Article A: CALIFORNIA AUTISM CASES ON THE DECLINE?

According to information released today by the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS), California's developmental services system added 734 new cases of professionally diagnosed DSM IV full syndrome autism to it's statewide system in the past three months, (April 4, 2005, to July 8, 2005).

Not An Epidemic?

There are now 28,046 persons with autism in California's system compared to 13,054 in 2000, an increase of 14,992 new children in five short years. It took over 32 years from 1969 to April 2001 to add a total of 14,777 new children to the entire system, it took just five years, from July 2000 to July 2005, to add 14,992 new children. In effect, the caseload growth in the past five years surpassed the ENTIRE caseload growth for the first 32 years of the system's history!

A Downward Trend? (See charts below)

Calendar year 2002 was California's all time record year for the number of new cases of professionally diagnosed, full syndrome, DSM IV autism (NOT including PDD, NOS, Asperger's Syndrome, or any other autism spectrum disorder) entering California's 36 year old developmental services system with 3,259 new cases. In calendar year 2003 the number of new cases dropped to 3,125 new cases and in calendar year 2004 the number of new cases dropped again to 3,074. For the first half of calendar year 2005, California has added 1,470 new cases compared to 1,518 new cases for the same time period in 2004.

It is important to note, that in California's developmental services system, children under the age of 3 years old are NOT counted in DDS's quarterly reports. Therefore, as an example, children born in 1999 would not begin to show up in the DDS quarterly reports until at the very earliest, the year 2002. DDS reports that nearly 90% of all persons with autism in California's system entered the system by age 6 years old.

An Epidemic of Autistic Children

Over 80% of California's 28,046 persons with full syndrome autism enrolled in California's voluntary developmental services system are between the ages of 3 and 17 years old, meaning only 2 out of 10 persons with full syndrome autism are over 18 years old. There are more 14 year olds then 15 year olds, there are more 13 year olds then 14 year olds, so on and so forth...

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Article B: Autism figures may be wrong

Data unsuitable for proving rise
By Michael Conlon, Reuters  |  July 11, 2005

Government figures that have been cited to prove that autism is rapidly increasing in the United States are not reliable and thus unsuitable for tracking the disorder, according to a study published in the July issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The US Department of Education figures, based on the number of children receiving special education assistance, have internal ''anomalies" and are in conflict with a number of studies on the prevalence of the condition, said the report from Portland State University in Oregon.

''Basically we don't know what the true prevalence of autism is in this country," the study's author, physician James Laidler, said in an interview. ''The problem with the data is that it may be including kids who have problems other than autism -- a less severe degree than was included even . . . a year or five years ago -- and it has some internal inconsistencies."

''That said, there may still be an autism epidemic in the United States," but the figures most widely used to demonstrate that are not valid, Laidler said.

The government figures estimate that autism as recorded in the US public school population went from 5,415 cases in 1991-1992 to 118,602 in 2001-2002.

One figure used by the Autism Society of America and others is that about one out of every 250 babies in the United States is born with the disability. It usually appears in the first three years of childhood, permanently impairing development of those areas of the brain that control verbal and nonverbal communication as well as social interaction.

Its causes have not been determined, though several different theories have been suggested. Some have placed blame on childhood vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal, an organic compound that is 49 percent mercury and is no longer used in such vaccines in the United States; The Institute of Medicine, an independent body that advises the federal government, said this year there is no evidence of any link between vaccines and autism.

The Department of Education figures ''are at odds with studies of autism prevalence, largely because the criteria used by the school districts to categorize children as autistic are neither rigorous nor consistent," according to the Oregon study.

''They are inconsistent over time, as are the medical criteria, and are inconsistent from region to region (and thus) not reliable for tracking the prevalence of autism, and they in fact never were meant to fill this need," it said. 

Editors note: what a great use of time. Now we are back to proving there is an autism epidemic. Maybe it is just me, but every where I go – to the grocery store, amusement parks, playgrounds, and camps -- I can see more autistic children than over the past five years. In this editor’s opinion, time would be better spent looking for the cause, treatment and cure, not disputing there is a need for help for these children and their families.

Article A: A Mystery Behind Autism’s Rise

By Rick Holmes / Local view
Sunday, July 10, 2005

Is there any illness quite as heart-breaking as autism? One day your toddler is full of energy and wonder, lighting up the room with a smile that speaks nothing but good. Then suddenly the light goes dim, detachment replaces wonder and the noisy toddler gets silent or prone to random upsets.

     And are there any medical controversies as distressing as the raging battle over what and who is to blame for a dramatic increase in autism?

     Autism was first diagnosed as a neurological disorder in 1943, but it was rare until the 1990s, when cases began to multiply. There is disagreement about this -- there's disagreement about almost everything in this controversy -- from those who argue autism has always been there, it just wasn't diagnosed. But most longtime preschool teachers and pediatricians will tell you the surge of developmental and attention-related disorders isn't just their imagination.

     What's behind the outbreak? Circumstantial evidence points to thimerosal, a mercury-based ingredient in many childhood vaccines. Autism cases increased after U.S. health officials began requiring more vaccinations, dramatically increasing kids' exposure to thimerosal. Many parents of autistic children say the symptoms appeared within days or weeks of multiple vaccinations. Mercury has been linked to lots of neurological disorders, and some autistic children show high levels of mercury.

     That's more than enough evidence to convince thousands of parents of autistic children. Grandparents have been convinced as well, including Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who held hearings on the issue.

     "My grandson received nine shots in one day, seven of which contained thimerosal, which is 50 percent mercury," Burton said, "and he became autistic a short time later."

