"In Baby Teeth, Links Between Chemical Exposure In Pregnancy And Autism" - Perri Klass, MD
If you’re a parent worrying through pregnancy, or maybe trying to make sense of your child’s neurodevelopmental problems, you aren’t always glad to see another story about a study looking at possible environmental risk factors. “I very much agree this is not about blaming the parent in any way,” said Manish Arora, BDS, MPH, PhD, professor and vice chairman in the department of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It’s very hard to buy your way out of exposures; many exposures are present everywhere.” From a research point of view, Dr. Arora said, one challenge has been to measure toxic chemicals and exposures during fetal development, and connect them with an outcome like autism, which is diagnosed years later. He has developed an innovative technique using baby teeth, which start to develop toward the end of the first trimester, and form a new layer each day, growing in what he called an “incremental archival manner.”
- Paul Curtin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Manish Arora, BDS, MPH, PhD, Edith J. Baerwald Professor, Vice Chairman, Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai