Prior to the 70's auto gas contained tetraethyl lead. U.S. highways were created by Dwight Eisenhower well before any doctor knew the word autism. Children have been vaccinated for at least 3 decades. The only factor that has exploded in the last 20 years is cell phone towers and repeaters, especially near highways. The link between neurological conditions and RF radiation is strong. But that's like talking to an alcoholic about abstinence. We are all addicted to wireless devices, so it is better to ignore this until things get worse.

Sarah,

It's funny you should mention too much TV and too much rainfall because I was just looking at the unintentionally hilarious paper "Does Television Cause Autism?" It's obvious that it, in all its 28 versions, was ginned up to respond to Dan Olmsted's reporting on the extremely low rate of autism among unvaccinated Amish. The Amish, you see, don't watch TV while Californians can't tear themselves away when it's raining.

It did cross my mind that this freeway-autism link might be another pass at denying the obvious, should that become necessary again. I've never been to Amish country, but I'm guessing that not too many Amish live within 1000 ft of a major artery.

Here's the "television causes autism" paper:
http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:O90iDNcTcF4J:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=2000

"Had" sex...

"Had" being the operative word. ;)

Autism is so damn common now people are bound to live near the highway. Why not research how closely ASD kids live to Wal-mart, or Walgreen's ( they are on almost every corner)', McDonald's and every other common popular eating or shopping establishment around the country?

Waste of time, tax dollars, and efforts. Living near a highway might cause autism. Injecting mercury under the guise of prevention based medical care perfectly safe. It's anything, but the precious vaccines.

Study the children who have regressed, look at vaccinated versus unvaccinated.

I see that Hertz-Picciotto is an author of this study so how does this mesh with her California autism clusters (in particular the Golden Gate and Valley Mountain clusters) and all the "highly educated parents" business?

Here are the California autism clusters. You can see the freeways. They're blue.

http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/Maps/autism_cluster.html

Aspie;
I did not say that!
I went back to see what I said, and you are putting your own thoughts into what I have written! Stop it! I have done nothing to you, or againest you!

But then again
Aspie; Try to remember that I have a daughter that bullies me for every little thing that she decides that I implied too! Have you checked yourself for those mood disorders that we talked about earlier?????

You never did tell me?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2010/01/uc-davis-researchers-find-california-autism-clusters-but-the-cause-is-a-bit-of-a-surprise.html

"Some previous studies have hinted that exposure to pesticides may play a role and a study in Texas showed that exposure to mercury in the environment --but not in vaccines -- could be a causative agent."

Now where do they get the control groups, the NT's"? What is the community at large, outside of redlines or in?
This "study" isn't a year old! You have to love their efforts..-but not in vaccines_ HA!
Do they offer vaccines at these regional centers? Davis is all over the map, as someone said.."hiding the elephant"

I agree that there are many possible triggers for autism.
I can predict that officials will be much more open to this possible link than the idea that vaccines cause autism.
The CDC has dedicated itself to DISPROVING the VACCINE-AUTISM LINK. Sudden regression after vaccinations is coincidence. Every effort has been made to show this.
Will they quickly say living by an interstate is coincidence also? Probably not. They're not implicated in the claim.
Anne Dachel
Media

Okay - that was such a bad interview, I could barely pay attention to the researcher. The woman in yellow is from Mars.

Comment on the piece. It's not one toxin it's many. Rates of cancer, preemies, asthma, all sorts of things go up closer to major roadways. I am thankful that they have added one more to the list.

I welcome the association - that somehow our children can't handle toxins of all sorts (including aluminum and mercury).

And what about the years 1920 to 1980 with very high car use, mostly with Leaded Gas, inefficient engines, no catalytic converters, & almost No Autism?
But then in the 1980's, when leaded gas was phased out & the vaccination schedule began to increase about 3 fold, suddenly we begin to have a "genetic" epidemic which of course is an impossibility.
Sadly, this condition greatly reduces the chances of passing it on to future generations. But if this Autistic population were reproducing, I'd wager that if they avoided vaccinating their offspring, their children would have a very low Autism rate.
Especially if they kept them away from highways, supposedly.
Does anyone smell "desperately reaching for anything & everything."
And all these parents of Autistic children are lying or delusional about the regression shortly after the shots.

Donna I think you literally caused me to bust a stitch! I'm on my way to the ER, can't wait to tell them why I'm bleeding. :)

Aspie;
Don't care if I insulted you!

Why: because I had no intention of insulting anyone, and you as usual are looking to pick a fight!

If there is anyone that is insulted it would be me and my family! It is US that has been insulted for years when I judge from the look in people's eyes, the tone of their voice and their manner (includes the medical profession too) that it's my family
genes: we are just a diseased, dumb bunch and we deserve everything we get.

And if it is not people I meet on a personal level, then it is the attitude of the CDC that we are dumb and deserve all we get or we would not even mention that the precious vaccines might be a problem.

I am insulted that you are insulted.

In light of these recent findings, the AAP is now urging all parents to take the back roads when traveling to and from those all important well-baby visits.

ha ha ha ha. Thanks for the laugh. I guess highways weren't around in the 1970's. This is a joke, right?

