Come see TACA on Thursday night to hear about CARD (Center for Autism & Related Disorders)
CARD II programming for high functioning autism and or children over 9 years.
This exciting new program has a lot to offer! Please join us!

• Time: 6:30-8:30pm
• Fee: Free – no RSVP required
• Location Vineyard Newport Church, 102 E. Baker, Costa Mesa

IF YOU ARE LESS THAN ONE YEAR INTO THE AUTISM JOURNEY,YOU SHOULD MAKE THE TIME TO COME TO THIS VALUABLE SEMINAR!
The goal of the one-day New Parent Orientation is to provide parents and caretakers the “jump start” they need at the beginning of their journey from parents who have “been there, done that.”

• PARENTS & CARETAKERS: $28 registration per person or $45 per couple.
• Non-Parents/Professional registration: $50 registration and materials fee required
• More info

If you need a scholarship to attend, please contact us

• Meets: 2nd Saturday of each month
• More Info: (info in item #1 for meeting topics and details) CLICK HERE TO FIND A MEETING

Demand for Aid Increases
As Children Get Older;
Years on the Waiting List
'I Felt Like I Was Caging Her'

By CLARE ANSBERRY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

ALACHUA, Fla. -- Two years ago, Blake Misura, a single father, moved out of the A-frame house that he built and shared with his 21-year-old autistic son. His new home: a used camper 150 feet away.

Mr. Misura now sleeps and eats in the cramped trailer, cooking on a two-burner hot plate, or the gas grill outside. Then he walks over to visit his only child, Andy, who still lives in their family home. The arrangement was set up so Mr. Misura could get the state to provide someone to stay with Andy while he worked an overnight shift at the local water-treatment plant. The state said people with disabilities who live alone get top priority for in-home help.

"I'm allowed to go over there," says the 47-year-old Mr. Misura, who has been taking care of Andy since he and his wife divorced a few years ago. "I just can't live there."

Faced with the difficulty of getting scarce help for their mentally or physically frail children, some parents are resorting to measures they once considered unthinkable. A Chicago mother dropped off her adult daughter, who has the mental functioning of a 7-year-old, at a shelter, after being told only the homeless or orphans could get into a supervised group home. A couple in Georgia, raising four other children, went to court and let their autistic son become a ward of the state in a bid to get him into therapeutic foster care.

Nationwide, an estimated 80,000 developmentally disabled people are waiting for in-home help or an opening in a group home. Some have been on waiting lists for more than a decade. In Texas, there are 46,000 people waiting for such help -- or about four times the number of people actually receiving assistance.

Requests are increasing as the nation's 4.6 million developmentally disabled, like the rest of the population, are living longer. Meanwhile, their parents are aging too, making it harder to keep up with caretaking.

Many parents want to avoid sending their children away to big public institutions, where they fear their children won't thrive. Over the past 30 years, there's been a largely successful effort to move people out of institutions and into smaller settings. Only 44,000 people now live in big public institutions, about a quarter of the number that lived in them in the peak year of 1967.

That change has saved millions of dollars. The average cost to care for a person in a state institution is about $135,000 a year, according to David Braddock, a professor at the University of Colorado, who compiles an annual report called "The State of States in Developmental Disabilities." Care in a privately owned, smaller group home costs about half that.

An even less expensive option is providing in-home help, which costs an average of $19,000 a year, assuming care isn't around-the-clock, the report says. But low wages and the often-difficult tasks involved have created a shortage of home-care workers.

Long waits for help have prompted lawsuits in two dozen states, charging violations of a 1999 Supreme Court decision requiring states to make diligent efforts to serve disabled individuals in their community. Florida settled one suit in 2001, promising services to 17,000 people on waiting lists. By increasing spending, it did. Since then, the waiting list has ballooned again, to more than 15,000.

Indeed, even though public spending to provide community services to people with developmental disabilities grew by 17% between 2000 and 2002 -- to about $27 billion -- demand for those services continues to outpace availability. Federal funds, primarily Medicaid, provide 50% of that $27 billion, with states kicking in 46% and local funds the remaining 4%.

"Unless you're in a crisis, you don't get services. I'm sure that's the case in most states," says Tony Paulauski, executive director of ARC of Illinois, part of a national, nonprofit organization for the developmentally disabled.

Long Wait

Kathi and James Chandler of Atlanta thought they were in a crisis. Two of their five children, twin boys, have cerebral palsy. One of the twins, 10-year-old Jeff, is also autistic. A few years ago, he started biting and scratching himself until he bled, and then began hurting his siblings. Ms. Chandler, who works in information technology, and her husband, an accountant, say they couldn't afford around-the-clock trained help on their own. They tried to get in-home help for Jeff through the state, but say the waiting list was too long.

After doing research, they heard about a special foster-home program available through the state. But to qualify, they had to agree to have themselves declared unfit parents. "I never thought we would have to give up our child," says Mr. Chandler. Privately, they hoped that if they said they were willing to do that, someone would intervene, and suggest an alternative.

