RFK Jr attributes rise in autism to environmental factors, while CDC points to improved diagnostic practices

While autism experts claim that the rise in cases stems from greater awareness and improved diagnostic testing, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shut down that idea Wednesday and, instead, attributed the rise in cases to environmental factors.

Those who discount that environmental exposure is a factor in rising autism cases are engaging in "epidemic denial," Kennedy told reporters Wednesday. 

Kennedy appeared at HHS's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to discuss the latest findings on autism included in a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey released Tuesday. 

"This is coming from an environmental toxin, and somebody made a profit by putting that environmental toxin into our air, our water, our medicines, our food," Kennedy said. "And it's to their benefit to say ‘Oh, to normalize it, to say all this is all normal, it's always been here.’ That's not good for our country."

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Even so, the CDC's own new survey Kennedy addressed found that autism prevalence is on the rise and said the increase "might be due to differences in availability of services for early detection and evaluation and diagnostic practices."

Specifically, the survey found that one in 31 8-year-old children were diagnosed with autism in 2022 – up from one in 36 in 2000.

Additionally, the survey determined that autism rates were far more common for boys than girls. While one in 20 boys is diagnosed with autism, those numbers go down to one in 70 for girls. 

While Kennedy acknowledged Wednesday there may be some genetic vulnerabilities that could contribute to increased odds of an autism diagnosis, he said the autism rates spiked starting in 1989 and that some new environmental toxin must have been introduced around that time. 

"Why are we not seeing it in older people? Why is this only happening in young people?" Kennedy said. "Have you ever seen anybody our age – I'm 71 years old – with full blown autism? Head-banging, non-verbal, non-toilet-trained." 

As a result, Kennedy said HHS' studies would examine toxins including mold, pesticides, air, water, different medications, as well as the age and obesity rates of parents, among other things. 

"We’re going to look at all the potential culprits," Kennedy said. 

HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital regarding the apparent discrepancy between Kennedy's remarks and the CDC survey. 

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Kennedy signaled Thursday in a Cabinet meeting at the White House that the administration would kick off a massive research initiative to understand the cause of autism by September. 

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy and legal advocacy on behalf of those with autism, pushed back against Kennedy’s statements in the Cabinet meeting and claimed Kennedy refused to acknowledge studies that point to genes as the underlying cause of autism. 

"There is no evidence that autism is actually becoming more common (rather, we as a society are getting better at identifying it, and diagnostic standards have appropriately been widened)," the network said in a Thursday statement. "Even if it were, however, autistic and other disabled people belong in our society. To claim otherwise, and to speak as though our existence is some kind of calamity that must be eliminated, is a form of eugenics."