     But circumstantial evidence isn't scientific evidence. Just because autism followed exposure to thimerosal doesn't mean it was caused by it.

     Scientific evidence, say government officials, finds no connection between thimerosal and autism. The Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics have all concluded there is no link.

     Five major studies have cleared the additive, and scientists are starting to resent the resistance to those conclusions coming from the parents of autistic children.

     "It's really terrifying, the scientific illiteracy that supports these suspicions," Dr. Marie McCormack, who chaired an Institute of Medicine panel that cleared thimerosal, told The New York Times.

     Further fueling those suspicions are the cozy relationships between big pharmaceutical companies and bureaucrats and politicians in Washington. In a recent article in Rolling Stone, lawyer and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accuses the FDA and the drug companies of holding secret meetings to cover up evidence of links between thimerosal and autism.

     Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who Kennedy says has received $873,000 in campaign contributions from drug companies, has repeatedly tried to immunize vaccine-makers from liability from the 4,800 lawsuits filed by parents of autistic children.

     But if the parents' suspicions are understandable, so are the concerns of the government and its scientists. If fearful parents don't get their children vaccinated, we could see new epidemics of diseases that have long been under control. Some parents are also putting their children through dangerous and discredited therapies intended to cure their autism by removing mercury from their systems.

     Some say the dispute may be resolved by time. Thimerosal was removed from most vaccines in 2003 and the children vaccinated since then are now coming into the age when the symptoms of autism and its precursors first appear. If the autism rate starts to fall, all will be relieved, but in European nations that removed thimerosal from vaccines ahead of the U.S., the autism rate keeps going up.

     I know just enough about this topic to be thoroughly confused, but it doesn't take an expert to see the larger problem. Ten years ago, one child in 2,500 developed autism. Today that number is 1 in 166. If thimerosal isn't the culprit, scientists and regulators had better get busy figuring out what is.

Rick Holmes' column appears on Sundays. He can be reached by e-mail at rholmes@cnc.com.

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Article B: Deadly Immunity

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal
By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly "embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left.

The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.

Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."

But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line. "We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits," said Dr. Robert Brent, a pediatrician at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. "This will be a resource to our very busy plaintiff attorneys in this country." Dr. Bob Chen, head of vaccine safety for the CDC, expressed relief that "given the sensitivity of the information, we have been able to keep it out of the hands of, let's say, less responsible hands." Dr. John Clements, vaccines adviser at the World Health Organization, declared flatly that the study "should not have been done at all" and warned that the results "will be taken by others and will be used in ways beyond the control of this group. The research results have to be handled."

In fact, the government has proved to be far more adept at handling the damage than at protecting children's health. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.

Vaccine manufacturers had already begun to phase thimerosal out of injections given to American infants -- but they continued to sell off their mercury-based supplies of vaccines until last year. The CDC and FDA gave them a hand, buying up the tainted vaccines for export to developing countries and allowing drug companies to continue using the preservative in some American vaccines -- including several pediatric flu shots as well as tetanus boosters routinely given to eleven-year-olds.

The drug companies are also getting help from powerful lawmakers in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children. On five separate occasions, Frist has tried to seal all of the government's vaccine-related documents -- including the Simpsonwood transcripts -- and shield Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal, from subpoenas. In 2002, the day after Frist quietly slipped a rider known as the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" into a homeland security bill, the company contributed $10,000 to his campaign and bought 5,000 copies of his book on bioterrorism. The measure was repealed by Congress in 2003 -- but earlier this year, Frist slipped another provision into an anti-terrorism bill that would deny compensation to children suffering from vaccine-related brain disorders. "The lawsuits are of such magnitude that they could put vaccine producers out of business and limit our capacity to deal with a biological attack by terrorists," says Andy Olsen, a legislative assistant to Frist.

Even many conservatives are shocked by the government's effort to cover up the dangers of thimerosal. Rep. Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, oversaw a three-year investigation of thimerosal after his grandson was diagnosed with autism. "Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly related to the autism epidemic," his House Government Reform Committee concluded in its final report. "This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal, a known neurotoxin." The FDA and other public-health agencies failed to act, the committee added, out of "institutional malfeasance for self protection" and "misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."

The story of how government health agencies colluded with Big Pharma to hide the risks of thimerosal from the public is a chilling case study of institutional arrogance, power and greed. I was drawn into the controversy only reluctantly. As an attorney and environmentalist who has spent years working on issues of mercury toxicity, I frequently met mothers of autistic children who were absolutely convinced that their kids had been injured by vaccines. Privately, I was skeptical.

I doubted that autism could be blamed on a single source, and I certainly understood the government's need to reassure parents that vaccinations are safe; the eradication of deadly childhood diseases depends on it. I tended to agree with skeptics like Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, who criticized his colleagues on the House Government Reform Committee for leaping to conclusions about autism and vaccinations. "Why should we scare people about immunization," Waxman pointed out at one hearing, "until we know the facts?"

It was only after reading the Simpsonwood transcripts, studying the leading scientific research and talking with many of the nation's pre-eminent authorities on mercury that I became convinced that the link between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders is real. Five of my own children are members of the Thimerosal Generation -- those born between 1989 and 2003 -- who received heavy doses of mercury from vaccines. "The elementary grades are overwhelmed with children who have symptoms of neurological or immune-system damage," Patti White, a school nurse, told the House Government Reform Committee in 1999. "Vaccines are supposed to be making us healthier; however, in twenty-five years of nursing I have never seen so many damaged, sick kids. Something very, very wrong is happening to our children."

More than 500,000 kids currently suffer from autism, and pediatricians diagnose more than 40,000 new cases every year. The disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among eleven children born in the months after thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931.

