Parents With High Chemical Intolerance 6 Times More Likely to Have Child With Autism

Parents who have a high degree of chemical intolerance were nearly six times more likely to report having a child diagnosed with autism and over two times more likely to have a child diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) according to a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Xenobiotics.

The study found that mast cells — a type of white blood cell that plays a key role in the body’s immune response — are “a plausible biomechanism for chemical intolerance.”

Mast cells, found in the body’s connective tissue, may be triggered by toxicants like fossil fuels and fossil-fuel-derived products, and biogenic toxicants like mold and algae. According to the study, the chemicals can activate or deactivate mast cell genes and can be transmitted transgenerationally, increasing the risk of autism and ADHD in offspring.

Autism experts who spoke with The Defender said the study helps disprove mainstream narratives that autism is a purely genetic disorder.

“The study highlights the roles of both genetics and environmental toxicants in increasing the risk of autism,” research scientist and author James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., told The Defender. “The study especially strengthens the evidence linking chemical intolerance to neurodevelopmental outcomes.”

Biologist Christina Parks, Ph.D., told The Defender the study is important because it “highlights that the dysregulation of the immune system is at the heart of disorders that were previously thought to be psychological and/or largely confined to the brain and nervous system.”

“Every day, our bodies have to decide whether to ignore particles we come into contact with or to attack these particles,” Parks said. “Repeated chemical exposure can throw the immune system into a frenzy, such that it starts attacking things that it previously tolerated,” increasing the likelihood of developing neurological disorders.

John Gilmore, executive director of the Autism Action Network, told The Defender, “This study reconfirms that genetically vulnerable people become autistic as a result of exposure to things in the environment.”

Gilmore added:

“We know there is no such thing as a genetic epidemic, which has been the overwhelmingly dominant area of autism causation research. We also know that people with autism are much more likely to come from families with histories of auto-immune disorders.”

“Autism is a disease of unknown origins, and this paper adds to the foundation of toxic exposure theory,” said Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist at Children’s Health Defense. Genetic diseases increase on a generational level — autism is increasing too rapidly to have genetic origins alone, he said.

According to Jablonowski, “dramatically increased exposure to toxins, including pesticides, plastics, vaccines, pharmaceuticals and off-gassing materials brought into our homes” has led to the rapid increase in autism cases in recent decades.

“As more toxicants are added to the environment of developing fetuses, infants and toddlers, including but not limited to vaccines, the genetic risk will become irrelevant,” Lyons-Weiler said. “Literally, all individuals born could be overwhelmed in a world filled with sufficient numbers and types of corporate toxins.”

In science, this process is known as epigenetics — “a paradigm that turned traditional biology on its head,” according to Jablonowski. He added:

“Though we have our instructions for life in our DNA, how those instructions are used depends on epigenetics. Given the toxic soup we live in, the idea that a toxic exposure event in one generation can affect the genetic expression of future generations is scary.”

‘We know the real number of people with autism has increased enormously’

The study’s authors sought to replicate the results of their 2015 study, which linked chemical intolerance in parents to the risk of their children developing autism and/or ADHD.

The 2015 study found that mothers with chemical intolerance have 3.01 times the odds of having an autistic child and 2.3 times the odds of having a child with ADHD.

The new study not only corroborated the 2015 results but also found that the odds ratio has increased, from 3.01 to 5.29 for autism and from 2.3 to 3.18 for ADHD.

The paper did not specifically discuss the increase observed since 2015 in the odds ratio for parents with high chemical intolerance having children diagnosed with autism or ADHD.

According to Lyons-Weiler, the increase “likely reflects a combination of increased environmental toxicant exposures, expanding diagnostic criteria and increased exposure to myriad corporate toxins that induce cell death via ER stress [endoplasmic reticulum stress] and the unfolded protein response.”

He added:

“The contribution of an expanded vaccination schedule, particularly involving adjuvants like aluminum, is known to be an environmental cause of ER stress and cell death and thus has neurotoxic, neurodevelopmental and immunomodulatory effects.”

