pesticides

[jayne]

Hi all,

i havent been on here for a few months but wanted to air my view on something and see whether you thought i was being paranoid or worth investigating more:

We lived in a small village for 10 years and our son who has aspergers was born there (our daughter was not), we have since moved 3 miles up the road 3 years ago but i keep in touch with the neighbours and the village school. Ive have noticed a pattern emerging on our old street (there are 8 houses on one side backing up against the farmers field and opposite a selection of flats and 2 bungalows) we lived on the side backing upto to the farmers field, not only does our son have aspergers but another 6 kids have either aspergers or full blown autism there ages range from the oldest at 13 years old to the yougest at 2 years old and they are all from the same side of the road to us within the 8 houses backing onto the field which funny enough is sprayed either once or twice a year (that i am aware of), the reason this has come to my notice again is the latest child has just had the diagnosis and considering the village has a maximum of 500 people and the school has a capacity of 58 kids (they have had a least 1 child per year ever since my son started in each class) it justs seems to much of a coincidence for my liking.

Any opinions or advice would be most welcome

 

Thanks for listening

Jayne xx

[Tally]

Hi Jayne,

 

The human mind is designed to see causal relationships even when there might not necessarily be any. This is why it is important to look at things like this systematically. It does sound like a remarkable coincidence, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is any link. Maybe you just have a really good local GP or someone who is very good at spotting ASD.

 

I would have thought that most farmers spray their fields, so you would need to know what is being used and whether there are cases like this next to other farms where the same chemicals are used.

[call me jaded]

There has been some research into clusters, none of it conclusive. Brick, New Jersey and Staffordshire are the two I can think of off the top of my head. These were identified a decade or so ago and I don't know whether these would still be considered clusters given the currently accepted prevalence (autism being acknowledged as more common than previously thought). Will set aside the debate whether that's down to increase in awareness or actual increase in numbers. Perhaps those geographic areas were well ahead in diagnosing. I know the Brick township was known for excellent services for children so it was felt that more families moved into the area.

 

I'm always astonished at the numbers of children from Somalia that are in our special schools locally, and I've long thought that Surrey has a cluster/greater awareness/better diagnosis/pushier parents or any one of a hundred variables that would make their figures higher than ours (a neighbouring borough). Then I look at our own parents group and see the numbers that live under the flight path to Heathrow and wonder if there's an environmental element or whether it IS just those areas being more deprived and disability pushing people further into poverty.

 

They also say Silicone Valley is a cluster though I can't remember whether that was proven or debunked. Both probably. An interesting subject to browse around.