Parent Open discussions – for support and sharing info – moderated by Diane Gallant:

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• Location: Vineyard Newport Church 102 E. Baker Costa Mesa

Gluten Free / Casein Free COOKING CLASS & Education – by Lisa Ackerman

• Time: 2:00 pm- 5:00 pm
• Fee:$25 per person / $40 per couple - RSVP required / 8 seats left!!!
  RSVP off the TACA web site http://www.tacanow.com or via mail
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• Location: Sur La Table, 832 Avocado Ave, Newport Beach, CA 92660

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http://www.allheadlinenews.com/cgi-bin/news/newsbrief.plx?id=2230646540&fa=1

Danielle M. George-All Headline News Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AHN) - Two studies presented to a conference on autism help support other research that suggests that there are subtle differences in the immune function of children with autism.

Autism is a brain disorder usually seen as infants become toddlers. Affecting an estimated two to five out of every 1,000 children, autism has a spectrum of symptoms that include difficulty with social interaction and repetitive behaviors. There is no known cause of Autism.

Scientists at the 4th International Meeting for Autism Research in Boston presented studies looking at the blood of children with autism.

In the first group, the researchers saw lower levels of immune signaling proteins called cytokines in the group with autism. These children also had irregular responses to a plant protein.

The second group yielded other noticeable differences between Autistic and non-Autistic children. Autistic children had 20 percent more immune system cells called B cells and 40 percent more natural killer cells. There also seemed to be differences in other proteins in the blood,

By Christina Adams

Lately, statements from anti-mercury parents of autistic children have cropped up in media outlets from the New York Times to the Internet. There's a Washington anti-mercury rally on Wednesday. The mercury issue is finally at the boiling point.

People who aren't part of this debate don't understand the passion, indeed the anger, behind it. As the parent of a child diagnosed with autism five years ago, I do. It's the result of institutional neglect, dawning suspicions about toxins like mercury and new understanding of how little has been done to help our children.

For example, at a May gathering of 700 international scientists in Boston, a new study linking autism to children's malfunctioning immune systems was announced. Immunologists at the M.I.N.D. Institute at UC-Davis showed that children with autism have different immune system responses than children without the disorder - evidence of a possible biological activation of autism.

Many parents have long believed that autistic symptoms are sometimes triggered by ill-timed or unclean vaccines, antibiotics, viruses or other subtle assaults. Other conference information indicated that environmental toxins may include chemicals like PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and air pollution, in addition to other brain, genetic and nutritional issues.

This information means autism might be addressed by fixing the underlying immune system abnormalities, according to my son's main pediatrician, California doctor Michael Goldberg, who treats autistic patients. So I waited for a reaction from major health authorities. There was almost none.

When families enter the autism world, few are told how to help their "on the spectrum" child. One parent I know couldn't even get a diagnosis from experts: Finally the photographer at Sears told her that her son was autistic. Parents are rarely told about basic therapies, let alone special diets and medications that can ease symptoms and move children toward recovery. So they trudge along with advice from a few caring doctors, support groups, books and shared recipes - and hope. Truly, our home-spun methods have helped many children get much better.

After my nearly 3-year-old son was diagnosed by his 20-year-old cousin (she worked with autistic kids), neighborhood moms with autistic children were my first sources of medical, legal, scientific and dietary knowledge. Many are light-years ahead of mainstream medical practitioners.

As my husband and I worked to recover our son, I too detected various linkages to autism, sensory and attention-related disorders, based on families' histories, environmental triggers and medical, neurological and dietary issues. Nightly phone calls and e-mails from thousands of distressed families over the years have provided one hell of a medical school.

Still, we desperately need answers. Our trial and error treatments are filled with guesswork. Currently, many parents are trying chelation, a process that strips metals from a child's bones and brain, hoping that removing the mercury and other metals often found in autistic children can help them improve. I haven't approved it for my son, as it can be hazardous, and several studies indicate it does not raise long-term IQ or other skills. But I follow the emerging reports from families with interest, because they provide the therapeutic proving ground.

Autism parents are tackling problems that concern everyone, because vaccine safety and environmental pollutants are related to the long-term health of our species. In January 2004, the American Academy of Pediatrics sent out a special alarm notice that one of every six U.S. children now has a behavioral or developmental disorder, and one of every 166 kids now has a form of autism. And a recent study links greater amounts of environmental mercury to increased autism in Texas. Still, the federal government and medical authorities remain largely silent.

We want the experts to be "fixers" - to tackle the looming problems illuminated by autism-related research so we can spend our time with our kids. My son, now a bright, inquisitive 7-year-old, suggests, "Mom, why don't you make a Web site called 'How I Got My Child Better'? That way people can log on and you won't have to spend so much time on the phone." If the world would really listen to families affected by autism, it could be that simple.

Christina Adams, a former Madison resident, is the author of "A Real Boy: A True Story of Autism, Early Intervention and Recovery" ( Berkley Books, 2005). Web site: www.christinaadamswriter.com.

Hydroplane Accident Claims Six Lives
By María Gabriela Díaz Tico Times Staff
mgdiaz@ticotimes.net

A hydroplane accident off the coast of Playa Flamingo, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, claimed the lives of six U.S. citizens, including three children, according to Alexander Morales, chief of communications for the Costa Rican Red Cross.

The private hydroplane, a type of aircraft designed to take off and land on water as well as land, skidded into the ocean shortly before 9:30 a.m., when the accident was reported to the Red Cross, Morales said.

"We do not yet know what caused the accident, although the declarations of fishermen who witnessed it led to an unofficial speculation that it may have been a mechanical failure," Fabián Meza, Public Security Ministry spokesman told The Tico Times yesterday.

The victims were identified as the pilot and owner of the aircraft, Gregory Gund, 28, Cindy Ruetz, 41, Justin Ruetz, 9, Jack Ruetz, 12, Paul Kelss, age unknown, and Connor Kelss, 7, according to Morales.

Although authorities recovered four of the bodies, two bodies remain trapped in the sunken plane.

Divers recovered the bodies of Cindy Ruetz, Paul and Connor Kelss Saturday, and yesterday removed Gregory Gund's body from the plane, according to ACAN-EFE newswire service.

The operation to recover the bodies from the plane was cancelled Saturday at approximately 6:00 p.m. and resumed yesterday morning at 5:20 a.m., Morales said.

The hydroplane left Tobías Bolaños Airport in Pavas, west of San José, Saturday at 7:50 a.m. with destination Tamarindo, a beach town that neighbors Flamingo. There it would pick up its passengers to take them on an aerial tour of San José, according to the daily Al Día.

Paul and Connor Kelss, who came to the country to visit the Ruetz,' were meant to return to the United States yesterday. Don Ruetz, Cindy Ruetz' husband, lived with his family in Tamarindo, where they opened a gym a year ago.

Gregory Gund was a friend of the other victims and son of the owner of several California hockey teams, including the San José Sharks. He also resided in Tamarindo, Al Día reported.

