Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that the use of Tylenol by pregnant women may be linked to autism in children, according to a report Friday in the Wall Street Journal — which the Department of Health and Human Services said was “speculation.”
This comes after Kennedy said in April that HHS would undertake a “massive testing and research effort” to determine the cause of autism. Kennedy at the time said the plan was to release a comprehensive report in September. However, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said later that month the findings could take up to a year.
Kennedy has in the past made the unfounded claim that autism is a “preventable disease,” drawing heavy criticism from many medical experts.
How did Tylenol maker Kenvue and HHS respond to the WSJ report?
In a statement provided to CBS News on Friday, an HHS spokesperson called the Journal’s report “speculation.”
“We are using gold-standard science to get to the bottom of America’s unprecedented rise in autism rates. Until we release the final report, any claims about its contents are nothing more than speculation,” the spokesperson said.
In a separate statement in response to the WSJ story, Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol — whose active ingredient is acetaminophen — said that “we have continuously evaluated the science and continue to believe there is no causal link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and leading medical organizations agree on the safety of acetaminophen, its use during pregnancy, and the information provided on the label.”
Later Friday, Kenvue said in another statement that “we appreciate the Secretary acknowledging media coverage on the upcoming HHS report is ‘nothing more than speculation.'”
What do medical experts say?
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said in a statement provided to CBS News on Friday that “there is no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and fetal developmental issues.”
“Neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular, are multifactorial and very difficult to associate with a singular cause,” ACOG said. “Pregnant patients should not be frightened away from the many benefits of acetaminophen, which is safe and one of the few options pregnant people have for pain relief.”
CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook said he is looking forward to reading the upcoming report pledged by Kennedy, “especially the evidence behind any conclusions and recommendations.”
“I spoke this afternoon to a researcher who was part of a major study published just last year that followed 2.5 million children in Sweden over 25 years,” LaPook said. “He said use of acetaminophen … was not associated with an increased risk of autism in children.”
Autism has become more prevalent in children born in the U.S. over the past 25 years, according to statistics compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there is no scientific consensus on the reasons why.
In an interview with CBS News on Friday, Dr. Christine Ladd-Acosta, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the vice director for the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities, said research shows that the causes of autism “are complex.”
“There have been a few dozen studies looking at Tylenol and whether use during pregnancy is associated with risk of autism in those women’s children, and the evidence has been really kind of conflicting,” Ladd-Acosta said. “Some studies have shown no association. Some have shown a positive association. Some have shown negative associations. And I think part of that is because it’s really hard to tease apart … whether it’s the medication itself that is influencing autism risk in the child, or if it has to do with the condition … the mother is using the medicine to treat that is the thing that is important in autism risk.”
Ladd-Acosta noted that the dosage, the length of time that pregnant women take Tylenol, and the “specific condition” they are taking it for are all factors that have been considered when attempting to determine if there is a potential association between the medication and autism.
“There have been some associations, but there has been no conclusive evidence I’ve seen to show that Tylenol itself causes autism definitively,” Ladd-Acosta said.
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