Voice of the Environment | Campaigns | Investigating the Autism Epidemic

Voice of the Environment | Campaigns | Investigating the Autism Epidemic

Investigating the Autism Epidemic

	Voice of the Environment's mission is to educate the public regarding the transfer of public trust assets into private, mostly corporate, hands.
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Why did the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allow mercury exposures from childhood vaccines to more than double between 1988 and 1992 without bothering to calculate cumulative totals and their potential risks?

Why was there a corresponding spike in reported cases of autism spectrum disorders (ASD)? Why did autism grow from a relatively rare incidence of 1 in every 10,000 births in the 1980s to 1 in 500 in the late 1990s? Why did it continue to increase to 1 in 250 in 2000 and then 1 in 150 today? Why are rates of ADD, ADHC, speech delay, and other childhood disorders also rising, and why does 1 in every 5 American children have a developmental disorder or behavioral problem?

Autism has traditionally been a disease of industrialized nations, at least until recent years. But not all Western countries have autism epidemics. Autism spectrum disorder is much more prevalent in the US than in countries that removed thimerosal from vaccines.

Does mercury in vaccines cause autism in children? A definitive answer remains elusive. Other possible environmental triggers include: mercury in fish and amalgam fillings, mercury and other emissions from power plants, pesticides, PCBs, flame retardants, jet fuel, live viruses in vaccines, and more. It is plausible that any combination of the above, with or without thimerosal exposure added into the mix, might cause harm to some fetuses and infant children.

Voice of the Environment is determined to play a helpful role in an ongoing investigation to get to the bottom of the tragedy of autism. Working with the California State legislatures Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism, the M.I.N.D. Institute (UC Davis Medical Center), and myriad organizations and individuals around the country, we hope to see an end to the autism epidemic and a sharp curtailment of ASD.

April 1, 2010
On spectrum
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February 25, 2010
Do Toxins Cause Autism?
Autism was first identified in 1943 in an obscure medical journal. Since then it has become a frighteningly common affliction, with the Centers for Disease Control reporting recently that autism disorders now affect almost 1 percent of children.
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January 23, 2010
Is the Environment to Blame for the Rise in Autism Cases?
Autism cases are on the rise. Or so the most recent data would have us believe.
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December 29, 2009
Budget Crisis Leaves Therapists Without Jobs, Autistic Kids Without Treatment
In 2009, Maria Forsell's life was about to get more complicated.
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December 18, 2009
U.S. Autism Prevalence Rises to 1 in 110
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released their national autism prevalence report today, confirming that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders in the United States is 1 percent of the population, or one in 110 of children 8 years of age in 2006.
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November 3, 2009
Can Marijuana Help Kids with Autism?
This mom says giving her kid pot has made all the difference.
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November 3, 2009
A Powerful Identity, a Vanishing Diagnosis
It is one of the most intriguing labels in psychiatry.
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August 12, 2009
Autism Rate Now at One Percent of All US Children
A pair of federally funded studies on autism rates is about to make news -- big news -- and it isn't good: It would appear that somewhere around one percent of all US children currently have an autism spectrum disorder.
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June 23, 2009
Weed-Whacking Herbicide Proves Deadly to Human Cells
Used in gardens, farms, and parks around the world, the weed killer Roundup contains an ingredient that can suffocate human cells in a laboratory, researchers say.
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April 24, 2009
We Still Don't Know If Vaccines Are Safe
Recently, I was amazed to hear a commentary by CNN's Campbell Brown on the controversial vaccine issue.
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April 6, 2009
Pfizer to Pay 50m After Deaths of Nigerian Children in Drug Trial Experiment
A divorce case was all that passed for excitement at Richard P. Altschuler's "kinda small" lawyer's office in West Haven, Connecticut, when the phone rang nine years ago. On the other end of the line, a world away in the heat of Nigeria, was Etigwe Uwo, a young lawyer with "an incredible story about Pfizer".
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May 6, 2008
Poison Ice: Melting Sea Ice Releasing Coal Plant Toxins
As the sea ice melts, a toxic stew of mercury and synthetic chemicals is seeping into the Arctic food web, harming the area's people. We may be next.
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April 25, 2008
Autism Risk Linked To Distance From Power Plants, Other Mercury-releasing Sources
Is the risk of autism greater for children who live closer to the pollution source?
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April 16, 2008
Canada First to Label "Bisphenol A" As Officially Dangerous
ealth Canada is calling bisphenol A a dangerous substance, making it the first regulatory body in the world to reach such a determination and taking the initial step toward measures to control exposures to it.
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April 13, 2008
The autism alarm
What if you lived in a country where one child out of every 150 was kidnapped? There would be national outrage on all fronts, and we would see unprecedented action.
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March 27, 2008
The Next Big Autism Bomb: Are 1 in 50 Kids Potentially At Risk?
On Tuesday, March 11, a conference call was held between vaccine safety officials at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, several leading experts in vaccine safety research, and executives from America's Health Insurance Plans, (the HMO trade association) to discuss childhood mitochondrial dysfunction and its potential link to autism and vaccines.
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March 20, 2008
Give us answers on vaccines
By refusing to address what really happened to Hannah — by commanding parents to settle down and adhere to the nation's rigid immunization regime — officials will only drive people away from vaccines in anxiety-ridden droves.
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February 15, 2008
A Silent Pandemic: Industrial Chemicals Are Impairing the Brain Development of Children Worldwide
Fetal and early childhood exposures to industrial chemicals in the environment can damage the developing brain and can lead to neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs)—autism, attention deficit disorder (ADHD), and mental retardation.
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October 29, 2007
Autism screenings urged for all toddlers
The country's leading pediatricians group is making its strongest push yet to have all children screened for autism twice by age 2, warning of symptoms such as babies who don't babble at 9 months and 1-year-olds who don't point to toys.
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October 12, 2007
Waters and Kraus Lawsuit re Mercury Poisoning from Vaccine
The Dallas-based law firm of Waters & Kraus announced today that it has received documents as a result of the discovery process in the case of Counter v. Eli Lilly & Company, et al, currently pending in Brazoria County, Texas that come from the archives of Eli Lilly & Company.
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Article Archive