Editor’s note: We are deeply saddened by the loss of these families. Words cannot express this editor’s sorrow.

Memorial and funeral Services for Cindy, Justin and Jack Ruetz will be:

Thursday 4 August at 11:00 am,
At American Martyrs Church
624 15th Street
Manhattan Beach , CA 90266

Please note: The bodies of all victims have been recovered as of July 25, 2005.

Published July 21, 2005, in issue 0429 of the Hook

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In what may be a bellwether for autism rates nationwide, the number of new cases of autism in California has fallen for the first time in more than 10 years, according to new data compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services.

The total number of autistic children receiving special education services from the state continues to grow-- bringing the current total to 28,046-- but the rate of increase peaked in 2002 and has dropped slightly since then.

California has the best reporting system for autism in the United States because it guarantees special education services for autistic children. Because of its tracking system, the state is generally considered a predictor of what is to come for the rest of the country.

Experts said, however, that they don't know what's causing the numbers to drop.

"Perhaps whatever caused [the number of cases] to go up... is no longer present,'' said Dr. Robert Hendren, executive director of the University of California, Davis MIND Institute, which researches neurodevelopmental disorders. "It's all speculation. I wish we had good studies.''

Parent activist Rick Rollens of Sacramento, who played a key role in the creation of the MIND Institute, said that the trend roughly corresponds to the removal of mercury preservatives from pediatric vaccines. Many activist groups say that the use of mercury in the vaccines caused the sudden increase in autism cases.

Federal scientists, however, have continually said that the evidence does not support such a link.

The state data do not include children under the age of 3. About 90 percent of all autistic children are entered into the system before the age of 6, the department said.

According to the state data, 2002 was a record year for new autism diagnoses, with 3,259 cases. In 2003, the number of new cases slipped to 3,125. In 2004, the number was 3,074.

For the first half of 2005, there were 1,470 new cases, compared to 1,518 in the same period in 2004.

David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm: "For months now, a mantra of the thimerosal defenders has been as follows: 'Mercury was removed from vaccines years ago, and we have not seen a drop in autism rates.' It looks like they might have to find a new slogan."

Upcoming Media Alert

David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm, is scheduled to debate Dr. Harvey Feinberg of the IOM, live on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert on Sunday, August 7.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/region_wide/2005/07/16/9508081d-0052-4f6d-8679-28f63e6ac5c3.lpf

Dr Andrew Wakefield

In an article published on June 20, we referred to allegations printed in The Sunday Times relating to Dr Andrew Wakefield.

The allegations related to two studies conducted by Dr Wakefield into the link between the Measles, Mumps and Rubella vaccination and the onset of autism.

The Sunday Times alleged that the nature of the funding of one of the studies could potentially have affected the outcome.

We have been informed that defamation proceedings have been commenced against The Sunday Times in connection with this article.

We would like to make it clear that there was in fact no conflict of interest nor was Dr Wakefield personally paid to undertake the study as was alleged.

Furthermore we wish to clarify that the studies were carried out under proper ethical authorisation.

Finally we accept that the subjects of the studies were selected through appropriate NHS referrals.

We apologise to Dr Wakefield for any distress caused and at his request have paid an appropriate sum to selected charities.

Editor’s note: Wow, did this make my month. Finally this doctor receives a well deserved apology. I just wish it could be broadcast throughout the world on page 1 of every newspaper.

Editor’s note: RF Kennedy Jr. has become quite an advocate for families affected by autism. For that, I am extremely grateful. He has done so much work (as has David Kirby) that I will provide regular updates on these efforts.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/14/eveningnews/printable709269.shtml

A Kennedy Fuels Autism Debate

Is there a link between autism and childhood vaccines?

Medical experts say no -- resoundingly -- but a few advocacy and parent groups refuse to believe them. As CBS News Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, those who believe there is such a link now have the forceful and highly controversial support of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Advocates say that it's no coincidence that one new study indicates that when a mercury preservative was removed from most vaccines, autism rates in California went down. After growing for more than a decade, new cases of autism may be slowing down in California. That's according to data compiled by the state that has been on the leading edge of identifying and tracking the nation's autism epidemic. The trend is fueling a debate over vaccines and the autism epidemic--a debate that Kennedy has now entered.

Kennedy is lending the famous family name to a new cause: the idea that something in vaccines triggered the autism and ADD epidemics.

Attkisson asked Kennedy what he thought when he initially heard of the link between autism and childhood vaccines. (Video excerpts of interview)

"I was skeptical but sympathetic," says Kennedy. "These are people who have been through hell, literally."

After researching studies on both sides, Kennedy became a believer.

"The science connecting brain damage to thimerosal is absolutely overwhelming," he says.

What is thimerosal? It's a vaccine preservative containing mercury, which is a known neurotoxin. It was in lots of kids' vaccines thru the 90's, as the CDC kept adding new shots. At the same time, autism and ADD cases skyrocketed.

Not only that, but there's new word this week from the bellwether state of California: as mercury has been phased out of most childhood vaccines in recent years, new autism cases have declined. But that is just one study.

Health officials like Dr. Tanja Popovic insist the research definitively shows mercury in vaccines doesn't trigger autism.

"Based on what we know right now, we don't think there's an association," says Dr. Popovic.

Studies suggesting a link have been dismissed by virtually all mainstream medical organizations in America and Europe. And health officials are deeply concerned that high profile advocates like Kennedy could stop parents from vaccinating their children and deadly epidemics will return.

Despite all the attention he is getting, Kennedy tells Attkisson that there is resistance to putting the debate out in the public. He says he wrote an op-ed piece on the issue -- but no publication would print it, he says.

"I went to all the major newspapers and nobody would touch it," he says.

One publication did bite. Salon.com printed Kennedy's article in which he made a highly speculative and unproven claim of a full-fledged government cover-up.

Government officials, for example, held a private meeting when an early study did connect mercury in vaccines to autism, ADD and more. The public wasn't invited--but pharmaceutical companies were. One official at the meeting said "we are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits" without more research.

Kennedy insists there is a cover-up. Dr. Popovic refutes this claim.

"Quite to the contrary," she says. "We've always been open about all of our activities."

Meanwhile, public health officials struggle to end the whole vaccine-autism debate. But with the Kennedy name attached, it seems destined to survive in controversy for now.

Who would have thunk that rock-n-roll folks could nail this issue so plainly and succinctly

FROM ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE

"Deadly Immunity," our story about the link between mercury in vaccines and the dramatic rise in autism among children [RS 977/978], sparked intense reaction from the medical establishment and several leading news organizations. The story, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- part of an ongoing collaboration with Salon.com -- documented the government's efforts to conceal alarming data about the dangers of vaccines.

What is most striking is the lengths to which major media outlets have gone to disparage the story and to calm public fears -- even in the face of the questionable science on the subject. In a segment on World News Tonight titled "A Closer Look," ABC pointed out that Kennedy is "not a scientist or a doctor" and dismissed his extensive evidence as nothing more than "a few scientific studies." The network also trotted out its medical editor, Dr. Timothy Johnson, to praise the "impeccably impartial Institute of Medicine" and to again state that Kennedy is not a scientist.

