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Comment & Response
May 6, 2019

Maternal Exposure to Air Pollution During Pregnancy and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Offspring—Reply

Author Affiliations
  • 1Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  • 2Centre of Hip Health and Mobility, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  • 3School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  • 4BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
JAMA Pediatr. 2019;173(7):698. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.0928

In Reply We appreciate Chandrakumar and ‘t Jong’s comments on our study. Chandrakumar and ‘t Jong suggest that the observed association between prenatal exposure to nitric oxide (NO) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) could be owing to childhood exposures because brain development continues after birth. We concur that pregnancy and early childhood are crucial periods of neurodevelopment. Our study focused on the prenatal period.1 Future studies are needed to investigate the role of postnatal exposures. However, it will be difficult to differentiate between prenatal and postnatal exposures that are highly associated.

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