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The Interaction of Agricultural Pesticides and Marginal Iodine Nutrition Status as a Cause of Autism Spectrum Disorders

2008; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Volume: 116; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1289/ehp.11010

1552-9924

Kevin M. Sullivan,

Heavy Metal Exposure and Toxicity

Vol. 116, No. 4 PerspectivesOpen AccessThe Interaction of Agricultural Pesticides and Marginal Iodine Nutrition Status as a Cause of Autism Spectrum Disorders Kevin M. Sullivan Kevin M. Sullivan Search for more papers by this author Published:1 April 2008https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.11010Cited by:7AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InReddit Roberts et al. (2007) recently reported on the results of their investigation into the relationship between agricultural pesticides and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and found an association between organochlorines and ASD. One possible mechanism for this relationship is through thyroid disruption (Cheek et al. 1999). There is evidence to suggest that iodine deficiency might be associated with some of the increase in the reported prevalence/incidence of autism (Sullivan and Maberly 2004). For pregnant women who have a marginal iodine nutrition status, the disruption of the thyroid due to exposure to organochlorines could induce iodine deficiency and result in negative effects on the brain of the developing fetus. The U.S. iodine nutrition status has declined markedly over the last three decades, with the current iodine nutrition status among pregnant women being marginal (Caldwell et al. 2005; Hollowell et al. 1998). Because of the current iodine status of pregnant women, the Public Health Committee of the American Thyroid Association (2006) has recently recommended that all pregnant and lactating women take daily iodine supplements. It is interesting that the ASD case mothers tended to be older and more likely to be non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black than controls, which is consistent with a poorer iodine nutrition status in older women and in non-Hispanics in the United States (Caldwell et al. 2005; Hollowell et al. 1998).Ensuring adequate iodine nutrition status of women, especially throughout pregnancy, is an extremely important public health goal. Given the negative effects of a number of environmental chemicals on the thyroid (Zoeller and Crofton 2000), it becomes increasingly important to ensure that all women have an adequate iodine intake and that the recommended approach to assuring adequate iodine nutrition is through a comprehensive iodized salt program (International Council for Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders/United Nations Children’s Fund/World Health Organization 2001; Sullivan 2007).ReferencesCaldwell KL, Jones R, Hollowell JG. 2005. 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De-Regil L, Harding K, Peña-Rosas J, Webster A and De-Regil L (2015) Iodine supplementation for women during the preconception, pregnancy and postpartum period Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 10.1002/14651858.CD011761 Hamza R, Hewedi D and Sallam M (2013) Iodine Deficiency in Egyptian Autistic Children and Their Mothers: Relation to Disease Severity, Archives of Medical Research, 10.1016/j.arcmed.2013.09.012, 44:7, (555-561), Online publication date: 1-Oct-2013. Gentile I, Zappulo E, Militerni R, Pascotto A, Borgia G and Bravaccio C (2013) Etiopathogenesis of autism spectrum disorders: Fitting the pieces of the puzzle together, Medical Hypotheses, 10.1016/j.mehy.2013.04.002, 81:1, (26-35), Online publication date: 1-Jul-2013. Koenig C, Walker C, Qi L, Pessah I, Berman R and Baud O (2012) Lack of Evidence for Neonatal Misoprostol Neurodevelopmental Toxicity in C57BL6/J Mice, PLoS ONE, 10.1371/journal.pone.0038911, 7:6, (e38911) (2009) Current World Literature, Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 10.1097/MOP.0b013e32832ad5c0, 21:2, (272-280), Online publication date: 1-Apr-2009. Vol. 116, No. 4 April 2008Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 April 2008Published in print1 April 2008 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. 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