The New York Times, in a front-page story on the subject, devoted only one line to Kennedy's article, which it said accused public-health officials and drugmakers of "conspiring" to hide the data on autism -- a word that our story neither used nor implied. (The Wall Street Journal, in an op-ed attacking the article, was even more misleading, using the word "conspiracy" four times.) The Times then went on, for more than a full page, to portray concerns over vaccines as nothing more than the misguided fears of parents who suffer from "scientific illiteracy," unable to understand the medical studies that prove immunizations to be safe. It depicted studies reviewed by the Institute of Medicine as definitive without even bothering to address the host of serious questions raised about their validity: conflicting diagnoses of autism, mixed-up data from HMOs and research skewed to exclude many sick kids.

Rolling Stone and Salon fact-checked the article thoroughly before publication, insisting on primary documentation for every statement in the story, and posted links to the most significant materials online to enable readers to judge for themselves. The final article contained six errors. These ranged from inadvertently transposing a quote and confusing a drug license for a patent to relying on a figure that incorrectly calculated an infant's exposure to mercury over six months, rather than citing the even more dangerous amount injected on a single day. (The mistakes were corrected online as soon as they were discovered and can be viewed in detail at both RollingStone.com and Salon.com.)

It is important to note, however, that none of the mistakes weaken the primary point of the story. The government's own records show that it has failed to do the science necessary to put to rest reasonable concerns about vaccines. If the scientists had simply done their job rather than covering their tracks, there would be no controversy today. Instead, the government cannot even provide a definitive figure of the number of cases of autism among American children -- a number obviously critical to any serious scientific investigation -- and yet expects the public to believe that it has ruled out any link between vaccines and an illness it does not even track.

"Science," as one doctor in our story insisted, "is best left to scientists." But when the scientists fail to do their job, resorting to closed-door meetings and rigged studies, others in society have not only a right but a moral obligation to question their work. In the coming years, further research may indeed demonstrate that mercury in vaccines is not responsible for the rise in autism. For now, though, we can only raise a very real and legitimate alarm -- and hope that the government's well-documented mishandling of its own research did not needlessly jeopardize the health of hundreds of thousands of children.

07.22.2005 Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Thimerosal Cover-Up: Let the Punishment Fit the Crime
From www.huffingtonpost.com

Wednesday night, political guru and comedian Jon Stewart dropped by the Comedy Central green room as I awaited my turn on The Daily Show. He had asked me on his program to discuss my recent Salon.com/ Rolling Stone articles about the federal government's efforts to conceal the overwhelming scientific evidence linking vaccine preservative thimerosal to the epidemic of neurological disorders among American children. Stewart observed that if the story is true, the perpetrators should have their skin abraded with multiple incisions prior to being dipped in salt brine.

Earlier that day the New York Times reported an "unusual" invitation-only press conference in which representatives of the three federal agencies involved in the cover-up, CDC and FDA and the National Institute of Child Health Development, defended the use of thimerosal in vaccines. Following that press conference, Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who is sponsoring legislation to ban thimerosal, rightfully denounced the trio for misleading the American public.

Although thimerosal is now discontinued in most American vaccines, it is still being administered to millions of children in the developing world with the help of American tax dollars. The public attempts by federal regulators to exonerate thimerosal will help ensure that this practice continues. Salt brine is too good for these people. A more appropriate punishment would be to force them to spend time in the lower level special education classes now bursting at the seams across America and see the autistic children lying on the floor screaming, many of them in dire agony from autistic enterocolitis.

Web links for recorded broadcasts

SHOW #1 – CBS NEWS & RF KENNEDY
CBS News Report: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=eveningnews
PLAY THE LINK:  Debate on Autism-Vaccine Link w/ Robert F Kennedy Jr
What a great report

Show #2 – THE DAILY SHOW & RF KENNEDY
http://www.autismmedia.org/media11.html
This is a clip where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears on Comedy Central's "Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

By Daniel J. DeNoon

Sallie Bernard and Morton Ann Gernsbacher, PhD, have something in common. Each is the mother of a child with autism.

Both of these mothers care deeply about their children. They care deeply about other children, too -- especially those with autism. But they could not differ more on what they think needs to be done for them.

Bernard is the executive director of Safe Minds. Her organization is working hard to warn parents that mercury -- especially thimerosal, a form of mercury once used in U.S. childhood vaccines -- is the likely cause of an epidemic of autism.

Gernsbacher, president elect of the American Psychological Society and professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, warns us not to believe in an autism epidemic. "False epidemics elicit false causes," she wrote in the April issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.

Read Web MD's "What Raises a Baby's Risk of Autism?"

Renewed Controversy

Last year, it looked as though the book might finally close on the vaccine/autism debate.

A blue-ribbon panel convened by the independent Institute of Medicine (IOM) reviewed the evidence. It did not create many waves when it rejected the idea that the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine might cause autism. That theory was retracted by nearly all of the researchers who originally proposed it.

The IOM committee then flatly rejected the idea that vaccines containing thimerosal could cause autism.

Bernard wasn't convinced. Neither was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Kennedy's recent article for Rolling Stone and Slate -- followed by a scathing Wall Street Journal editorial -- set off a flurry of public interest.

Kennedy indicts thimerosal as a likely cause of autism. And he accuses the CDC, the FDA, the IOM, the World Health Organization, and the American Academy of Pediatrics of helping drug companies hide or misrepresent the evidence.

What is this evidence? WebMD takes a look.

Read Web MD's "Mercury in Air Pollution: A Link to Autism?"

Is There Really an Autism Epidemic?

Fact: Autism rates have been going up. Recent years have seen a higher percentage of kids getting diagnosed with autism. The trend seems to have begun in the 1980s and to have picked up speed in the 1990s.

Eric Fombonne, MD, FRCPsych, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, has studied autism in the U.K.

"From our data, we can say that we have a prevalence that is 62 cases per 10,000 children," he told WebMD in a 2001 interview. "In the mid-1960s, we showed rates of 4 cases per 10,000."

Isn't this the sign of an epidemic? Not necessarily.

"You cannot compare studies now to studies from 30 years ago," Fombonne said. "It would be comparing oranges not with apples, but with sheep."

Children with autism vary widely. It was not until 1940 that this constellation of problems with social interaction, communication, and focused interest came to be called autism. And it was not until 1980 that the diagnosis of autism was formalized.

In 1994, the diagnosis changed again. Kids diagnosed with autism from 1980 through 1993 had to meet six mandatory criteria. The new 1994 definition offered 16 optional criteria, only eight of which had to be met. Gernsbacher says the 1994 diagnosis made it much easier for a child to be labeled autistic.

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, passed in 1991, assures appropriate public education for children with autism. Soon after, schools began reporting high numbers of students with autism. Those numbers keep going up. But that doesn't mean there's an autism epidemic, Gernsbacher says, any more than increased sales of petite clothing means women are getting smaller.