Did this study control for the very recent increase in vaccinating pregnant women for flu?

Did they compare their study outcome to ten years ago, using the same methods?

Did they compare those living within 1000 feet from the freeway to the entire population of the country to come up with "twice" the rate of autism, or did they compare to people living within 2000 feet of the freeway living in the same community? As with many vaccine studies the variables are carefully manipulated to control the OUTCOME of the study, not to control the study.

The study doesn't vindicate mercury in the environment or vaccines, probably even substantiates mercury (and "complementary" metals) as a causal factor. Not mentioned in the report: resuspended road dust in Los Angeles is loaded with toxic metals:

"[Road dust] Resuspension by Los Angeles Interstate 405 significantly increased atmospheric particle numbers and metal concentrations, however both returned to urban background levels via dry deposition within 100–150 m of th...e highway": http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702324/

Umm, I think I can speak for all of us as to how weird it is to read a study such as this, blathering on about hiways when there isn't even a study comparing vaccinated children VS un-vaccinated children. It almost comes across as kind of comical. One more theory checked anyways...

I think people should think about things in the larger context here. Autism is likely to be found as something that is multifactoral in it's causes. Many of the writers of this blog have championed that same thought.

To start off simplistically and relate it only to vaccines; what set of vaccines caused damage in one child may be different than what set caused it in another. But since some kids get the same vaccines and don't get damage there are likely other factors involved both genetic and environmental (does the child have predisposing genetic factors, where they on antibiotics or other meds, what were the stress factors in that child's life - like living next to a highway or coal burning power plant). So these other points are important to understand to know what may have brought them to the toxic tipping point.

As much as genetic studies are dogged around here we should be applauding an environmental study. It's important that anything that is found to be associated with autism to be considered. A few years back a study found that rates of autism where higher in the wind field of coal burning power plants. Was this one not thrown out only because it fit one's paradigm? But tie the current one together and look at this way; what is it in air pollution from highways and coal burning plants that might be in common? And then that answer could possibly be applied a step further to ask what does that have in common with vaccines or how might that contribute to stress when receiving vaccines?

In science fields, psychology for example, they talk about whether something is nature or nurture (genetic or environmental). Yet there exists a third possibility - genetics and environment - what as known as G x E. This is when the environment interacts with genetics to cause a change. To understand this one must look both at the genetics and the environmental agents acting with it. So both can be important to finding the cause or CAUSES.

GxE interactions are accepted and talked about in our community quite frequently. One needs to look no farther than Dr Wakefield recently discussing DVM's at Autism One last year or the EU hearing. He talked about how thaliomide (sp?) and other drugs were known to interfere with key developmental genes which resulted in swelling of a certain part of the brain in those exposed and then presenting with autism. He then talked about this GxE interaction and related to what is being found in the primate models at the study of University of Pittsburgh as vaccine toxicity and timing manifesting in a similar way.

Other GxE interactions I would point out and I think readily accepted here would be problems with methylation and the MTHFR gene and the point Dr Haley makes about testosterone levels being correlated to higher amounts of damage (thus a genetic tie of the increased incidence in boys).

Yes it's shame more direct studies about vaccines are not done. But since they currently aren't I wouldn't poo-poo the merits of this study. In the bigger picture it could help provided insight to one of the factors implicated in causing autism.

Kids that live near major highways do have more incidence of autism would be because:

It is easier to get to the peditrician's office!

Case in point:
I did not live close to major highways, but I did live in easy traveling distance to my children's peditrician group, and health department. It was on my side of town in a small town.
------------------------------ ARRGGGGG
Especiall toward the end of this conversation did you hear rambling stupid talk?;
More boys than girls have autism, The incident has risen but it is genetic though.
If you are going to be a talking head, then that head needs to be an intelligent talking head.

Yeap, it is our bad genes that are dumber than dirt - we all came from homeless shelters - right? No we did not, my family is a family of nurses and teachers, and I married a guy that was a chemical engineer, his father was a Methodist preacher, his mother was one of the top dieticians in a major hospital in Californian and wrote a well read book on the subject,one of his grandfathers was a railroad engineer and worked on the big disel engines, the other grandfather came from a family that was involved with Thomas Edison and electrical companies -(look up Stilwell family involvement with the name Edison) that grandfather was an electrical engineer.

Autism: too much of that and I would not be talking about ancestors because this is a pretty much elimanation future generation disease.

Thank gawd they are finally on the right track after 20 years, with this "autism highway" research... How could anyone argue with a PhD / Prostitute of hype and Dis-information ???

The damn problem was right down the street the whole time...time to start moving some roads which will also create jobs and save the nation.

What was the cost of this life changing study that will help thousands of Autistic children across the United States ?

Are any follow up studies planned for other highways in the other 49 states ?

I say "Get rid of all freeways."
Maurine

What a waste of taxpayer monies.

Gee Doc. What about the pollution being directly injecting into their little bodies? Aluminum, Formaldehyde, Mercury, MSG, Polysorbate 80? Any of that cause a problem? Huh Doc? Or do you just have to be in that tidal wave of people, mostly with boys, who in the last 20 yrs moved to have quick access to the interstate?