UC Davis study links autism to pesticides.

I'm not entirely sure where to post this, so I'm going with the generic 'health' forum.

In the Fresno Bee, Barbara Anderson writes UC Davis study links autism to pesticides.

The study by the UC Davis MIND Institute found mothers exposed to organophosphates had a two-thirds increased risk of having a child with autism.

And the risk was strongest when exposures occurred during the second and third trimesters of pregnancies, the research showed.

...

Using the pesticide data maps, researchers overlaid addresses of about 1,000 participants in a Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and Environment study — a population-based, case-control study of children ages 2-5 with autism, developmental delay and typical development. The study area primarily was within a two-hour drive of Sacramento.

The whole article is worth reading, and, as always with journalistic interpretations of scientific info, it doesn't hurt to go to the original study - Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Prenatal Residential Proximity to Agricultural Pesticides: The CHARGE Study.

Now obviously, most Americans don't live right around fields sprayed with pesticides, but as we all know, not all pesticides are thoroughly cleaned off of or out of the foods we buy.