"My hunch is that if we looked at the production and purchase of petite-sized clothing we'd see a greatly increasing trend in the number of petite-sized garments produced and purchased over the past two decades," she says. "Should we therefore conclude that U.S. women are getting increasingly more petite? Probably not. There was probably always a contingent of petite-sized women, and their needs are being increasingly better met."

Gernsbacher points to data from Fombonne and others suggesting that there are 5.8 to 6.7 autism cases among every 1,000 U.S. children. If that's so, we haven't found them all yet. Even Oregon, which led the nation with 4.3 autism cases per 1,000 children in 2002-2003, still has a way to go. Other states lag much farther behind.

Read Web MD's "Allergies, Asthma May Play Role in Autism."

Oft-Cited Study Questioned

A 2002 pilot study by the MIND Institute of the University of California, Davis, looked at the issue of whether autism rates are really getting higher -- or whether we're just getting better at finding kids with autism.

Study leader Robert Byrd, MD, MPH, associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, Davis, says the study data suggest that any "loosening" of diagnostic criteria had no effect on autism rates in California. This study, despite shortcomings Byrd readily admits, is widely cited as proof that the autism epidemic is real.

The MIND study compared autistic kids born in 1982-1985 to kids born in 1993-1995. Using the current criteria for diagnosis, Byrd's team found that the more recently diagnosed kids were nearly as severely autistic as those in the earlier group.

"In both groups, they on average aren't just barely meeting the threshold to be called autism -- they are almost double the threshold," Byrd tells WebMD.

MIND Institute executive director Robert Hendren, DO, also defends the study findings.

"This study is just one data point that exists, not the final word on the subject," Hendren says. "But based on this study, we say the increase in autism incidence is not a matter of changing diagnostic practices."

Gernsbacher says the findings are based on backward reasoning. Her main point: The study uses the current, looser definition of autism to look at children diagnosed under a more strict definition. Then it mistakenly concludes that since those kids meet the looser definition, the new definition made no difference.

A 2005 study by Craig J. Newschaffer, PhD, and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology shows "a drastic increase in the prevalence of the autism classification." The study concludes that it's important to find out how much of this is due to a change in diagnosis and how much is due to "real changes in risk."

Read Web MD's "Early Autism Signs Identified in Infants."

Collision: Autism Rise, Vaccine Concern

Fact: Nobody knows what causes autism. Nobody is even sure whether autism in all its different forms has one cause or many. Since autism runs in families, nearly everyone agrees there's a genetic link. Might that link be something that makes some people especially sensitive to something in the environment?

One of the heartbreaking peculiarities of autism is that a child will seem to be developing normally. Then, suddenly, at age 2 to 4, everything seems to go wrong.

That's just when kids are getting their vaccinations. To many parents, a vaccine/autism link seems obvious. Until very recently, many parents believed the problem was with the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine. Although many people still cling to this idea, most have come to reject it.

But until recently, many other vaccines contained a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal. Vaccines used to get contaminated with germs. Those germs killed kids. So drug companies used thimerosal to save lives. It worked.

Oddly -- for a substance given to nearly every child in the U.S. -- nobody really knew much about thimerosal.

Even now, says toxicologist Thomas Burbacher, PhD, very little is known. Burbacher is associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and director of the infant primate research lab at the National Primate Research Center, University of Washington.

"It is incredible so many millions of kids have been vaccinated with this compound with so little data on it," Burbacher tells WebMD. "But line it up with everything else. A lot of information is missing on a lot of compounds in daily use. And a lot of people thought the amount the kids were getting was so small, it was not a priority."

The Thimerosal Debate and the EPA

Thimerosal is 49 percent ethyl mercury. A closely related form of mercury, methyl mercury, is a known toxin. Since nothing was known about thimerosal, safety measures were based on what was known about methyl mercury. Everybody thought that thimerosal would be safe if the doses given to kids were below the toxic dose for methyl mercury.

But three things happened. One was that kids started getting more and more vaccines containing thimerosal. Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got new information and lowered what it considered to be a toxic dose of methyl mercury.

"In the 1990s, those two lines merged," Burbacher says. "Someone at the FDA noted that when you add all the vaccines up they totaled more than the new EPA standard for methyl mercury. So then the other thing that occurred, during that same time period, was an increase in rates of autism diagnosis."

By 1999, thimerosal was in 30 U.S. vaccines -- some, like the DTaP, Hib, and hepatitis B vaccines, given to infants. In July 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U.S. Public Health Service recommended removing thimerosal from vaccines. By March 2001, all vaccines recommended for U.S. children were available in thimerosal-free versions. However, the preservative is still used in multiuse vials of flu vaccines and in childhood vaccines for use in developing nations.

Kids vaccinated between 1989 and 2003 are what Kennedy calls the Thimerosal Generation.

As it turns out, thimerosal is not as much like methyl mercury as previously thought. That's both good and bad, Burbacher notes. In recent monkey studies, Burbacher has found that the body eliminates thimerosal much more quickly than it eliminates methyl mercury. Thimerosal leaves two or three times less mercury in the body than methyl mercury.

But Burbacher also found that thimerosal deposits something called inorganic mercury in the brain -- twice as much as from the same dose of methyl mercury. Inorganic mercury isn't supposed to do anything. But there's troubling evidence that it might -- evidence Burbacher and others are only now beginning to investigate.

People who think thimerosal is safe usually point to the rapid-clearance finding. Those who think it unsafe, Burbacher says, point to the increased deposits of inorganic mercury in the brain.

The IOM as Jury

It's common, in matters of scientific dispute, to turn to the National Academy of Sciences for an answer. And when the question is medical, the dispute goes to the IOM, which then convenes a panel of nationally recognized experts to decide the matter.

For thimerosal, the IOM convened these juries not once, but twice.

In 2001, the first IOM committee concluded that there wasn't enough evidence to say whether thimerosal was safe or unsafe.

In 2004, the most recent committee rejected the idea that vaccines containing thimerosal cause autism.

Kennedy writes that the committee findings were preordained in "secret" meetings with drug companies playing the tune. He says the committee ignored "truckloads of studies" that show thimerosal accumulates in the brains of lab animals, and he says the studies of autism trends on which the IOM relied are "disastrously flawed."

"When we first heard the IOM committee was meeting, we said the meeting was premature," Safe Minds' Bernard tells WebMD. "We told them to wait, that more research is coming out. They ignored us. They went ahead and had their meeting and missed a lot of evidence."

WebMD asked committee chairwoman Marie C. McCormick, MD, ScD, to comment. McCormick is professor of maternal and child health at Harvard School of Public Health.

"We had to make two kinds of assessments," McCormick tells WebMD. "One was, did we see any evidence thimerosal was associated with autism. We had five epidemiologic studies. None were perfect. But all pointed in the same direction of no association."

