In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition.
If you listen to Sirius XM, you may have heard radio ads about a class action lawsuit alleging that acetaminophen causes it.
But there is a very long and growing list of other correlates, risk factors, and possible causes that have been the subject of serious studies.
Kenvue Inc., a Johnson & Johnson spinoff, won’t have to face lawsuits alleging prenatal exposure to over-the-counter painkiller Tylenol caused autism after a judge rejected the scientific evidence behind the cases.
US District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan concluded Monday that plaintiffs in more than 400 suits accusing Kenvue and other makers and sellers of acetaminophen relied on flawed science in seeking to prove an increased risk of developmental issues in babies. The ruling effectively kills a consolidation of the cases before Cote.
Kenvue shares were up nearly 5% in Tuesday morning trading.
In her pretrial ruling, Cote found that plaintiffs’ scientific experts couldn’t show legitimate links between Tylenol and autism attention-deficit problems or hyperactivity, making the cases legally unsustainable. The experts didn’t use a “reliable application of scientific methods” in accessing the causal links between the drug and the ailments, Cote concluded in a 148-page ruling.
From the ruling: "the plaintiffs do not have admissible evidence to demonstrate that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen causes either ASD or ADHD in offspring."
