The title of this article is misleading. Elise Solé (Yahoo Shine) is not suggesting that the work environment causes an increased risk of autism. She recognizes that autism, or a tendency towards developing it, is passed down from parents to children. One key indication of a child's risk level is the father's career. Jobs in finance and healthcare are associated with significantly greater risks. ~ Ilene
Study: Where Dad Works May Increase Risk of Autism in Kids
Excerpt:
For the study, researchers divided parents into two groups: those with non-people-oriented jobs (considered technical) and those with people-oriented jobs (considered non-technical). They found that fathers who worked in finance were four times more likely to have a child on the autism spectrum than those with the non-technical jobs (which could include those in media, education or sales industries). And those who worked in healthcare (say, working in a medical lab), were six times more likely. A mother’s job held no association to autistic offspring unless both she and her husband worked in technical fields. In that case, their children were at a higher risk of developing a more severe case of autism.
“We aren’t exactly sure why but we speculate that people who choose these technical fields do so because their brains are wired differently — they may be more antisocial, prefer to focus on one thing at a time, and not talk a lot. We see those traits in autism too,” lead first author Aisha S. Dickerson, PhD, a researcher at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, tells Yahoo Shine. “It’s also possible that some adults in tech fields are on the far end of the autism spectrum level themselves, but are undiagnosed with mild cases or don’t need diagnoses at all.” Dickerson adds that it’s possible that the disorder can be genetically passed from one parent to the offspring or from the genetic combination of both parents’ DNA.
[My emphasis]
Full article Study: Where Dad Works May Increase Risk of Autism in Kids | Healthy Living – Yahoo Shine.
