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Researchers have found that children who live near freeways at birth have twice the risk of autism, suggesting that environmental factors may play a role in the disorder's growing incidence.
A study by researchers at the Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles found that babies who lived within 1,000 feet of a freeway, but not a major road, were at risk.
Lead researcher Helen Volk says that may be due to the type and high level of pollutants on a freeway.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, looked at 304 children with autism and 259 normally developing children.
A 2006 study also found autistic children were 50 percent more likely to have been born around contaminated air.
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