No one did. The Chandlers went to court, agreed to be classified as negligent parents and turned their son over to the state. They say they accepted the designation voluntarily, for no other reason than their hope to get him into special foster care.

Jeff ended up in two foster homes, for a total of about 11 months. His parents were allowed one visit per month. They didn't tell friends or co-workers about the arrangement. "I couldn't talk about it without crying," Ms. Chandler says. Finally, she asked the court to let her son come home. The judge agreed. "I'll never forgive myself for doing what I did," she says.

Georgia officials wouldn't comment on the Chandlers' case. While rare, there have been similar situations, the state says. "We're increasing our resources to make sure no family has to relinquish their rights," says Kenya Bello, a spokeswoman with the Georgia Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases.

The Chandlers are still on a state waiting list to get in-home help. They have hired a live-in au pair, who helps care for Jeff and change his diapers. They refinanced their home and bought a $20,000 chamber-like device containing pressurized oxygen that reaches different parts of the brain. Some doctors recommend it for people with cerebral palsy and autism.

Many families can't afford to get their children into a private-care facility, which can cost more than $50,000 a year, far exceeding what the child would receive in Social Security disability payments.

The poverty rate among families whose children have developmental disabilities is nearly twice the national average, according to a 1998 study by Glenn Fujiura, an associate professor at the University of Illinois. Parents often have difficulty progressing in their careers, he said, because of great demands at home. They also have high expenses related to their child's disability. One parent typically stays home, limiting income.

The vast majority of developmentally disabled people -- about 75% -- don't receive any publicly funded residential support, such as in-home help. But requests for assistance are expected to increase, as aging parents reach physical and financial limits. To stem the tide, states are capping the number of people they serve and raising eligibility requirements.

Installing an Alarm

Sharon Lambert, who lives near Chicago, says she needed someone to help watch her then 24-year-old daughter, Regina, who has the mental functioning of a 7-year-old. To remind Regina that she wasn't supposed to leave the house while her mother was at work, Ms. Lambert installed an alarm that sounded if Regina tried to leave.

"I felt like I was caging her," says Ms. Lambert, who feared for her vulnerable daughter. Once, she says two women convinced Regina to steal for them at a department store, by loading her cart with goods and then asking her to go outside. She did, and was arrested, her mother says. Another time, she says a man convinced Regina to live with him, then used her small paycheck from a grocery-store bakery to pay his rent. Ms. Lambert tried to get Regina into a supervised-living program, but was told there wasn't anything available in her area.

"They said she has to be homeless or both parents deceased," says Ms. Lambert.

State officials wouldn't comment on Ms. Lambert's case, but say each situation must be evaluated individually to determine whether it is an emergency. An emergency case, which would involve a person who didn't have a guardian or a home, would prompt a more immediate placement, a spokesman said.

Just before Christmas 2003, Ms. Lambert drove Regina to a shelter and told her to go inside and say she needed a place to live. Ms. Lambert sat in her car into the night, she says, crying and watching the door to make sure her daughter wasn't kicked out or didn't leave with strangers. "She knew I was trying to get help for her. She didn't understand it had to be done that way," says Ms. Lambert. "It was what I had to do in order to keep my daughter safe."

Regina has since been placed in a group home.

As parents age, they sometimes agree to housing that places their child far from home. Margaret Gardner and her husband, Alfred, who has had two heart attacks, drive four hours round trip on weekends to visit their 43-year-old autistic son, Ronald, in an Illinois state facility. It had become impossible for them to keep their son at home, Mrs. Gardner says, because he gets upset easily and acts out. Years ago, he lived in a facility near their home that has since closed.

"It's not like he has a girlfriend or job or life," says Mrs. Gardner. "We are all he has. We don't want him to feel like he's been abandoned."

Because there were few options in their part of West Virginia, Mike and Helen Cornell sent their 32-year-old daughter, Katie, to a state-funded, privately run home 150 miles away. Their daughter, who was diagnosed with severe mental retardation and mild cerebral palsy, is allowed to come home only 21 nights a year, because officials at the center believe prolonged visits would be disruptive to her treatment.

"We try to stretch visits to every five weeks, so she can be home at Christmas for three nights," says her mother. In between, Mrs. Cornell mails her daughter dragonfly stickers and recordings of Marvin Gaye and the Rolling Stones.

It's been two years since Blake Misura packed his clothes in a duffel bag and black garbage bags, and left his home. That fulfilled a promise he made that he would leave if the state would help him with his son, Andy.

Andy is autistic and has pica, which means he will eat inappropriate things, like bolts and coins. He has never talked, but has a few distinguishable hand signals. One signal means that he wants something to eat, another means he is thirsty. He might hit his head when he has a headache. Noises, crowds and strangers bother him. He grew up on a quiet, four-acre plot outside of Gainesville. As a boy, he rode the family's two horses, Prince and Desmore, with his mother or father behind him, arms wrapped around his waist.

Inside his living room are pictures of him as a child, sitting in an inflatable pool and crawling on the floor. Nearby is the wood carving of a unicorn that his father made for him when he was a baby.

