Autism Rates in Roundup Hotspots

In addition to vaccines, anti-vaccine influencers like to blame glyphosate or Roundup for the rise in autism.

Stephanie Seneff is the MIT researcher who thinks that half of children will be autistic by 2025 2032.

And not surprisingly, some find a way to blame both vaccines and glyphosate, you know, to cover all of their bases.

Autism Rates in Roundup Hotspots

Also, not surprisingly, their theory falls flat when you look at it skeptically.

Why is the autism prevalence rate lower in Portugal, when Spain has a higher risk of glyphosate contamination?

Just consider research on glyphosate ‘hot spots.’

These are areas with a higher hazard of glyphosate contamination.

There aren’t very many of them, though?

“Our analyses reveal that about 1% of croplands worldwide (385,000 km²) are susceptible to mid to high contamination hazard and less than 0.1% has a high hazard. Hotspots found in South America, Europe, and East and South Asia were mostly correlated to widespread GLP use in pastures, soybean, and corn; diffuse contributing processes were mainly biodegradation recalcitrance and persistence, while soil residue accumulation and leaching below the root zone contributed locally to the hazard in hotspots.”

The global environmental hazard of glyphosate use

In fact, extremely few areas are considered to be hot spots or at high hazard for glyphosate contamination.

So let’s instead just compare the areas that are at low hazard for contamination with those that are at higher risk for contamination. If glyphosate causes autism, those areas with higher risks for glyphosate contamination will have higher rates of autism, right?

Indiana is in a region with mid-low glyphosate hazard, but has lower autism prevalence rates than Utah, which is a region with low glyphosate hazard.

Nope.

There is no correlation between states with higher risks for glyphosate hazard and autism prevalence. Just as there has never been a correlation between vaccination rates and autism prevalence!

References

Maggi F, la Cecilia D, Tang FHM, McBratney A. The global environmental hazard of glyphosate use. Sci Total Environ. 2020 May 15;717:137167. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137167. Epub 2020 Feb 8. PMID: 32209264.

Shaw KA, Williams S, Patrick ME, et al. Prevalence and Early Identification of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 4 and 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 16 Sites, United States, 2022. MMWR Surveill Summ 2025;74(No. SS-2):1–22. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss7402a1