitivity of autistic children to stimulus increases with the air pollution that might take the possibility of harsh reactions to higher levels.
Speaking of the air, it does not end at your door. The same polluting particles from the outside, come indoors with the airflow and get trapped. Considering that the majority of our time is spent indoors, the risk of being exposed to fine PM is even higher in a closed environment at home or office.??
Unless an effective solution is at work to keep the indoor air clean at all times which will not be possible without some help from smart technologies! Smart sensors that can detect any polluting particle in the air and send the data to central system to take action immediately, sound promising. They benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) to make indoor air quality as optimum as possible.
This is what #SevereSense is doing, to keep the indoor air quality optimum at your home so you are not at risk of developing autism in your family or worsening the existing condition.
But at our heart, we stand for a Neuro-Inclusive World for All.