Some skeptics dispute that the rise in autism is caused by thimerosal-tainted vaccinations. They argue that the increase is a result of better diagnosis -- a theory that seems questionable at best, given that most of the new cases of autism are clustered within a single generation of children. "If the epidemic is truly an artifact of poor diagnosis," scoffs Dr. Boyd Haley, one of the world's authorities on mercury toxicity, "then where are all the twenty-year-old autistics?" Other researchers point out that Americans are exposed to a greater cumulative "load" of mercury than ever before, from contaminated fish to dental fillings, and suggest that thimerosal in vaccines may be only part of a much larger problem. It's a concern that certainly deserves far more attention than it has received -- but it overlooks the fact that the mercury concentrations in vaccines dwarf other sources of exposure to our children.

What is most striking is the lengths to which many of the leading detectives have gone to ignore -- and cover up -- the evidence against thimerosal. From the very beginning, the scientific case against the mercury additive has been overwhelming. The preservative, which is used to stem fungi and bacterial growth in vaccines, contains ethylmercury, a potent neurotoxin. Truckloads of studies have shown that mercury tends to accumulate in the brains of primates and other animals after they are injected with vaccines -- and that the developing brains of infants are particularly susceptible. In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to much lower concentrations of ethylmercury than those given to American children still suffered brain damage years later. Russia banned thimerosal from children's vaccines twenty years ago, and Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have since followed suit.

"You couldn't even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe," says Haley, who heads the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. "It's just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissue, the cells die. If you put it in a petri dish, the culture dies. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."

Internal documents reveal that Eli Lilly, which first developed thimerosal, knew from the start that its product could cause damage -- and even death -- in both animals and humans. In 1930, the company tested thimerosal by administering it to twenty-two patients with terminal meningitis, all of whom died within weeks of being injected -- a fact Lilly didn't bother to report in its study declaring thimerosal safe. In 1935, researchers at another vaccine manufacturer, Pittman-Moore, warned Lilly that its claims about thimerosal's safety "did not check with ours." Half the dogs Pittman injected with thimerosal-based vaccines became sick, leading researchers there to declare the preservative "unsatisfactory as a serum intended for use on dogs."

In the decades that followed, the evidence against thimerosal continued to mount. During the Second World War, when the Department of Defense used the preservative in vaccines on soldiers, it required Lilly to label it "poison." In 1967, a study in Applied Microbiology found that thimerosal killed mice when added to injected vaccines. Four years later, Lilly's own studies discerned that thimerosal was "toxic to tissue cells" in concentrations as low as one part per million -- 100 times weaker than the concentration in a typical vaccine. Even so, the company continued to promote thimerosal as "nontoxic" and also incorporated it into topical disinfectants. In 1977, ten babies at a Toronto hospital died when an antiseptic preserved with thimerosal was dabbed onto their umbilical cords.

In 1982, the FDA proposed a ban on over-the-counter products that contained thimerosal, and in 1991 the agency considered banning it from animal vaccines. But tragically, that same year, the CDC recommended that infants be injected with a series of mercury-laced vaccines. Newborns would be vaccinated for hepatitis B within twenty-four hours of birth, and two-month-old infants would be immunized for haemophilus influenzae B and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis.

The drug industry knew the additional vaccines posed a danger. The same year that the CDC approved the new vaccines, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccine programs, warned the company that six-month-olds who were administered the shots would suffer dangerous exposure to mercury. He recommended that thimerosal be discontinued, "especially when used on infants and children," noting that the industry knew of nontoxic alternatives. "The best way to go," he added, "is to switch to dispensing the actual vaccines without adding preservatives."

For Merck and other drug companies, however, the obstacle was money. Thimerosal enables the pharmaceutical industry to package vaccines in vials that contain multiple doses, which require additional protection because they are more easily contaminated by multiple needle entries. The larger vials cost half as much to produce as smaller, single-dose vials, making it cheaper for international agencies to distribute them to impoverished regions at risk of epidemics. Faced with this "cost consideration," Merck ignored Hilleman's warnings, and government officials continued to push more and more thimerosal-based vaccines for children. Before 1989, American preschoolers received only three vaccinations -- for polio, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella. A decade later, thanks to federal recommendations, children were receiving a total of twenty-two immunizations by the time they reached first grade.

As the number of vaccines increased, the rate of autism among children exploded. During the 1990s, 40 million children were injected with thimerosal-based vaccines, receiving unprecedented levels of mercury during a period critical for brain development. Despite the well-documented dangers of thimerosal, it appears that no one bothered to add up the cumulative dose of mercury that children would receive from the mandated vaccines. "What took the FDA so long to do the calculations?" Peter Patriarca, director of viral products for the agency, asked in an e-mail to the CDC in 1999. "Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when they rapidly expanded the childhood immunization schedule?"

But by that time, the damage was done. Infants who received all their vaccines, plus boosters, by the age of six months were being injected with levels of ethylmercury 187 times greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury, a related neurotoxin. Although the vaccine industry insists that ethylmercury poses little danger because it breaks down rapidly and is removed by the body, several studies -- including one published in April by the National Institutes of Health -- suggest that ethylmercury is actually more toxic to developing brains and stays in the brain longer than methylmercury.

Officials responsible for childhood immunizations insist that the additional vaccines were necessary to protect infants from disease and that thimerosal is still essential in developing nations, which, they often claim, cannot afford the single-dose vials that don't require a preservative. Dr. Paul Offit, one of CDC's top vaccine advisers, told me, "I think if we really have an influenza pandemic -- and certainly we will in the next twenty years, because we always do -- there's no way on God's earth that we immunize 280 million people with single-dose vials. There has to be multidose vials."

