​A recent analysis of children with and without autism was conducted and found:

By looking at estimated pollution exposure during pregnancy, based on the mother's home address, the scientists concluded high levels of pollution were more common in children with autism.

The strongest link was with fine particulate matter - invisible specks of mineral dust, carbon and other chemicals - that enter the bloodstream and cause damage throughout the body.

We have parents and others not getting regular childhood vaccines due to an unfounded fear of their causing autism when the real culprit is our dirty toxic air.

The results do not surprise me as developmental psychologists have said for years that pregnant women need to avoid harmful substances....We have been teaching, writing, and advocating about better environments and care for pregnant women. And been doing this for decades....yet the vaccine people have a larger [and more gullible?] audience - and that's sad.

​Why do I say this? Vaccines have been available for decades and decades and and the increase in the rate of autism is more recent than the eras of vaccines. I'm not saying all vaccines are totally safe, nothing chemical we put in our body is really predictable as to how our body will deal with it

If vaccines were as bad as people want to say they are - the rate of autism should have been high way back like when I was a kid because we all got vaccinated.

But the increase in autism is more modern and it seems to correlate with the increase in air pollution, the increase in the way we fertilize and grow food and the way that we put chemicals in most everything that we eat.

I'm not going to go off onto a big rant here, but the thing is you really have to be careful what you put in your body when you're pregnant and that includes dirty air.

If you have the choice, breathe cleaner air. If you don't have the choice maybe wear a mask or limit the time spent in the dirty air.  The thing is we now know that there's a link between dirty air and autism so maybe we can start doing something about the dirty air?

I know this is a controversial topic and everyone has a point of view -  so if you want please give your thoughts and comments below but please keep it polite -
thank you

You can read more of my thoughts about child rearing in my Kindle book:
You Can Totally Screw Up As A Mom And Still Raise Great Kids: