Dr. Marty Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said he does not believe autism is a genetic condition, calling it instead a “modern-day phenomenon.”

"I don't believe autism is genetic. When you see the severe autism that we see, at the high rate that we see today — the repeated motions, the ticks, the individuals who are completely nonverbal, you didn't see that a generation ago," he said in an interview with Scripps News. "You still don't see people in their 60s and 70s with those symptoms — the sort of repetitive motions, the completely non-verbal individuals."

This week, federal health officials warned of the possible link between Tylenol and its active ingredient, acetaminophen, during pregnancy to autism — despite contested science.

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