But while public-health officials may have been well-intentioned, many of those on the CDC advisory committee who backed the additional vaccines had close ties to the industry. Dr. Sam Katz, the committee's chair, was a paid consultant for most of the major vaccine makers and shares a patent on a measles vaccine with Merck, which also manufactures the hepatitis B vaccine. Dr. Neal Halsey, another committee member, worked as a researcher for the vaccine companies and received honoraria from Abbott Labs for his research on the hepatitis B vaccine.

Indeed, in the tight circle of scientists who work on vaccines, such conflicts of interest are common. Rep. Burton says that the CDC "routinely allows scientists with blatant conflicts of interest to serve on intellectual advisory committees that make recommendations on new vaccines," even though they have "interests in the products and companies for which they are supposed to be providing unbiased oversight." The House Government Reform Committee discovered that four of the eight CDC advisers who approved guidelines for a rotavirus vaccine laced with thimerosal "had financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine."

Offit, who shares a patent on the vaccine, acknowledged to me that he "would make money" if his vote to approve it eventually leads to a marketable product. But he dismissed my suggestion that a scientist's direct financial stake in CDC approval might bias his judgment. "It provides no conflict for me," he insists. "I have simply been informed by the process, not corrupted by it. When I sat around that table, my sole intent was trying to make recommendations that best benefited the children in this country. It's offensive to say that physicians and public-health people are in the pocket of industry and thus are making decisions that they know are unsafe for children. It's just not the way it works."

Other vaccine scientists and regulators gave me similar assurances. Like Offit, they view themselves as enlightened guardians of children's health, proud of their "partnerships" with pharmaceutical companies, immune to the seductions of personal profit, besieged by irrational activists whose anti-vaccine campaigns are endangering children's health. They are often resentful of questioning. "Science," says Offit, "is best left to scientists."

Still, some government officials were alarmed by the apparent conflicts of interest. In his e-mail to CDC administrators in 1999, Paul Patriarca of the FDA blasted federal regulators for failing to adequately scrutinize the danger posed by the added baby vaccines. "I'm not sure there will be an easy way out of the potential perception that the FDA, CDC and immunization-policy bodies may have been asleep at the switch re: thimerosal until now," Patriarca wrote. The close ties between regulatory officials and the pharmaceutical industry, he added, "will also raise questions about various advisory bodies regarding aggressive recommendations for use" of thimerosal in child vaccines.

If federal regulators and government scientists failed to grasp the potential risks of thimerosal over the years, no one could claim ignorance after the secret meeting at Simpsonwood. But rather than conduct more studies to test the link to autism and other forms of brain damage, the CDC placed politics over science. The agency turned its database on childhood vaccines -- which had been developed largely at taxpayer expense -- over to a private agency, America's Health Insurance Plans, ensuring that it could not be used for additional research. It also instructed the Institute of Medicine, an advisory organization that is part of the National Academy of Sciences, to produce a study debunking the link between thimerosal and brain disorders. The CDC "wants us to declare, well, that these things are pretty safe," Dr. Marie McCormick, who chaired the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee, told her fellow researchers when they first met in January 2001. "We are not ever going to come down that [autism] is a true side effect" of thimerosal exposure. According to transcripts of the meeting, the committee's chief staffer, Kathleen Stratton, predicted that the IOM would conclude that the evidence was "inadequate to accept or reject a causal relation" between thimerosal and autism. That, she added, was the result "Walt wants" -- a reference to Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the National Immunization Program for the CDC.

For those who had devoted their lives to promoting vaccination, the revelations about thimerosal threatened to undermine everything they had worked for. "We've got a dragon by the tail here," said Dr. Michael Kaback, another committee member. "The more negative that [our] presentation is, the less likely people are to use vaccination, immunization -- and we know what the results of that will be. We are kind of caught in a trap. How we work our way out of the trap, I think is the charge."

Even in public, federal officials made it clear that their primary goal in studying thimerosal was to dispel doubts about vaccines. "Four current studies are taking place to rule out the proposed link between autism and thimerosal," Dr. Gordon Douglas, then-director of strategic planning for vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, assured a Princeton University gathering in May 2001. "In order to undo the harmful effects of research claiming to link the [measles] vaccine to an elevated risk of autism, we need to conduct and publicize additional studies to assure parents of safety." Douglas formerly served as president of vaccinations for Merck, where he ignored warnings about thimerosal's risks.

In May of last year, the Institute of Medicine issued its final report. Its conclusion: There is no proven link between autism and thimerosal in vaccines. Rather than reviewing the large body of literature describing the toxicity of thimerosal, the report relied on four disastrously flawed epidemiological studies examining European countries, where children received much smaller doses of thimerosal than American kids. It also cited a new version of the Verstraeten study, published in the journal Pediatrics, that had been reworked to reduce the link between thimerosal and autism. The new study included children too young to have been diagnosed with autism and overlooked others who showed signs of the disease. The IOM declared the case closed and -- in a startling position for a scientific body -- recommended that no further research be conducted.

The report may have satisfied the CDC, but it convinced no one. Rep. David Weldon, a Republican physician from Florida who serves on the House Government Reform Committee, attacked the Institute of Medicine, saying it relied on a handful of studies that were "fatally flawed" by "poor design" and failed to represent "all the available scientific and medical research." CDC officials are not interested in an honest search for the truth, Weldon told me, because "an association between vaccines and autism would force them to admit that their policies irreparably damaged thousands of children. Who would want to make that conclusion about themselves?"

Under pressure from congress, parents and a few of its own panel members, the Institute of Medicine reluctantly convened a second panel to review the findings of the first. In February, the new panel, composed of different scientists, criticized the earlier panel for its lack of transparency and urged the CDC to make its vaccine database available to the public.

