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Hints of a Link Between Autism and Vinyl Flooring
SpuriousLogic sends in a link from Scientific American to a study by Swedish and US researchers that reaches the surprising conclusion that there may be a link between autism and vinyl floors. "Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit chemicals called phthalates, are more likely to have autism, according to research by Swedish and US scientists published Monday. ... The scientists were surprised by their finding, calling it 'far from conclusive.' ... The researchers found four environmental factors associated with autism: vinyl flooring, the mother's smoking, family economic problems, and condensation on windows, which indicates poor ventilation. Infants or toddlers who lived in bedrooms with vinyl, or PVC, floors were twice as likely to have autism five years later... than those with wood or linoleum flooring. ... Several scientists who did not participate in the study cautioned that it has too many limitations to draw conclusions, but they suggested that new studies be designed to look for a connection between autism and indoor air pollutants."
this is why http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registration,_Evaluation,_Authorisation_and_Restriction_of_ChemicalsREACH is so important. from wikipedia : "There were 100,106 chemicals in use in the EU in 1981, when the last survey was performed. Of these only 3,000 have been tested and over 800 are known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction." So, only 3% of chemicals in use by man have been tested for environmental and health safety.
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
doi:10.1016/j.neuro.2009.01.011
Malin Larssona, Bernard Weissb, Staffan Jansona, Jan Sundellc and Carl-Gustav Bornehag
Associations between indoor environmental factors and parental-reported autistic spectrum disorders in children 6-8 years of age
How is this pre-empting them? All you have done is predict that people will say it, that isn't a counter argument, 'correlation is not causation' may be over-used and formulaic, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
Not too long ago I learned that phthalates were used as "softeners" in plastic containers. That's not a problem normally but if you put plastic boxes that aren't supposed to be recycled into your dishwasher to use them as a lunch-box then you have a problem since they weren't designed for such high temperatures and the phthalates are released. Same thing if you microwave it.
Boxes that are "microwave/dishwasher safe" don't have this problem naturally. This is generally printed on the container itself.
And phthalates aren't good for you. Even if you're an adult.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
Male babies are more likely to be autistic than female babies.
An already well verified statistic, go google it before getting in a lather about that bit.
What? Male sex?
Well, I guess we know whats on your mind... think adjective, not verb. That disease is much more common in boys than girls.
What is "autistic spectrum"?
The symptoms range from pretty freaking minor to pretty awful. Despite there being no firm obvious medically detectable difference between diseases, and also that it is always possible to find a patient right in the middle of two precisely defined "definitions" the medical community overall prefers to label different degrees of one disease as entirely separate diseases, and a semi-passive aggressive way to make fun of that is to refer to "the autistic spectrum". Not all doctors agree, and many of them also use terms like "autistic spectrum".
Can parents report autistic behavior accurately?
Guess you didn't read the article, since it explained that 72 parents told them they had a diagnosis, then the surveyors checked up on ten of them by talking to their doctors, and the story from the parents matched the doctors story. Ten out of ten told the truth, so probably, at least 90% of the 72 did accurately report a positive diagnosis. There are also some notes in the article about how they had to follow the swedish rules for medical reporting with regards to finding that info, no idea what that requires. There are some diseases that people lie about, most commonly the level of obesity, also there are mental health problems that inherently involve lying, but lying about a positive autism diagnosis is apparently not an issue, at least in Sweden. Doesn't look like they checked up on people whom claimed negative but perhaps their doctors might say positive, so its not exactly a perfect study, but not too bad.
Was whoever wrote the article or placed the article in Scientific American paid to sensationalize the story?
Dude don't know if you've read SciAm over a long period, but over decades its gone from a somewhat light version of Science or Nature toward something that I feel is the "weekly world news" or "national enquirer" of the science journalism world. Also page count has gone from small town phone book to mid double digits at best. Its a shame the editors ran it into the ground and stomped on the corpse... if they had not, I'd still be a subscriber. In fact, if they had not run it into the ground, I'd be glad to pay twice the subscription fee. So, in summary, uh, yeah, it might be just slightly sensationalized.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I wonder if having a parental-reported autistic spectrum disorder is the same as actually having autism?
According to the article, they talked to the kids doctors for 10 of the 72 positive reports, and the doctors agreed. So at least or around 90% of the time, and assuming the doctor is telling the truth, and assuming you live in Sweden, I'd say the answer is "yes".
