Living Amid Toxicity

Stephanie Senef Senior Researcher at MIT
The CDC estimated that one in 68 12-year-old children in the US are on the autism spectrum today, and the prevalence is growing at an exponential rate. An extension of the line on a log scale predicts that one fourth of the children born in 2025 will be diagnosed with autism, and half the children seven years later. In fact, Dr. Stephanie Seneff, of MIT, predicts that the growth could be worse than exponential, and that, already by 2025, half the children born will be on the autism spectrum, if we stay the course. She attributes the increase in autism and other disorders, including heart disease, as well as various mental and physical disorders, to the toxic chemicals found in the foods we eat, the air we breathe, and the materials that surround us.

Dr. Senef links the associations between prescriptions drugs and disease, and associations between environmental pollutants and disease. At the intersection of computer science and biology, Dr. Seneff’s research not only identifies the relationships between toxic chemicals, such as aluminum and glyphosate, and disease, but also helps to develop online tools that can assist a researcher, patient, or clinician in the discovery process.