So far, though, only two scientists have managed to gain access. Dr. Mark Geier, president of the Genetics Center of America, and his son, David, spent a year battling to obtain the medical records from the CDC. Since August 2002, when members of Congress pressured the agency to turn over the data, the Geiers have completed six studies that demonstrate a powerful correlation between thimerosal and neurological damage in children. One study, which compares the cumulative dose of mercury received by children born between 1981 and 1985 with those born between 1990 and 1996, found a "very significant relationship" between autism and vaccines. Another study of educational performance found that kids who received higher doses of thimerosal in vaccines were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with autism and more than three times as likely to suffer from speech disorders and mental retardation. Another soon-to-be published study shows that autism rates are in decline following the recent elimination of thimerosal from most vaccines.

As the federal government worked to prevent scientists from studying vaccines, others have stepped in to study the link to autism. In April, reporter Dan Olmsted of UPI undertook one of the more interesting studies himself. Searching for children who had not been exposed to mercury in vaccines -- the kind of population that scientists typically use as a "control" in experiments -- Olmsted scoured the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who refuse to immunize their infants. Given the national rate of autism, Olmsted calculated that there should be 130 autistics among the Amish. He found only four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three -- including one child adopted from outside the Amish community -- had received their vaccines.

At the state level, many officials have also conducted in-depth reviews of thimerosal. While the Institute of Medicine was busy whitewashing the risks, the Iowa legislature was carefully combing through all of the available scientific and biological data. "After three years of review, I became convinced there was sufficient credible research to show a link between mercury and the increased incidences in autism," says state Sen. Ken Veenstra, a Republican who oversaw the investigation. "The fact that Iowa's 700 percent increase in autism began in the 1990s, right after more and more vaccines were added to the children's vaccine schedules, is solid evidence alone." Last year, Iowa became the first state to ban mercury in vaccines, followed by California. Similar bans are now under consideration in thirty-two other states.

But instead of following suit, the FDA continues to allow manufacturers to include thimerosal in scores of over-the-counter medications as well as steroids and injected collagen. Even more alarming, the government continues to ship vaccines preserved with thimerosal to developing countries -- some of which are now experiencing a sudden explosion in autism rates. In China, where the disease was virtually unknown prior to the introduction of thimerosal by U.S. drug manufacturers in 1999, news reports indicate that there are now more than 1.8 million autistics. Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, autistic disorders also appear to be soaring in India, Argentina, Nicaragua and other developing countries that are now using thimerosal-laced vaccines. The World Health Organization continues to insist thimerosal is safe, but it promises to keep the possibility that it is linked to neurological disorders "under review."

I devoted time to study this issue because I believe that this is a moral crisis that must be addressed. If, as the evidence suggests, our public-health authorities knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children, their actions arguably constitute one of the biggest scandals in the annals of American medicine. "The CDC is guilty of incompetence and gross negligence," says Mark Blaxill, vice president of Safe Minds, a nonprofit organization concerned about the role of mercury in medicines. "The damage caused by vaccine exposure is massive. It's bigger than asbestos, bigger than tobacco, bigger than anything you've ever seen."

It's hard to calculate the damage to our country -- and to the international efforts to eradicate epidemic diseases -- if Third World nations come to believe that America's most heralded foreign-aid initiative is poisoning their children. It's not difficult to predict how this scenario will be interpreted by America's enemies abroad. The scientists and researchers -- many of them sincere, even idealistic -- who are participating in efforts to hide the science on thimerosal claim that they are trying to advance the lofty goal of protecting children in developing nations from disease pandemics. They are badly misguided. Their failure to come clean on thimerosal will come back horribly to haunt our country and the world's poorest populations.

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Article C: Joint Statement from Autism Speaks, Cure Autism Now and the National Alliance
for Autism Research

Every 20 minutes, another family receives the devastating news that their child has autism, a lifelong neurological disorder that impairs cognition and communication, as well as social and motor behaviors.  Autism has reached alarming rates, today affecting one in every 166 children.
 
Current research indicates that autism has a strong genetic component and may be triggered by environmental factors.  Mercury, including the preservative thimerosal, is among the environmental factors currently under scientific investigation. Cure Autism Now (CAN), Autism Speaks and the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) will support and fund research that investigates all theories surrounding potential causes of autism, including whether there is a link between mercury and autism, and we invite researchers to submit proposals in this area.
 
  NAAR, CAN and Autism Speaks are dedicated to uncovering the biology of autism and developing effective biomedical treatments through research funding. Together, our organizations are guided by an uncompromising passion to understand this complex disorder and hasten the discovery of a cure.

Bob Wright
Board Chair, Autism Speaks

Sallie Bernard
Board Chair, Cure Autism Now

Prisca Chen Marvin
Board Chair, National Alliance for Autism Research

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CAN STATEMENT: Autism, Autism, Autism: Finding Answers within the Vaccine Debate

A Letter from Cure Autism Now's Board Chair and CEO

Autism, autism, autism. It has permeated everything. We have read and heard the word "autism" from so many people and in so many news articles lately, it is difficult to imagine a time, not so long ago, when "autism" was rarely uttered--an obscure behavioral disorder of medical and societal insignificance.

Forty years ago, those few experts who thought about autism said it was the result of emotional neglect by parents. Today, many people, experts and otherwise, think about autism, and we hear streams of words and phrases flowing into a kaleidoscope of increasing complexity and confusion: lifelong disorder...effective treatment...genes identified...environmental trigger...vaccine-mercury link...desperate parents. Ironically, as our understanding of the disorder has progressed and society has felt a growing sense of urgency about it, autism has become one of the most controversial issues in this country. With the recent news coverage of the autism-vaccine debate, we are reminded how divisive the urgent business of understanding autism can be, and we are saddened by it, because the lives of many children and adults are at stake.

