This recent study was also co-authored by SC-CEHRT Co-Director, Dr. Rob McConnell. It utilized a pregnancy cohort from the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Healthcare system to investigate the effect of prenatal wildfire exposure on autism development in offspring by comparing mean wildfire PM2.5 concentration, number of days of smoke exposure, and number of waves of smoke exposure, to autism diagnosed by age 5. The study concluded that while there was no association with mean wildfire PM2.5 and autism alone, autism risk was associated with an increased number of wildfire-exposed days during the third trimester of pregnancy. This indicates that prenatal exposures to wildfire smoke may increase risk of autism among children. This conclusion is especially significant in the face of increases in wildfire smoke events across the country.