Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said studies will be conducted to identity the factors.
WASHINGTON—The spike in autism has been caused by environmental factors as opposed to genetics, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on April 16.
Kennedy said at a press conference in Washington that autism is a preventable disease caused by environmental factors, with possibilities including mold, air, medicines, and the increase in the average age of parents.
“We have really good genetic markers now, and they provide a vulnerability. But those genetic markers alone are not going to dictate your destiny. You need an environmental toxin,” Kennedy said.
He revealed that new studies on the environmental causes would be announced in two to three weeks.
“This has not been done before,” the health secretary said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Tuesday that found the prevalence of autism has increased to one in 31 children, up from one in 36 children in 2020 and one in 150 children in 2002.
Walter M. Zahorodny, an associate professor at Rutgers University who co-authored the report, offered support for Kennedy’s position.
“I would urge everyone to consider the likelihood that autism, whether you call it an epidemic, a tsunami, or a surge of autism, is a real thing that we don’t understand, and it must be triggered or caused by environmental risk factors,” he said during the briefing.
The jump in autism prevalence “is a true increase,” Zahorodny said. “There is a better awareness of autism, but a better awareness cannot be driving a disability of autism to increase by 300 percent in 20 years.”
Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurological and developmental disorder that impairs people’s ability to socialize, communicate, learn, and behave.
Diagnosis typically takes place in early childhood.
Symptoms include an inability to maintain eye contact and not noticing other children.
The CDC’s website states that “many different factors have been identified that may make a child more likely to have ASD, including environmental, biologic, and genetic factors.”
Those factors, it says, include being born to older parents and having certain genetic conditions, such as fragile X syndrome.
Kennedy said on Wednesday that autism is an epidemic and criticized people who attribute the jump largely or solely to better screening and diagnostic criteria.
By Nathan Worcester and Zachary Stieber
