Comments on: Wireless Technology and Autism

By: belair

belair — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:06:29 +0000

I’m concerned like most of us with cell phone radiation, naturally the telecommunications industry has been claiming that cell phone usage is safe, but with the WHO and International Agency for Research last year 2011 that there were risks for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer..and also as parents concern for our children’s since there heads absorbs up to double the energy that of a large adult..upon many researches for emf, I found the Matrix, a new product using military stealth technology successfully blocking more than 85% of emf… if this could help out go for it.. http://to-know.site88.net/

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:52:36 +0000

In that it was likely people with Asperger’s who designed the chips, computers, and electronic networks that made cell phones possible, that may well be true.

By: mattdick

mattdick — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:36:19 +0000

The statement itself is also an example of the confusing correlation with causation logical fallacy, assuming that A causes B because they occur together.

The author quoted the right stats, but definitely got causation wrong. The obvious conclusion is that autism causes increased cell phone use.

By: JoH

JoH — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:57:00 +0000

It’s SO frustrating to witness how quickly these things are accepted uncritically and roam the world in the blink of an eye… A couple of days ago this report appeared in Belgium’s biggest newspaper(not really known for its in-depth reporting…), and after reading just a couple of lines I had a strong suspicion already that we would hear more about it on this Blog. My BS detector has improved considerably over the last couple of months with Neurologica, lol…

By: EmilyB

EmilyB — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 15:56:41 +0000

Dr. Novella,
Have you addressed the theory of low glutathione and autism?
I hadn’t heard anything about this but Jenny McCarthy has been mentioning it in recent interviews, so I’m sure the theory will become more widespread. Is there any possible grain of truth to this, or just more bad science?

By: Scepticon

Scepticon — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 09:25:33 +0000

Reading your excerpts from this study made me laugh, thanks.

I had a kind of “jinx” moment when I read the mitochondrial resuscitation part and then your comment,
hilarious.

By: hagus

hagus — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:26:45 +0000

If I recall correctly, aren’t the autism rates highest in places like Seattle and the Bay Area?

The theory is that you have already selected for autism in these communities by having them filled with engineers and scientists who already exhibit autistic- or aspergers-like traits (ability to focus on tasks, tendency to be introverted and less socially apt, high intelligence in general).

These people then interbreed and the result is apparently a skyrocketing austism and aspergers rate.

Or is this another case of confusing cause and effect?

By: DLC

DLC — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:39:42 +0000

Thanks for writing about this. In my email I used the words “craptacular” and that it “Redlined my BS Detector”.
I spent about an hour looking for the study online and came up with nothing. I wish more science writers in the popular media had better BS detectors.

By: Niobe

Niobe — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:50:59 +0000

Or that the rise of the Internet lead to more autism self-diagnosis.
From google:
Results 1 – 10 of about 4,620,000 for asperger

By: Stephen_Bain

Stephen_Bain — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:30:37 +0000

Ah, it is clear here that the author got his logical fallacy wrong.

What he meant to say was that the rise in autism has caused us to use more wireless devices.