Those five studies included five observational studies, using different methods, looking for an association between autism and vaccination in Sweden, Denmark, the U.S., and the U.K. None was found. Autism rates continued to rise even after thimerosal was removed from vaccines.

Each of the studies had flaws. But they weren't nearly as flawed as Kennedy suggests, says IOM spokeswoman Christine Stencel.

"The IOM committee certainly knew of these issues and found the studies were relevant, that they were well designed, and that their data are valid," Stencel says.

But what of the "truckloads" of studies to which Kennedy points?

"We looked at basic science and asked if there was any indication of how thimerosal could cause autism," McCormick says. "We looked at over 200 scientific articles, and the evidence linking thimerosal to autism is purely theoretical at best."

This does not satisfy Bernard. She doesn't think the evidence proves thimerosal causes autism. But she does think the evidence points in that direction. If researchers don't follow up, she fears, valuable time will be lost.

"If you assume that there is a connection between mercury exposure and an outcome of autism, then by studying what mercury does, you will come a lot closer to learning how to treat these kids," Bernard says. "And if you find a role for mercury, we can do a lot more in terms of prevention. You can't just have effective treatment -- in today's science -- without understanding the root cause."

Final Answer Coming Soon

Nearly everyone soon expects the controversy to end. One reason is that the CDC is planning a massive, definitive study.

The other reason is that very soon, all the kids who got thimerosal in vaccines will have reached the ages when autism should appear -- or not. If there's no big drop in autism rates, thimerosal won't be much of an issue.

Still at issue, however, is the very real threat of mercury poisoning from the environment -- a threat the world has only begun to deal with.

Advice for Parents

Meanwhile, Bernard advises parents to be informed.

"I think for pregnant women or those with babies, I would have them ask their doctor for flu vaccine that does not have thimerosal in it," she says. "And I would ask them to support efforts by the government to look into what these various environmental toxins, including mercury and mercury from medical products, are doing to our children. And they should try to avoid exposures."

McCormick advises parents to look at the bottom line.

"To parents, I say the risk of the wild-type diseases that are being prevented by vaccines is very, very real," she says. "You are trading the risk of these real diseases against a risk we cannot substantiate for these vaccines, which we don't have to do any more, because vaccines are now thimerosal free. If the choice must be between a thimerosal vaccine and no vaccine, take the thimerosal vaccine. But the flu vaccine is available in single dose vials without mercury. You do have a choice now."

Visit WebMD's Parenting Center

By Daniel J. DeNoon, reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD

Editor’s note: At least 36 articles appeared in newspapers nationwide on the wonderful Washington DC Rally featuring families of autistic children’s call for the removal of thimerosal in vaccines. Please take the time to review the coverage, pictures and video from this inspiring event. Special thanks to all who participated and created this event. Here is only the partial news covered on this wonderful event (as all the articles would be 100+ pages long!)

Debate on autism and vaccine puts parents on edge

BY JULIE DEARDORFF
Chicago Tribune

(KRT) - I held my son and cried when he received his first vaccinations. But my tears weren't over his pain. Instead, I was thinking, "What if vaccines really do cause autism?"

Most parents fall into two camps when it comes to the complex issue of childhood immunizations. One group has no idea a controversy is raging over the mercury-based preservative thimerosal still found in some vaccines. They dutifully give their babies 21 jabs in the first 18 months of life.

Others have heard just enough to be terrified. We're moms and dads who know disease prevention must be a collective effort. We never want to see a child with polio or diphtheria.

Yet we also wonder whether thimerosal, containing about 50 percent ethyl mercury, is linked to autism, an unproven theory. We wonder why mercury, a neurotoxin, is still in vaccines, even though government agencies asked that it be removed several years ago.

But most of all, we wonder: How do I best protect my child?

Mercury exposure from childhood vaccinations more than doubled between 1988 and 1992 as more vaccines were introduced. But no one bothered to calculate cumulative exposure. When a government researcher finally did in 1999, he found it exceeded the federal limits.

During the same time period, there was a corresponding spike in reported cases of autism spectrum disorders, according to David Kirby, author of "Evidence of Harm" (St. Martin's Press, $26.95), who cites a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Despite no conclusive evidence that thimerosal was harmful, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Public Health Service in 1999 called for its removal.

Today, as a preventive measure, most - but not all - vaccines are thimerosal-free. Regardless, the government says our children will be safe. In what was to be the final word on the contentious issue, the prestigious Institute of Medicine issued a report last May that found no connection between vaccines and autism.

But the finding only further enraged parents of autistic children. Moms Against Mercury and nearly a dozen other advocacy groups have planned a rally for anti-thimerosal legislation in Washington, D.C. Three states have banned it, and more than 30 others have pending legislation.

Illinois ' sweeping Mercury-Free Vaccine Act, currently sitting on Gov. Rod Blagojevich's desk, would phase out vaccines with mercury by 2008. It's a logical start; there's no reason to be injecting mercury into babies and toddlers. But what can parents of low-risk infants do in the meantime?

Ask for thimerosal-free vaccines. "Look at the package insert," said Dr. Anju Usman, a family practice physician, who treats autism spectrum disorders using alternative methods. Her Naperville, Ill., practice is booked through August 2006.

Time it right. Don't vaccinate your child when he's sick or on antibiotics. Don't use acetaminophen after a vaccination, because some studies suggest it inhibits a key detoxification pathway, Usman said.

Consider delaying Hepatitis B vaccine. Your infant probably isn't an IV drug user or engaging in promiscuous sex. Hep B is given at birth for convenience.

Skip the flu vaccine. For the first time last year, the government recommended flu vaccine for children as young as 6 months. The pediatrics academy expects a shortage of the thimerosal-free flu vaccine for several years.

Pay attention. Watch your child closely after vaccination and call your doctor if you suspect a reaction. If your doctor isn't concerned and you are, go to the emergency room.

Get educated. Learn about the state vaccine requirements, your rights and legal exemption. You can find a copy of mandatory vaccination laws at the National Vaccine Information Center (www.nvic.org), a parent-led group that advocates reforming the mass vaccination system.

Groups argue vaccine, autism link
By Anita Manning, USA TODAY

On the eve of a scheduled rally in Washington by parents of children with autism, leaders of federal health agencies and medical societies called a press briefing Tuesday to emphasize their message that childhood vaccines are safe and don't cause autism.

A T-shirt with a slogan designed to raise awareness of the possible connection of mercury in vaccines to autism.

Awareness Material

"We don't know what causes autism, that's a fact," said Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But what is known, she said, is that in studies involving thousands of children, "the predominance of evidence does not reveal an association between thimerosal (a vaccine preservative) and autism."

Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, said NIH has increased its budget for research to find genetic and environmental factors that cause autism and to find better ways to diagnose the disorder accurately and as early as possible.

The debate over the possible role of vaccines in autism has simmered for years. But it gained new impetus this summer with the publication in Rolling Stone and Salon.com of an article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which claimed medical authorities deliberately hid evidence of a connection between autism and thimerosal. That followed publication of a heavily advertised book, Evidence of Harm, by author David Kirby. Media celebrity Don Imus and several legislators have also weighed in.