Think of all the parental claims you've ever heard that are ridiculous "I don't know what he does in school, but he's a perfect little angel at home" or "my kid would never do drugs" or the ever popular, "but she's never even kissed a boy". Apparently although some parents (admittedly, mostly of teenagers) clearly live in an alternate universe, the researchers verified that's not the case w/ regards to parents of autistic kids.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
The short answer is, yes. Autism isn't a single classification, but in fact a wider band of classifications that produce similar behaviors and symptoms. Asperger's is on one end of a "autistic spectrum," but those with it are typically high-functioning and integrated into society. Others inflicted with more serious forms of autism aren't so readily integrated, and are oftentimes better cared for in a controlled setting. So "autism," as we typically refer to it in common terms, is really a range of related conditions, and without that next level of understanding of physiological or developmental causes of the condition there can't be much more specificity given.
---- Please be nice in case my Slashdot karma ~= my real life karma.
Correlation does not prove causation, but yelling "correlation is not causation" on Slashdot sure correlates pretty strongly with being a clueless blowhard.
You know you are replying to a comment with the bloody doi link right? You don't even have to read the paper, it's in the abstract.
Abstract
Potential contributions of environmental chemicals and conditions to the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders are the subject of considerable current research and speculation. The present paper describes the results of a study undertaken as part of a larger project devoted to the connection between properties of the indoor environment and asthma and allergy in young Swedish children. The larger project, The Dampness in Buildings and Health (DBH) Study, began in the year 2000 with a questionnaire distributed to parents of all children 1â"6 years of age in one Swedish county (DBH-I). A second, follow-up questionnaire (DBH-III) was distributed in 2005. The original survey collected information about the child, the family situation, practices such as smoking, allergic symptoms, type of residence, moisture-related problems, and type of flooring material, which included polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The 2005 survey, based on the same children, now 6â"8 years of age, also asked if, during the intervening period, the child had been diagnosed with Autism, Asperger's syndrome, or Tourette's syndrome. From a total of 4779 eligible children, 72 (60 boys, 12 girls) were identified with parentally reported autism spectrum disorder. A random sample of 10 such families confirmed that the diagnoses had been made by medical professionals, in accordance with the Swedish system for monitoring children's health. An analysis of the associations between indoor environmental variables in 2000 as well as other background factors and the ASD diagnosis indicated five statistically significant variables: (1) maternal smoking; (2) male sex; (3) economic problems in the family; (4) condensation on windows, a proxy for low ventilation rate in the home; (5) PVC flooring, especially in the parentsâ(TM) bedroom. In addition, airway symptoms of wheezing and physician-diagnosed asthma in the baseline investigation (2000) were associated with ASD 5 years later. Results from the second phase of the DBH-study (DBH-II) indicate PVC flooring to be one important source of airborne phthalates indoors, and that asthma and allergy prevalence are associated with phthalate concentrations in settled dust in the children's bedroom. Because these associations are among the few linking ASD with environmental variables, they warrant further and more extensive exploration.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
This is serious; it's a published paper. The SciAm article is from the 31st.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
Maybe, but I haven't heard that autism has much - if any - correlation to socioeconomic status. Early work in the 1940s by a guy named Kanner indicated that, if anything, it correlates with high socioeconomic status. Today there isn't any real consensus that I can find.
In any event, there are plenty of rich families with autistic children. Instead of vinyl flooring, they've probably got Italian marble, or carpeting made from the eyelashes of Andean llamas, or a zen rock garden in the kitchen, or whatever the hell passes for luxury flooring these days.
Condensation on windows is not a sign of a poorly ventilated house. Condensation forms when humid air comes in contact with a much cooler surface. So, for example, if you have no storm windows on your windows but you are running a humidifier you will get condensation in the winter.
Vinyl windows will actually reduce condensation because they are like built-in storm windows. The inner pane isn't as cold as a single pane of glass -- yet vinyl windows also reduce airflow, meaning that ventilation is reduced.
That part of the study just doesn't make sense.
There's a reason I wrapped my kid's mattress in impermeable plastic. You know, the stuff they seal houses with. Figured it was worth $20 and half an hour to have a bit of peace of mind while he was sleeping... they've also found that wrapping those mattresses in New Zealand has drastically cut the incidence of SIDS.
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