Dr. Weisskopf is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology at Harvard's School of Public Health.
Abstract: In the last decade, several studies have examined the association between perinatal exposure to ambient air pollution and risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Associations have been seen with different aspects of air pollution, including hazardous air toxics, ozone, particulate and traffic-related pollution. As with any epidemiological study, confounding can be a concern; in the case of air pollution, socioeconomic status and place of residence are of particular concern as these can be related to ASD case ascertain- ment and other potential causal risk factors for ASD. I will discuss our work within the Nurses’ Health Study II cohort in this context. We find an increased risk of ASD with increasing maternal exposure to particulate matter air pollution ≤2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) during pregnancy, and specifically the 3rd trimester. I will discuss the implications of time window specific associations for confounding and the epidemiological methods concept of negative controls as well as other methodological concepts related to this work. Sponsored by the Integrated Health Sciences Core of the Michigan Lifestage Environmental Exposures and Disease Center (M-LEEaD).