Thimerosal, a mercury-based vaccine preservative, is no longer used in the vaccines routinely recommended for children under age 6, Gerberding said. In 1999, health officials recommended that it be phased out of vaccines for babies to reduce their overall exposure to mercury.

It is still used in most flu shots, though preservative-free versions are available. Trace amounts of thimerosal still are in many vaccines, including those given to babies, because vaccine makers use the chemical during the manufacturing process.

Around 95% of children in the USA receive all the recommended vaccines by the time they start school. But health officials are concerned that could change, as a parent-driven movement linking thimerosal to increasing rates of autism gains steam and raises questions about vaccine safety.

Food and Drug Administration official Murray Lumpkin said vaccines have been "one of the mainstays" of public health, but "any kind of therapy is only as good as those willing to take it. One of our major concerns and goals is for parents to have confidence in the vaccines their health-care workers are recommending."

That message may not be getting through to activist groups planning to rally today at the Capitol to call for a ban on mercury in all medical products. Among groups participating are Moms Against Mercury, the National Autism Association and Safe Minds, whose director, Sallie Bernard, said health officials "missed the point" in Tuesday's briefing.

"The question is what did thimerosal do to these kids," she said. "The answer we got is they're really not looking at it. ... We heard some of the people today say 'we're researching the cause of autism,' but they're looking at everything but thimerosal."

Fantastic rally coverage!
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0705/245785.html
Christine Heeren of the Long Island N.A.A. has provided FAIR Autism Media with more
footage from the D.C. Rally.

http://www.autismmedia.org/media12.html
Included are clips of Congressman Dave Weldon, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Author David Kirby, Wendy Fournier of the N.A.A., and 5-year-old Zachary Barsamiam - a boy who has recovered from autism!

Some pictures of the Rally
http://www.adventuresinautism.com
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/maximom/album?.dir=/4bfc&.src=ph&.tok=phh9iVDBgG2a5bGF

Events that occurred prior to the Rally On July 20th

CDC Slams Door on Parents of Autistic Children; No Autism Organizations Notified or Invited to Press Conference on Autism and Thimerosal

WASHINGTON, July 19 / U.S. Newswire/ -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is holding a secret press conference in Washington, D.C. today on autism and thimerosal in childhood vaccines. Curiously, the invitation-only meeting is taking place the day before an autism rally in the Capital which will focus on connections between thimerosal in vaccines and autism. Not one of the 13 organizations involved in the rally was notified of the CDC press conference

The meeting, being held at 2 p.m. at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is open only to a select, handpicked group of reporters. Despite repeated demands for open communication with the autism community, the CDC did not invite any of the national autism groups to speak, nor did they share any copies of what will be presented with these groups. The Director of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, is the lead speaker.

"This is just one more example of the CDC's absolute lack of transparency or willingness to cooperate with the autism community," said Lyn Redwood, president and co-founder of SafeMinds, one of the rally organizers.

"We find the timing of this press conference to be especially dubious given that our Power of Truth rally to raise awareness of the thimerosal and autism issue has long been scheduled for tomorrow morning", stated Amy Carson, president of Moms Against Mercury, another rally organizer. "This is a shameful attempt to head off publicity from the rally, but we will not be undermined."

Many representatives from different autism organizations plan to be at HHS during the conference today as a showing of solid force and to communicate that the government cannot continue to conduct these studies or hold such press conferences and expect the community to not be involved. The 13 organizations that were not invited or notified about the CDC press conference include Moms Against Mercury, the National Autism Association, SafeMinds, CoMed, A-Champ, Dads Against Mercury, Generation Rescue, NoMercury, NVIC, Unlocking Autism, and Educate Before You Vaccinate.

More information about the rally may be found at http://www.momsagainstmercury.com and more information about SafeMinds may be found at http://www.safeminds.org or by calling Stephanie Morris at 202-628-7772.

Closed CDC press conference on autism and thimerosal
being held July 19 (prior to the rally)

Parents ask: why weren't autism groups notified? Why the secrecy? Where is the transparency

Word has leaked out about a secret CDC press conference being held in Washington DC today, Tuesday, July 18th. The Director of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, will be speaking. The meeting is closed to only a select, handpicked group of reporters. Although the meeting topic is autism and thimerosal, no autism groups were informed of the press conference, and no autism groups have been invited to attend. Here is yet another example of CDC's lack of community involvement and lack of transparency.

The Power of Truth autism rally in Washington DC is starting tomorrow. Groups who have set up the march believe this CDC press conference is a shameful attempt to head off publicity from the rally that would direct attention to the role of thimerosal and vaccines in autism. The groups are preparing a statement on the press conference which will be issued later today.

The press conference is at 2:00 pm. Below is the announcement from the CDC on the meeting:

Dr. Gerberding, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and representatives from other government agencies will participate in a press conference this afternoon, July 19th, at 2pm. The call will communicate the importance of infants and children receiving their recommended vaccinations on time, and reassure parents that vaccines are safe. The renewed attention to the potential causal link between thimerosal, a vaccine preservative, and autism will also be addressed during the press conference.

By John Hanchette

OLEAN -- Here's an update on a topic featured in this space before: the alarming exponential increase in young children with autism. You may have missed it, but late in June both houses of the New York State Legislature passed an act that, beginning in mid-2008, would prohibit further sale or use of the mercury compound thimerosal in vaccines for children younger than 3, and for inoculating pregnant women. The office of Gov. George Pataki has said he's still pondering whether to sign the legislation into law.

If he does, it would make New York the fourth state to establish such a law -- California, Iowa and Missouri are the others. Similar legislation -- most of it with quicker effective dates -- has been introduced in Florida, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Tennessee and Rhode Island. A federal bill to ban thimerosal from all childhood vaccines in the United States is sponsored by Rep. David Weldon, a Florida Republican who is also a physician. He says in the 1990s a baby who got all the recommended shots could be exposed to mercury levels significantly higher than those considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Thimerosal, which contains a neurotoxin mercury compound, has been used for more than half a century as a preservative to prevent bacterial contamination in vaccines. Just a decade ago, most Americans would have to be "Jeopardy" champions just to identify the substance, but parents today are more and more aware of it because many medical researchers believe it is linked to the astounding increase in autism. If you're in your 20s, you had a 1 in 10,000 chance of ending up autistic. Today, that chance in the United States is about 1 in 166 births, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The change in these numbers is statistically incredible, and indicates a health problem of epidemic proportions.

As almost every concerned parent now knows, autistic children -- many of them once normal infants and toddlers -- display heartbreaking social withdrawal, loss of speech, reduced eye contact, temper tantrums, repetitive hand-flapping, seizures, constant sleep disturbance, aversion to eye contact, a seemingly weakened immune system, and odd repetitive behaviors such as walking on their toes. The symptoms of infant mercury poisoning are almost exactly the same.

