Overview

• The Wall Street Journal reported that HHS, led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., plans to identify prenatal acetaminophen use and low maternal folate as autism risk factors in an upcoming review.
• An HHS spokesperson said the agency will not confirm the report’s contents before release and cautioned that claims about the document are speculative.
• A 2025 analysis led by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found observational associations between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and autism or ADHD and outlined plausible biological mechanisms, while advising judicious, short-term use under medical guidance.
• A 2024 JAMA study using sibling comparisons across nearly 2.5 million Swedish births found no increased autism risk linked to prenatal acetaminophen when controlling for familial factors, concluding the association was noncausal.
• The Coalition of Autism Scientists criticized promoting exposure links as premature, Kenvue said it sees no causal link, and Kenvue’s shares fell after the WSJ report.