However they also say:

R. A. Carlos recently reported on an alarming five-fold increase in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on the island of Guam from 2016 to 2022. He reviewed 95 studies and concluded that the increased trend paralleled the widespread exposure of young children to microplastics.

and the citation given is to the abstract of a conference presentation which ACTUALLY says the author reviewed 95 studies for "neurotoxic effects of microplastics on other species, including fish, mice, mollusks, nematodes, crustaceans and chicken" not to find fricken autistic crustaceans but to find neurotoxicity.

But autism definitely isn't neurotoxicity in general, and probably isn't in any specific way.

So what we're left with is an observation of 5x ASD and plastics exposure on Guam. Is it not likely that whatever societal changes increased plastic use to skyrocket 5x also caused other seismic shifts in behaviour and exposure and - dare I guess - autism testing?

#autism #microplastics #nanoplastics #badJournalism #badScience #health #news #GlobeAndMail