As more and more inoculations became required for infants and toddlers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, big pharmaceutical firms manufacturing vaccines started combining the shots in multi-dose vials.

They were cheaper to produce, easier to store, and kept parents from making too many trips to the doctor. The thimerosal also gave them longer shelf-life. During this period, the number of vaccines containing thimerosal that were added to the immunization schedule almost doubled. Kids sometimes got three such injections in a single day, and usually nine thimerosal-containing shots during their first half-year of life, when the immune system is still developing and vulnerable.

It was during this period the astonishing rate of increase in autistic children started zooming upward.

While pediatricians gave mothers tut-tut reassurances that the vaccinations were totally safe, recently revealed documents show some government and drug industry researchers had started wondering. The Los Angeles Times earlier this year dug up a 1991 memo circulated within the internal offices of pharmaceutical giant Merck. It showed real concern among senior executives over the significant level of mercury in many children's vaccines. It wasn't until the summer of 1999 that the influential American Academy of Pediatrics and the federal Public Health Service issued a joint statement urging the pharmaceutical firms to remove thimerosal from their infant vaccines.

They did, sort of.

Much of the thimerosal-containing vaccine was shipped overseas to developing nations and countries like China, where autism rates have since rocketed. Some was dispatched to free health clinics in the United States. The mercury substance still appears here in some flu shots and booster inoculations for tetanus and diphtheria. ( Russia, often described in the American media as abysmally backward in scientific matters, banned thimerosal from vaccines 20 years ago. So have Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Denmark and Japan.)

The Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization continued to insist thimerosal was safe, and in May of last year -- funded by the CDC -- the Institute of Medicine in Washington weighed in by stating scientific evidence in more than 200 studies "favors rejection of a causal relationship" and that "all well-designed epidemiological studies provide evidence of no association between thimerosal and autism."

Case closed? Hardly.

The childhood health controversy has morphed into a growing fight in the political arena. A recent catalyst is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 51 -- the son of assassinated New York senator, presidential candidate and former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, JFK's younger brother. The current younger Kennedy, a lawyer and environmentalist, in June wrote an explosive article in "Rolling Stone" magazine that described a secret June 2000 summit-like meeting of doctors, drug company execs, federal health officials and other vaccine experts called together by the CDC specifically "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." Kennedy, who does not have an autistic child, said he began his research thinking he would prove vaccines were not involved in the autism increase.

Instead, from documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and an anonymous source who was present, Kennedy learned a CDC epidemiologist at the meeting had declared that 100,000 medical records of children in the CDC medical database had showed thimerosal was "directly related to the dramatic rise" in the autism epidemic.

Instead of triggering further studies or promulgating this to the federal scientific community, the CDC embargoed the information -- even from government medical researchers -- but showed the data to select members of the private drug industry. Typical federal behavior.

ABC News got onto the buzz about Kennedy's assertions and prepared a special report that would have indicated credence, but network executives canceled it the night before airing. The content was rewritten in a fashion that discredited Kennedy and his discoveries. The rebroadcast was sandwiched between expensive advertisements by big pharmaceutical companies.

Kennedy upped the ante with an opinion piece last week in USA Today, in which he claimed the "once sterling reputations" of the CDC, the IOM and the Food and Drug Administration have all been tarnished "by the release of transcripts of secret meetings that show government officials conspiring with the pharmaceutical industry to hide the damning results of data showing dramatic increases in neurological disorders among children exposed to thimerosal."

Kennedy scored the CDC for claiming "to have lost the original data" and for its "defiance of federal laws and congressional requests requiring it to allow independent scientists or the public to review federal vaccine safety data."

He further accused the CDC of rigging studies finding thimerosal safe by relying on principal authors who "have close ties to the pharmaceutical industry" and not disclosing those connections, even though the federal health agency was aware of them, and was similarly aware the studies contained "deceptive data" which made the studies "catastrophically flawed."

For instance, the CDC and other thimerosal defenders keep pointing to one of the studies that allegedly shows a big increase in autistic children in Denmark after that country disallowed use of the substance in its vaccines. Wouldn't that show conclusively that thimerosal is not to blame for autism increases?

One would think so, until one learns from Kennedy that Denmark -- before banning thimerosal -- was used to registering in its studies only autistics who were hospitalized. That number represented only 20 percent of those truly afflicted. After banning thimerosal, Denmark began also counting out-patient children who showed autistic symptoms, four-fifths of the total autistic population. Apples and oranges, not scientific parallels. Of course, it appeared like the numbers spiked following the ban. A whole new category was being counted. The clever CDC, of course, never mentions this.

The CDC, Kennedy further charged, "has selectively ignored hundreds of biological, toxicological and epidemiological studies linking thimerosal to a wide range of neurological disorders, relying instead on its reputation and its faith that journalists are too busy to read the science."

The slopping over of the controversy into political circles is even affecting occupants of the White House -- the current one and a possible future resident of the executive mansion.

Last September, when George W. Bush was campaigning for re-election, vaccine safety advocates asked Bush to state his position on thimerosal. Dubya responded: "I support the removal of thimerosal from vaccines" for children." He also pledged to fund autism research.

A parental group called Unlocking Autism last month unleashed a lobbying and advertising campaign accusing Dubya of flip-flopping on the issue and doing nothing. Members say they got the cold shoulder when they tried to convince White House officials and the Department of Health and Human Services thimerosal is still a problem.

The possible future president in the middle of the controversy is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a heart surgeon and powerful Tennessee Republican who is notoriously protecting big pharmaceutical firms from private lawsuits and who has feverishly (and successfully) tried to deny researchers access to the federal government's sophisticated database of vaccine reaction documents.

Frist, you may recall, is the slick politico who after 9/11 snuck a provision into the Homeland Security Act that shielded the big pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly -- developer of thimerosal -- from even being subpoenaed in connection to vaccine lawsuits. He claimed he was just trying to protect future research that would protect against bioterrorism. Yeah, sure.

Shortly thereafter, Eli Lilly donated $10,000 to Frist's campaign fund and bought 5,000 copies of the senator's book on bioterrorism. The clause protecting the big drug firm from legal action was repealed in 2003, but Frist was not deterred. Early this year, he attached another section to another anti-terrorism bill which denies compensation to children with vaccine-related brain damage. His office states vaccine-damage 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."

Riiiight. Maybe this is why over the years pharmaceutical companies have donated a total of almost $900,000 to Frist's campaign funds. Frist is going to run for president in 2008. And he's going to get some tough questions on this subject. Parents everywhere should hope young Kennedy keeps asking them.

John Hanchette, a professor of journalism at St. Bonaventure University, is a former editor of the Niagara Gazette and a Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent. He was a founding editor of USA Today and was recently named by Gannett as one of the Top 10 reporters of the past 25 years. He can be contacted via e-mail at Hanchette6@aol.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter - www.niagarafallsreporter.com

Attention all TACA members! Diane Gallant has worked hard with South Coast Plaza in arranging FREE CAROUSEL RIDES for children with Autism and their siblings!! Come join us for a morning of fun and horse rides at South Coast Plaza!

