--- title: Autism Linked to Environmental Toxins in Large Study description: A new study offers strong evidence that environmental toxins play a role in the disorder. The report looked at birth defects associated with parental exposure to pollution and found a 1% increase in the defects corresponded to a 283% increase in autism canonical: https://time.com/25424/growing-evidence-that-autism-is-linked-to-pollution/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-14T19:52:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:33.474Z article:section: Health og:title: Study links pollution to autism og:description: A new study offers strong evidence that environmental toxins play a role in the disorder. The report looked at birth defects associated with parental exposure to pollution and found a 1% increase in the defects corresponded to a 283% increase in autism og:url: https://time.com/25424/growing-evidence-that-autism-is-linked-to-pollution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study links pollution to autism twitter:description: A new study offers strong evidence that environmental toxins play a role in the disorder. The report looked at birth defects associated with parental exposure to pollution and found a 1% increase in the defects corresponded to a 283% increase in autism twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Growing Evidence That Autism Is Linked to Pollution ## Video: How Ballet Can Help Kids with Autism [Watch (HLS stream): How Ballet Can Help Kids with Autism](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/303QRlAL.m3u8) (2:39)  _Published 2011-07-12. Bonnie Schlachte started Ballet For All Kids to offer children on the Autism spectrum a chance to dance, have fun and work with others_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 14, 2014 7:52 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 14, 2014 7:52 PM UTC Several studies have shown a link between air pollution and autism, but a new study published in the journal _PLOS Computational Biology_ is one of the largest to put the two together. Researchers studied insurance claims from around 100 million people in the U.S., and used congenital malformations in boys as an indictor for parental exposure to environmental toxins. “Autism appears to be strongly correlated with rate of congenital malformations of the genitals in males across the country. This gives an indicator of environmental load and the effect is surprisingly strong,” study author Andrey Rzhetsky from the University of Chicago said in a statement. Every 1% increase in malformations corresponded to a 283% increase in autism in the same county. Although the findings are still new, the researchers say they offer support for the theory that environmental pollutants, in addition to genetics, play a role in autism development. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/25424/growing-evidence-that-autism-is-linked-to-pollution/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/25424/growing-evidence-that-autism-is-linked-to-pollution/"},"headline":"Growing Evidence That Autism Is Linked to Pollution","datePublished":"2014-03-14T19:52:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:01:33.474Z","description":"A new study offers strong evidence that environmental toxins play a role in the disorder. 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