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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."
But did your study find that kids with autism were twice as likely to breathe air than kids without? No? Probably less statistically significant then.
If you're going to disprove an April Fool's story with statistics, at least make the statistics work.
I wonder if having a parental-reported autistic spectrum disorder is the same as actually having autism?
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Tangentially, what about new cars? Part of the "new car smell" is phthalates and other plasticizers outgassed from the car interior... I wonder if there is a higher incidence of autism in children whose parents bought a new car early in their life?
Unrelated to autism (I think), I get nauseous in new cars, or in limos with the "new car small" releaser thingy on the dashboard. So much so that I'll never buy a new car without having my wife use it for the first few months... but since she does the majority of schlepping the kid around, maybe I should rethink that strategy.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I find that "correlation is not causation" to be a great way to filter out those with zero (well actually negative because they are actively spreading misinformation) knowledge of statistics.
Low income. Increases the likelihood of smoking, vinyl flooring, poorly ventilated housing and... oh look, it's right there in the list: "family economic problems".
Meta will eat itself
I work in a school dealing ASDs and behavioral / emotional difficulties. The unofficial diagnosis of kids with afformentioned parental-reported autistic spectrum disorder is P.P.P.
Piss Poor Parenting.
Anon for obvious reasons.
If it IS vinyl flooring, it isn't from the kid, it's from pregnant mom, I think. Although we didn't have vinyl floors (and because of insurance screw-ups, didn't get my son properly vaccinated well until after he was full blown autistic), I was exposed to a lot of toxins (airborne) during my pregnancy. But the interesting thing is, in retrospect, he had signs of autism almost immediately after birth. Part of autism (which he has to the point where he cannot speak, and most likely will never live independently) can be sensory problems, and his are oral/eating related. He would not breastfeed. He would not take food from a bottle. He could not leave the hospital for two weeks because of this. Even when he got home, formula or breastmilk would pour down his face as much as it would pour into his mouth. I've spoken to other parents who saw signs, small ones, very very early on. Yes, my kid did have a bit of that 'developing ok and then all of a sudden went backwards' stuff, but he was already a bit off, I think. And he still does that today -- over the summer, without school, he lost the ability to communicate completely. It's just that parents seem to notice that first change. So vinyl floors? A bit of a reach. Something happening during pregnancy? A possibility. Toxins? A possibility. But my wood floors didn't 'save' my son.
To have any effect, the vinyl plastic must degrade somehow
PVC *does* degrade, all by itself. Pure PVC is very brittle (like your PVC drain pipes), so any flexible PVC product has lots of plasticizers mixed in. Some of these are volatile and gradually evaporate out of the plastic at room temperature. It's the plasticizers that are under suspicion here.
However, I would imagine that most babies and toddlers are exposed to more PVC emmisions from the vynyl mattress covers in their cribs and beds. After all, they spend half of each day with their heads a couple inches away from the mattresses. These things are extremely stinky when new, and over the course of a year or so they seem to lose much of their plasticizers into the air and become brittle (and no longer stinky). Unfortunately, at that point they often shred into ribbons and must be replaced.
IMO, given the safety questions that have recently come up regarding the phthalate plasticizers used in PVC products, it's probably worth the extra cost of buying polyethelene mattress covers for kids.
but since she does the majority of schlepping the kid around, maybe I should rethink that strategy.
Or maybe you just shouldn't care because in 2 months, another research test will show vinyl floor helps prevent autism. Or that medical personal are mislabeling children with autism simply because parents want an excuse to give for why their children act like... er children.
Not to mention the definition of autism has grown and different types of autism are not categorized.
I'm unsure why you're labled funny. I think you managed to hit the nail on the head. Autism an autistic tendencies might very well lead to a taste for minimalism.
This is a testable hypothesis: are there any other ways in which the interior of these houses is minimalistic? Interior blinds instead of (draped) curtains, leather instead of fabric on the chairs and couch? Vynil _or_ tiles instead of carpet?
I do think alternative underlying reasons for the correlation can and will be found :).
Karma? What's that again?
One though I have heard mentioned occasionally - autism, parkinsons, diabetes, even heart disease are all caused by diseases. Brain rot eats your flesh!
Basically, if there is no direct link to a specific biological anomaly - like Huntingdon's where a specific genetic problem means EVERYONE with the gene gets the disease at the certain time - then it's a disease. Diseases pop up randomly. They unpredictably flare up and attack people. The same sort of thing happens with syphillis (brain rot late in life) or polio (post-polio syndrome - nerve rot, later in life). While stress or other factors can cause for example, an outbreak of herpes or cold sores (Herpes 1) the timing and predictability is random. Maybe even cancers - after all, HPV is blamed for most cervical cancer.
Similarly with childhood diabetes; it pops up randomly in children - one day they're fine, the next they have to pee like a racehorse and something inflames their pancreas. based on the situation of Michael Fox - a cluster of 5 or 6 people who worked in the same studio in Vancouver ended up with early onset Parkinsons? Also consider the earliest stem cell research - injections helped some people for a while, but then they regressed; almost as if the stem cells tried to replace what was missing, but then were attacked in turn by the same agent. It's almost like the brain has plenty of spare capacity until something slowly destroys so much that nothing spare is left to compensate and the person suddenly starts going downhill.
Even heart disease - there's still a disagreement if there is any correlation with cholesterol. Perhaps simple small inflamations give the arterial clots somewhere to latch onto and start building obstructions. Installing stents can open the artery, but the clots just grow back over if the artery still has the same problem.
We see the same symptoms with autism - fine for a while, then suddenly -poof! All is lost. Is it a disease? Something attacks a cerain area of the brain, building damage until suddenly there is nothing to compensate for the missing function? A form of brian rot which randomly strikes at-risk children like measles or chicken pox, but with far stronger results and less obvious communicability? perhaps Aspergers is just a later or less destructive form of the infection?
Remember until the 1990's, stomach ulcers were stress-induced symptoms of character problems, the sign of an obsessive worry-wart? Then they discovered that, oh, these are simple infections that an antibiotic can cure, the perceived character flaw was the result of the pain the ulcer caused?