Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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Author: search.filters.author.Trousdale, KristieSubject: search.filters.subject.Environmental Health

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    Autism Spectrum Disorder and Hazardous Air Pollutants in the U.S. and Maryland
    (2010) Trousdale, Kristie; Dabney, Betty J; Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnoses in the United States has increased dramatically over the past 20 years, fueling investigations into possible environmental triggers for the disorder. Exposures to pesticides, persistent pollutants, prescription medications, and heavy metals through various routes have been examined, but very few studies have examined the potential role of chronic inhalation of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in the etiology of ASD. This thesis was designed to examine possible relationships between HAPs and ASD prevalence on a statewide level for the U.S., with sub-analyses on a finer, countywide level within the state of Maryland. Findings suggest consistent, positive associations between ASD prevalence and HAPs at the statewide level for the U.S. The findings do not persist at the county level in the Maryland sub-analyses. These results reinforce the concept of ASD as a spectrum of phenotypes best explained through multifactorial etiological models.