Addressing the proportion of study participants who reported high chemical intolerance (24.2%), Parks said that “over time, we are being exposed to more and more chemicals and now our children are exposed to them in the womb. As the number of toxins we are exposed to daily increases, eventually everyone will reach a point where their immune system is no longer able to cope with the onslaught of chemicals.”

Experts also addressed the high overall prevalence rate of autism measured in the study, as 12.3% (over 1 in 9) of families reported having at least one child diagnosed with autism — significantly higher than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) figure of 1 in 36 children.

“These numbers are further evidence, as if we needed any more, that the autism epidemic continues to grow at a catastrophic rate,” Gilmore said. “We have seen exponential growth in autism numbers for three decades. Even allowing for changes in diagnostic criteria and better case finding, we know the real number of people with autism has increased enormously.”

Focus on mast cell activation may ‘open doors to more targeted treatments’

According to the study, chemical intolerance arises through a process known as “Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance” (TILT). The process has two stages, starting with exposure to toxicants, followed by triggering — which is when symptoms appear, often after exposures to previously tolerated toxicants.

“Large numbers of patients attribute the initiation of their illness to well-defined events such as exposures to pesticides, new construction or remodeling, indoor air contaminants, or a flood- or water-damaged building resulting in mold and bacterial growth,” the study noted.

Key TILT initiators include fossil-fuel-derived toxicants — including coal, natural gas or oil, their combustion products, or fossil-fuel-containing chemicals such as pesticides and “drugs/antibiotics.”

The researchers identified biogenic toxicants, such as toxic mold or toxic algae particles, as another significant TILT initiator.

The study downplayed vaccines as a potential contributor to autism.

Lyons-Weiler said:

“The study’s authors appropriately highlight environmental toxicants as key contributors but avoid injected toxicants like mercury and aluminum in their discussion, despite the past studies in which these compounds are also shown to cause ER stress and cell death.

“They could have further emphasized the role of cumulative and synergistic effects among the various classes of factors: the more toxicants kids are exposed to, the fewer vaccines they can handle, and vice versa.”

“We know that immune system function is shifted in abnormal ways by vaccination, resulting in the immune system becoming sensitized to things it once tolerated, such as mold and various chemicals,” Parks said.

“I would start with a hard look at vaccinated versus unvaccinated children to see if there are any differences,” Gilmore said.

However, experts praised the study’s emphasis on mast cell activation — a hypothesis some of the study’s authors first proposed in 2021.

“I’m thrilled that mast-cell activation is being studied as one of the root causes of these dysfunctions because it will start opening doors to more targeted treatments,” Parks said. “Mast-cell activation is also being found to be at the core of many COVID vaccine-induced injuries.”

“Bringing the immune response, specifically mast-cell activation, back into balance needs to be at the center of our efforts to recover our health,” Parks said.

Reducing total toxic exposures could mitigate autism risk

According to the study’s authors, the results provide “strong evidence” that chemical intolerance is a risk factor for autism and ADHD. They said the findings “could be significant for preventive measures and early intervention strategies in families with parental chemical intolerance.”

The study recommended that prospective parents be assessed for chemical intolerance “at an early age” and called on primary care physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers who care for high-risk individuals “to understand and communicate the far-reaching consequences” of chemical intolerance.

Lyons-Weiler agreed. He said:

“The study corroborates decades of research suggesting that autism arises from a nexus of genetic and environmental factors. The findings support the idea that reducing total toxic exposures could mitigate autism risk, particularly in genetically susceptible populations.

“Viewing these results as part of a broader context emphasizing the need to be careful with public health interventions and personalized medicine approaches to environmental susceptibilities is essential.”

“This study confirms that we desperately need more research into potential environmental triggers of autism,” Gilmore said. “It demands acknowledgment that with autism we are in an enormous public health disaster.”