As parents of children with autism and advocates who have dedicated our lives to solving this mystery and improving quality of life for all individuals affected by autism, we are compelled to make a statement about where our organization stands on this issue. Our goal in making this statement is to show that when emotion and rationality meet, progress comes faster. We at Cure Autism Now are passionate about helping human beings affected by autism as quickly as possible. We are also grounded in science and the critical importance of valid research. We believe that with a rationally based, comprehensive research agenda, continuously fine-tuned as new findings arise, good science can be hurried.

From the research carried out thus far, it appears that there may be many causes of autism. The current sense within the scientific community is that autism can involve a complicated set of interactions among underlying genetic susceptibilities and environmental factors, which results in a collection of biological and behavioral conditions we term "autism." Thus, it is clear that an effective autism science agenda requires study across several biological domains, including behavioral, genetic, and environmental disciplines.

For this reason, the impact of environmental factors on the biology of autism is one of the many critical research areas identified by Cure Autism Now for funding. Cure Autism Now has and is supporting research that explores the specific effects of environmental agents on the development of autism and the biological pathways that may be involved. These studies have and will continue to address many environmental candidates of interest, including the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, used in vaccines and other medical products. (For specific examples of environmentally-related research projects funded by Cure Autism Now, please click here ).

Because of the potential link between mercury and autism, Cure Autism Now has taken an active stance against the use of thimerosal in vaccines and continues to advocate for responsible public policy:


We know that mercury is a potent developmental toxicant even at low exposures and should not be injected into the human body. Cure Autism Now supports federal and state legislation to prohibit the administration of vaccines containing more than a trace amount of mercury to children under the age of three or pregnant women. Such legislation has passed in the states of California, Missouri and Iowa. Similar legislation is pending in New York.

More scientific evidence is needed to definitively prove or disprove the role of thimerosal in the development of autism. In May 2004, Cure Autism Now rejected the conclusions of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) that unilaterally dismissed causal links between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. We found their findings to be premature and called for more research in this area.

Cure Autism Now is leading a national effort to establish a coordinated response to autism that fully integrates studies on environmental factors into autism research at the NIH. The Combating Autism Act of 2005, recently introduced into both Houses of Congress, provides for expanded funding of Centers of Excellence within the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which focuses on environmental toxins and human health. (See notice below re: an opportunity for input into the NIEHS 2006 Strategic Plan). Cure Autism Now looks forward to working with these centers. The legislation also specifies inclusion of toxicological and immunologic studies within the Centers of Excellence overseen by the NIH, specifically the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and National Institute of Mental Health.

Our message is that Cure Autism Now is working to protect future generations from the onset of autism while attacking the challenges facing the current generation. We go to work each day knowing that every 20 minutes, another family receives the news that their child has autism and will soon embark on a journey many of us began 10 years ago, five years ago, a year ago. We are advancing autism research on all promising fronts, because a comprehensive program that does not exclude important fields is how autism will be solved and effective treatments found.

With autism, autism, autism everywhere, the continued support and trust of the autism and scientific communities and the public at large are more critical than ever. If we look beyond the divisiveness and put those we love above all else, autism may once again become a word rarely uttered, an obscure but explained disorder consigned to medical history books.

Sincerely,
Sallie Bernard
Board Chair
   
Peter Bell
Chief Executive Officer

Environmental Projects Funded by Cure Autism Now

Glutathione- dependent synthesis of Methylcobalamin: A Target for Neurodevelopmental Toxins awarded to Dr Richard Deth, Northeastern University, who is a leading researcher in studying the possible correlation between increases in environmental toxins such as thimerosal and incidences of autism. Importantly this project studies the impact of thimerosal on a particular chemical pathway in the body, allowing us to understand what processes may be hindered by exposure to mercury.

Immune Genes and Abnormal Brain Development in Autism; awarded to Lisa Boulanger, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego. Viral infections and immune responses during pregnancy may increase the risk of children developing autism. This project aims to study how such immune responses may ultimately alter the developing brain.
 
Oxidative Stress in Autism; awarded to Xue Ming, M.D., Ph.D., UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School. Exposure to environmental factors both pre- and peri- natally can lead to oxidative stress. This project examines whether there is evidence of oxidative stress in individuals with autism, a finding which could lead to new approaches for treating the disorder.

Auditory and Visual Processing Deficits in Autism; awarded to Tal Kenet, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco. Environmental exposures of various forms may influence brain development. Specifically, this project looks in detail at how exposure to toxins such as PCPs changes the pattern of neuronal connectivity in the brain, establishes the proof-of-principle that toxins can impact early brain patterning, and suggests that methods to assist brain re-wiring may help re-organize the brain.
 
A Comparative Study Evaluating the Dose-Responsiveness Effects of Methylmercury and Thimerosal on Select Nervous, Immune and Enzyme Parameters awarded to Deborah Keil, Ph.D., Medical University of South Carolina. The purpose of this study is to identify alterations in a variety of immunological, developmental, and learning parameters after postnatal exposure to thimerosal or methylmercury. Dose-response data is determined for thimerosal in a variety of endpoints that have not been previously reported, focusing especially on immunotoxicity, and establishes that methylmercury does not always have similar effects.
 
Provocative Urine Excretion of Heavy Metals using Meso-2,3-Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) in Children with Autism awarded to Sarah Soden, M.D., and Jennifer Lowry, M.D., Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics. This study seeks to investigate the role heavy metals may play in the etiology of autism by developing a diagnostic test to establish heavy metal toxicity in children with autism. The investigation measures urinary mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic and aluminum prior to and during a 24 hour provocative urine excretion study using the heavy metal chelator DMSA.
 