• Upcoming Dates: The Saturday schedule is: August 20 th, September 24 th, October 22 nd and November 19 th.
• Times: 8:30 am-9:30 am (BEFORE the mall opens)
• Local: South Coast Plaza by the carousel ( NOT the Crystal Court carousel!)
• Costs: FREE!!!!!!!!!
• Park: Park by ZTejas Restaurant and the Bank of America ATM’s off Bristol
• Note: Kids can ride as often as they would like and based on availability.

NO NEED TO RSVP! JUST COME AND PLAY!!

August 25 Thursday 6:30-8:30pm

Pump it UP in Huntington Beach will be our TACA playground for 2 hours the last Thursday of every month from 6:30pm to 8:30 pm.

Pump It Up has the latest inflatable designs that are engaging, challenging and interactive. Kids love to play on recreational inflatables in our indoor arenas, and they continue to enjoy this fun activity time after time, visit after visit. Kids of all ages love ...Bouncing ...Sliding ... Climbing and ...Tumbling. Indoor inflatables include a custom inflatable bounce house, inflatable slide, inflatable obstacle course, inflatable boxing arena, and an inflatable jousting arena. There are also tricycles and scooter cars etc. on the floor. It’s a great chance to meet other parents and another great play-date opportunity for our kids!

Details: Ages 2+ are welcome, and equipment accommodates even adult sizes should you like to accompany or assist your child on this large equipment. Siblings are welcome. Each jumping child for our group is $6. When you come you will check in to sign a waiver for insurance, and remove shoes before entering arena. We will not be having any music playing at this event (to reduce auditory exposure.) 35 children will be able to attend each event and will be offered on a first-come, first-served pre-sign up basis!

Email Lynn Milucky (not Pump It Up) at funnybunnypaw@yahoo.com or call Lynn’s cell 714-925-3882 to reserve your spot!

Pump It Up is located at the Northwest corner of Gothard St and Heil Ave in the "HB Business Center."  Just 1 mile from the intersection of the 405 Freeway and Beach Blvd. (go around to the back of the business complex, follow Pump It Up signs)

16351 Gothard Street Suite C
Huntington Beach , CA 92647 // 714-847-9663 http://www.pumpitupparty.com/huntingtonbeach.html

Let me know if you or anyone in your group is interested in swimming lessons this summer.  I will also be renting out my pool on Saturdays for groups.  If you'd like to set up a family fun event, let me know.  Thanks for your support.

Terri Roe
Miss Terri's Swim Programs
(909) 981-7482

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:

• GFCF Food for her kids
• Typical groceries for her family
• ONE-ON-ONE babysitting for her autistic son after 3pm.
• 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.)

ABC (ABA Provider) Accepting applications for new clients

Autism Behavior Consultants (ABC) is currently accepting applications for new clients in the areas of Orange County, Long Beach and San Gabriel Valley. 

For more information, please contact Christy Crider, Director of Client Services & Administration via email at christy@autismprograms.com or toll free at (877) 927-6300.  

Gymnastics for Special Needs Children in Mission Viejo

We are a start-up gymnastics center for children with high functioning disabilities (autism, hearing impaired, Down syndrome, and ADD/ADHD). www.ustoogymnastics.com

We are having a Luau at the Elks Lodge in Mission Viejo on August 7 th and a Rock-n-Roll Golf Classic at Pacific Golf Course in San Clemente on September 26 th

Thank You
Vicky Simpson
(562)864-3559

There are so many new web resources, I have decided to make a section for your review. They are all worth looking at!

Web Resource #1:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Autism Shows to Watch Online:

• SHOW #1 – CBS NEWS & RF KENNEDY
  CBS News Report:
  http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=eveningnews
  PLAY THE LINK:  Debate on Autism-Vaccine Link w/ Robert F Kennedy Jr
  What a great report!
• Show #2 – THE DAILY SHOW & RF KENNEDY
  http://www.autismmedia.org/media11.html
  This is a clip where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears on Comedy Central's "Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Web Resource #2:

Great FREE / new card to use at Restaurants for individuals on the Gluten Free/Casein Free diet http://www.glutenfreerestaurants.org/find.php

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

 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.

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.

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.

Your children can be helped! Autistic-Spectrum Disorders are a medical condition and should be treated as such. There is no need to rely on false information and dead-end answers claiming children with autistic-spectrum disorders are not treatable. It simply is not true!

Kurt N. Woeller, D.O. a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now) doctor from Stillpoint Center for Integrative Medicine in Temecula, specializing in biomedical therapies for children with autistic-spectrum disorders, will be sharing important information about cutting-edge testing and therapeutic options to diagnose and treat the many physical conditions affecting children with autism, including: 

• Dietary Intervention
• Nutritional Supplementation
• B12 Therapy
• Heavy Metal and Detoxification Therapies
• ….and More!

Join us for a FREE informative evening followed by questions and answers
Tuesday August 30 th, 2005 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm in Temecula

The Rivard House
40205 Calle Cabernet
Temecula , CA 92591
Seating is Limited – please RSVP to 858-217-2188

Directions:

• I-15 to Temecula
• Head EAST on RANCHO CALIFORNIA ROAD into the Wine Country – approximately 6.0 miles.
• Turn left on CALLE CONTENTO (you will see a sign for LONGSHADOW WINERY).
• Turn RIGHT on VISTA DEL MONTE (if road becomes unpaved you have gone to far!).
• Turn RIGHT onto VINO.
• Turn RIGHT onto CALLE CABERNET - 40205 is at the end CALLE CABERNET.

PARK IN THE GRAVEL PARKING LOT TO THE LEFT OF THE ESTATE

Babysitting will not be provided...no kiddos, please!

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.        

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     

There has been so much news over the past five months that it is nearly impossible to choose what stories go in the TACA e-news and what does not. Exclusion and inclusion of articles is a bit of an “art” for me and I do not have a science for how I select what goes in each TACA e-news and what does not.

If you wish to know about ALL news each day as it happens – here is what I recommend

Lenny Shafer is a father with a child affected by Autism. He has created a great resource with over 20,000 other parents in which he reviews all related news and medical updates, including conferences and other important information on Autism, and publishes a daily newsletter. It is worth the read!

To subscribe to this free service, go to:  http://home.sprynet.com/~schafer/

Unfortunately, Jeff got a viral infection in his lungs and was very sick over the past 2+ weeks. Thankfully, he is slowly recovering (thanks to some great help from Dr Jerry Kartzinel and Sears Pediatrics.) As I get him fully recovered and fully rested (for him and me), I will be sure to provide a complete update on his status, what happened in 1 st grade and how the summer is going (sans this speed bump!)

Hugs, thanks, and be SAFE,
Lisa A Jeff's mom
And Editor: Kim Palmer (thanks Kim!)

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 1,786 people!
(This number represents families – 95%, and the rest are professionals.)