May 17th, 2010

Study: A Link Between Pesticides and ADHD

Alice Park/Time

Studies linking environmental substances to disease are coming fast and furious. Chemicals in plastics and common household goods have been associated with serious developmental problems, while a long inventory of other hazards are contributing to rising rates of modern ills: heart disease, obesity, diabetes, autism.

Add attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to the list. A new study in the journal Pediatrics associates exposure to pesticides with cases of ADHD in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S. alone, an estimated 4.5 million children ages 5 to 17 have been diagnosed with ADHD, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and rates of diagnosis have risen 3% a year between 1997 and 2006. Increasingly, research suggests that chemical influences, perhaps in combination with other environmental factors â€” like video games, hyperkinetically edited TV shows and flashing images in educational DVDs aimed at infants â€” may be contributing to the increase in attention problems.(See pictures of a school for autistic children.)

Led by Maryse Bouchard in Montreal, researchers based at the University of Montreal and Harvard University examined the potential relationship between ADHD and exposure to certain toxic pesticides called organophosphates. The team analyzed the levels of pesticide residue in the urine of more than 1,100 children ages 8 to 15 and found that those with the highest levels of dialkyl phosphates, which are the breakdown products of organophosphate pesticides, had the highest incidence of ADHD. Overall, they found a 35% increase in the odds of developing ADHD with every tenfold increase in urinary concentration of the pesticide residue. The effect was seen even at the low end of exposure: kids who had any detectable, above-average level of the most common pesticide metabolite in their urine were twice as likely as those with undetectable levels to record symptoms of the learning disorder.

"I was quite surprised to see an effect at lower levels of exposure," says Bouchard, who used data on ADHD from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a long-term study of health parameters of a representative sample of U.S. citizens.(See how fidgeting can actually help kids with ADHD.)

Bouchard's analysis is the first to home in on organophosphate pesticides as a potential contributor to ADHD in young children. But the author stresses that her study uncovers only an association, not a direct causal link between pesticide exposure and the developmental condition. There is evidence, however, that the mechanism of the link may be worth studying further: organophosphates are known to cause damage to the nerve connections in the brain â€” that's how they kill agricultural pests, after all. The chemical works by disrupting a specific neurotransmitter, acetylcholinesterase, a defect that has been implicated in children diagnosed with ADHD. In animal models, exposure to the pesticides has resulted in hyperactivity and cognitive deficits as well. (Comment on this story.)

"I am very confident in the correlation in this study, because we controlled for quite a few things that we thought could play a role," says Bouchard. "Adjusting for those things did not change the results very much. Which indicates that there is very little potential for confounding in this association between pesticides and ADHD."

The results call for additional studies to determine exactly which foods and which residential uses of pesticides may be most likely to lead to harm in children. Although Bouchard's study did not determine the exact method of exposure in the participants, youngsters are most likely to ingest the chemicals through their diet â€” by eating fruits and vegetables that have been sprayed while growing â€” according to the National Academy of Sciences. The study also raises the possibility of setting a national threshold for safe levels of exposure; the study authors note that according to the U.S. Pesticide Residue Program report, organophosphates were detected in 28% of frozen blueberries and in 19% of celery samples tested for pesticides. It is not clear whether those levels pose a threat to cognitive function in children, but the current study's findings suggest it may be wise to figure that out.

In the meantime, Bouchard suggests that concerned parents try to avoid using bug sprays in the home and to feed their children organically grown fruits and vegetables, if possible. (Otherwise, parents should be careful to scrub all produce to reduce residue.) While pesticide-free fruits and greens may be more costly, Bouchard says they may be worth the price in terms of future health.

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