Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday that his department would examine six “environmental factors” that he said could lead to autism amid a rise in confirmed cases of the neurodevelopmental disorder.
“We’re going to announce a series of new studies to identify precisely what the environmental toxins are that are causing [autism],” Kennedy said at a press conference. “This has not been done before.”
Among the “factors” the 71-year-old said would be scrutinized are ultrasound scans, mold, pesticides, food chemicals, medicines and air and water contamination.
Kennedy’s “environmental factor” assertion breaks from a study published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which claimed the uptick in confirmed autism cases was likely due to improved “early detection” technology and increased awareness of the condition.
The CDC study revealed that one in 31 children under 8 are diagnosed with autism, up from one in 54 in 2016 and one in 150 in 2000.
Boys were three times more likely to be diagnosed than girls.
“This is catastrophic for our country,” Kennedy said before claiming “we know it’s from environmental exposure.”
“Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resources, our children.”
The secretary promised that some of the results of his studies would be revealed by September.
“We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” Kennedy told President Trump in a cabinet meeting last week. “By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”
On Wednesday, Kennedy said he wanted to “remove the taboo [so] that people will know they can research and follow the science no matter what it says, without any kind of fear that they’re going to be censored” and claimed the media was biased against reporting on the possible role of environment in autism.
“Clearly there are industries, this is coming from an environmental toxin,” he said. “And somebody made a profit by putting that environmental toxin into our air, our water, or our medicines, our food, and it’s to their benefit.”
In response to the CDC study, the non-profit awareness organization Autism Speaks called for “deeper, sustained investment in autism research, not only to understand its causes, but also to support the growing number of people diagnosed today.
Meanwhile, the Autism Society of America contradicted RFK Jr. by insisting the CDC data “does not signal an ‘epidemic’ as narratives are claiming — it reflects diagnostic progress, and an urgent need for policy decisions rooted in science and the immediate needs of the Autism community.”
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