Role of Cytokines in Developmental Neurotoxicity awarded to Ellen Silbergeld, Ph.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine. This project tests the hypothesis that a major toxic effect of methylmercury exposure is damage to the developing nervous system by inhibiting cell migration. The experiments establish that mercury compounds may do so by interfering with cell-cell communication and gain information on the specific signaling pathways that are affected.

Do Environmental Factors Play a Role in Autism? A Test Using Natural Experiments; awarded to Dennis Kinney, Ph.D., McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School. There have been suggestions that exposure to prenatal stress may impact the development of autism. This project examines whether there is a link between pregnancy during natural disasters and the incidence of autism.
 
Urinary Metabolic Profiling- A Tool for the Assessment of Metabolic Dysfunctions in Young Children with Autistic Disorder in a Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of Dietary Restriction of Gluten; awarded to Katja Dettmer, Ph.D., University of California, Davis. Some children appear to be aided by removal of gluten from their diets, suggesting that ingested factors influence the course of autism. This project attempts to pinpoint the changes in metabolic pathways that are induced by gluten-restriction, thus allowing us to understand the impact gluten may have on the body.
 
Neuroimmune Reactions in the Pathogenesis of Autism; awarded to Carlos Pardo-Villamizar, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. This study hypothesizes that the neurobiological abnormalities in autism are, in part, immune mediated. The research involves examination of tissues for evidence of an inflammatory response within the brain, and documents for the first time the presence of cellular and humeral immunopathological reactions in patients with autism.
 
Genotypic and Phenotypic Characterization of Paraoxonase Enzymatic Activity in Autistic Patients and First-degree Relatives awarded to Antonio Persico, M.D., University Campus Bio-Medico, Roma. This project investigates whether individuals with autism may be especially susceptible to exposure to toxins during critical periods of neurodevelopment. Specifically they examine the serum activity of the enzyme paraoxonase-1, responsible for de-toxifying organophosphates found in common pesticides and other chemicals, along with genetic diversity of the PON-1 gene.
 
Studies of the Relationship Between Autism and Colonization of the Intestinal Tract by Neurotoxigenic Clostridial Species awarded to Sydney Finegold, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles. This group investigates the possibility that neurotoxin-producing bacteria could cause or significantly contribute to autistic symptoms in a subset of children with autism. They examine the Clostridium species isolated from the stools of children with autism.

Effect of Mercury on Apoptosis on Neuronal Cells awarded to Leman Yel, M.D., University of California, Irvine. This study examines whether thimerosal causes the death of nerve cells. Specifically, the investigators determined that thimerosal exposure negatively impacts the functioning of the mitochondria within the cells.
 
A Review Paper on Secular Trends in the Occurrence of Autism awarded to Craig Newschaffer, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. This contracted project was commissioned to prepare and publish a review on the epidemiology of autism. The goal is to critically explore trends in autism incidence and to use this data to explore current theories of autism causality.

6. TACA MOM IN GREAT NEED:

UPDATED JUNE 2005: You have read about Ruthie Daniel in the past 6 months worth of TACA newsletters. The bad news has come: HER CANCER IS NOT GONE AFTER SIX VERY HARD MONTHS OF CHEMOTHERAPY.

We need to help this very special, single mother of two boys – one with autism. She has a lot of treatment choices – radiation and others -- to consider. She really needs help.

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1. GFCF Food for her kids
2. Typical groceries for her family
3. ONE-ON-ONE babysitting for her autistic son after 3pm.
4. Prayers for her

Ruthie’s contact information:
Phone: 949-347-8532
Address: 25574 Via Cresta, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

FOOD ALLERGIES: NO gluten, casein, yeast, dyes, apples or cottonseed oil.

FOOD Suggestions:

• Nature’s Highlights brown rice pizza crust & organic tomato sauce
• Diesel meat patties
• Shelton ’s Chicken hot dogs
• Pear juice
• Cashew butter & low sugar, natural jams
• Ener-G white rice YEAST FREE loaf
• Potato Stix
• Fruits: pears, white peaches, green grapes
• Yeast free GFCF Pretzels
• Old Fashion Cake & Cookie mix - GFCF
• Blueberry Muffin Mix – GFCF
• Trader Joe’s GFCF Banana Waffles
• Veggies: Carrots, cauliflower, peas
• Trader Joe’s Soy Yogurt
• Trader Joe’s Vegetable Chips (ROUND ONES)
• Trader Joe’s Mini White Round Corn Chips
• Organic Chicken Breasts
• Trader Joe’s Frozen Mangos
• Organic Ketchup
• Pacific Rice Milk
• Trader Joe’s Lime Popsicles
• BOTTLED DISTILLED WATER (SHE GOES THRU A LOT OF WATER DUE TO HER TREATMENT. THERE IS A GREAT NEED FOR THIS.)

9. Upcoming Fee-based Conferences & Seminars
      in Southern California

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CITY OF ANGELS MEDICAL CENTER AUTISM CLINIC
TD-DMPS PROTOCOL
www.recoveryprotocol.com

5F, 1711 W Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-713-0000  

1. APPOINTMENT
   DR. JOHN KUCERA, M.D.
   DR. PATRICK JAMES BAGGOT, M.D.
   CALL 213-713-0000 or E-mail:kazuko@recoveryprotocol.org

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2. Comprehensive BioMedical Evaluation (testing)
   LABORATORY TESTING WITH TODAY’S MOST ADVANCED SCIENCE!
   Heavy Metals, DNA/Gene, DNA, Inflammation, DNA Nutritional Profile, Fungal/Infections, Viruses/Bacteria, Methylation, TH-1/TH-2, APOE, EBV, HHV 1, 2, 6,7, 8, and 16 (IGG, IGM, PCR), Food allergies, Immune deficiency, Metabolism, and more.

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3. INSURANCE AND PAYMENT
   NEW! ‘SMART BILLING’ (started in MAY 2005) - We will bill your laboratory testing to your insurance company.
   30% PRE-PAYMENT ONLY - ANY INSURANCE FOR LAB TESTING.
   There are NO MORE CHARGES, EVEN IN CASES IN WHICH YOUR INSURANCE DOES NOT COVER THE REST OR WENT TO THE DEDUCTIBLE.
   If your insurance company pays more than 70%, we will refund you.
   No insurance used for genetic (DNA / INFLAMMATION) tests . Cash price only.
   BCBS PPO patients; No pre-payment required for testing except genetic tests. (look for a suit-case logo on your card.)
   No pre-payments for Quest and Lab Corp testin, however, you may have a balance due depending on your insurance. Or choose ‘smart billing’ for Quest and LabCorp testing also.
   No insurance? Don't worry! STILL 30% Pre-payment only.

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4. TREATMENT AND SUPPLEMENTATION
   FOLLOW-UPS (every 2 months)
   Telephone consultation is available
   E-mail / Fax consultation (fees applies)
   FULL ON DAYS AND OFF DAYS SUPPLEMENTATION
   Orientation before the doctor’s visit available for start-up parents.

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CHALLENGE * REGULATE * INTERACT * MOTIVATE * STRUCTURE * OBSERVE * NURTURE
Karyn Lewis Searcy, M.A. CCC, Director
9606 Tierra Grande Suite #107 Phone (858) 695-9415
San Diego, CA  92126 Fax (858) 695-9412
www.crimsoncenter.com

Summer 2005 FREE Family Workshops
at Crimson Center for Speech & Language In Miramar/Scripps

RSVP at 858 695 9415 to confirm dates and times

Wednesday July 13, 2005, from 6:30-8:00 P.M.
Thinking Outside of the Box: AAC Innovations Without Boundaries
Dani Mohn
Dani Mohn is the Southern California Regional Consultant for Assistive Technology, Inc. (ATI), premier developer of hardware and software solutions for people with physical, cognitive, and speech disabilities.  Prior to joining the team at ATI, Dani was the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Program Coordinator for the United Cerebral Palsy San Diego Assistive Technology Center.  She has also worked as a Speech/Language Pathologist in the public schools in the Midwest, where she helped develop speech programs in rural areas. 

Friday July 15, 2005, from 9:30-11:00 A.M.
Augmentative/Alternative Communication
Susan Berkowitz, M.S., M. Ed., CCC-SLP
Susan worked with students with autism and other developmental disabilities for over 30 years.  As a speech-language pathologist, she has been implementing the technology of augmentative communication since its infancy.  Susan was previously the Director of the Communication Dept. at the New England Center of Autism, in addition to working with public school programs and serving as Director of Education for a private special education school.  She has presented at the Association for Applied Behavior Analysis and American Speech-Language Hearing Association conferences and published articles in professional journals.  She is currently in private practice in San Diego, and administers augmentative communication assessments for the San Diego Assistive Technology Center.

rescheduled for August 2005 - information to follow
The IEP Process
Erin Dyer Ring, Ph.D.
Developmental Psychology
Educational Specialist

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The SURFERS HEALING SURFCAMP dates are posted on our website www.surfershealing.org . Please fill out application and e-mail it to jennifer@surfershealing.org or fax it to 949-728-1200. Thanks and we can't wait for summer.

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SOCIAL SKILLS CAMP FOR KIDDOS: The Speech & Language Connection, Inc., is offering a one week social skills camp from August 22nd-26th, from 10:30am - 1:30pm each day.  The camp is designed to teach pre-social skills to preschoolers and kindergarteners with autism as well as typically developing children.  Staffing ratios are 2:1 and staff includes behavioral specialists and speech therapists.  Enrollment required by July 15th.  For more information, or to enroll your child, please contact the office at 714.965.2324.          

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DEFEAT AUTISM NOW!: October 2005 Long Beach –OR- Los Angeles conferences. The web conference also includes the Recovered Autistic Children event.  To learn more about the DAN! web conference and to subscribe, visit: www.ARIWebConference.com or www.danconference.com

First – a newsletter correction: in the June 2005 #4 e-news, I mentioned that Dr Jerry Kartzinel and Barbara the Wonder Nurse were on their way to HOUSTON! Sorry about that – correction - they are on their way to AUSTIN, TEXAS. I apologize for the error.

Second: I have gotten many requests for the presentations provided at the June 25 th medical conference. The medical conference notes featuring Dr Jerry Kartzinel & Dr Andrew Wakefield have been posted and audio tapes are available. Please see these two links for details:

• Free CONFERENCE NOTES
• TO BUY TAPES: http://www.tacanow.com/shop.htm

I hope you are having a great summer with your family.

Hugs, thanks, and be SAFE,
Lisa A Jeff's mom

And Editor: Kim Palmer (thanks Kim!)

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Web Page for TACA Group: www.tacanow.com check it out and let us know your thoughts Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) provides general information of interest to the autism community. The information comes from a variety of sources and TACA does not independently verify any of it. The views expressed herein are not necessarily TACA’s. TACA does not engage in lobbying or other political activities. P.S. TACA e-news is now sent to 1,787 people! (This number represents families – 95%, and the rest are professionals.)