Anxious at School

Andy was in and out of schools, in classes designed for students both with and without disabilities. He was often sent home because he would get anxious when bells rang or hallways filled with students. His mother, Sherri, home-schooled him for a while when he was a teen. After reading that special diets could help people with autism, she ordered sorghum flour from Idaho and made fresh bread daily for him. Nothing worked, she says. As he got bigger, towering over her at 6 feet 2 inches and close to 300 pounds, he grew more uncooperative, biting and head-butting her and tearing at her clothes.

"He had periods when he was absolutely wonderful and then periods when he seemed ready to kill whoever walked through the room and I was always the one walking through the room," says Ms. Misura. "He just couldn't help it."

The Misuras called the state, asking for in-home help. They were told it could take months, maybe a year, for assistance. Being home alone with Andy all day, on a country road by a cemetery and a field of grazing cows, took its toll on Ms. Misura. Finally, she left.

"We wanted desperately to make things better and were never able to do anything. I thought it would never change. I'd always be right there with him, never knowing when something was going to happen," she says. "You just finally get to the point where you break. You absolutely break. Basically, that's what happened."

After she left, Mr. Misura cut back on his work, living on credit cards and loans, he says. He put in 16 hours a month maintaining computers at a water-treatment plant, his elderly parents coming overnight to stay with Andy.

"I worried about them, too, and not being able to get out of the way fast enough to avoid a head butt if Andy became upset," says Mr. Misura.

After three months with no steady income, Mr. Misura reached his credit limit. He again asked the state for help, saying he needed someone to come to his house for nine to 12 hours a day, so he could go to work, pay bills and buy groceries. He was told no funding was available, and Andy was on the waiting list. At that point, he went on an email campaign, sending an estimated 7,000 emails a week to any one holding public office in the state, explaining his situation. "I knew somewhere, sometime, someone was going to tire of it," he says.

Finally, the state Department of Children and Families contacted him and said they could place Andy in an institution, only a few miles from their home. Mr. Misura said no. "I have sworn to myself that I would never put Andy in an institution," he says.

He believed his son would regress in an institution, mimicking behavior of those around him. He worried that Andy, a loner, would be overwhelmed by the facility's size and noise. He feared workers wouldn't be able to settle Andy down when he got upset.

Officials assured him it was only temporary, maybe 30 to 60 days, until funding came through for in-home help. Reluctantly, he agreed.

The stay extended to a year. Andy lived in a sprawling state-owned complex, with about 600 people in various buildings. He was one of 16 people in his home, sleeping four to a room. At one point, Andy was found eating the wallpaper border he peeled off the wall and at another, dismantling a lamp and putting the screws in his mouth, his father says.

State officials said they couldn't comment without a release from Andy Misura, who is old enough to be his own legal guardian.

Andy locked himself in his room, sticking his fingers in his ears to block out noise, according to his father. On several occasions, he had to be restrained by staffers holding him on the floor. He would sit outside on a picnic table waiting for his father's arrival every evening, running with a lopsided gait to meet him. They would go to the mall to walk, to Wal-Mart or to Godfather's Pizza for a buffet special.

"Every time I'd see him waiting for me on the picnic table, it tore me up inside," says Mr. Misura. Goodbyes were difficult. Andy would refuse to get out of the car or let go of his father after long hugs. Mr. Misura kept calling state officials to see when Andy could come home. He went to Tallahassee to testify before a board created to help provide better services to the developmentally disabled.

Again, he was told his son was still on the waiting list for in-home help -- and that people requiring part-time help weren't priorities. Those who lived on their own, or needed 24-hour care, were top priorities.

At that point, Mr. Misura said he would move out of his house so Andy would technically be living on his own -- and thus a priority.

Tom Barnes, spokesman for the Department of Children and Families, says he couldn't talk specifically about Andy Misura because of federal laws protecting privacy of health information. But he said the system isn't designed to force people to make drastic choices. "I'm not going to say that never happens, but it is not designed that way," he says. "There is a dilemma related to inadequate services and funding. That is always true."

Living in a Trailer

At first, Mr. Misura lived in an apartment five miles away. But Mr. Misura, who earns $40,000 a year with overtime, couldn't keep up with the $525-a-month rent, plus utilities, his $625 mortgage, and $17,000 in credit-card debt. To cut costs, he asked permission to live in a trailer on his property. He found a 1984 camper in a classified ad for $1,600.

Now he sleeps on a mattress wedged in a small bedroom. There's a closet-size bathroom with a concrete floor. "I wouldn't call it a real home," he says.

Most afternoons, a bus brings Andy home from a school for the developmentally disabled. On a recent day, his father, who had been resting in his trailer after his shift, joined his son in the house. Andy rocked back and forth on the sofa. He hadn't had any outbursts in several months, his father said. Two trophies stood on the TV, honoring Andy as the 2003 Most Improved student at his school. Halloween and Christmas cards, made for his father, each with a photo of him inside and the words Love Andy, stand propped open on a shelf.

Andy's mother visits, but not often. "I don't see him very much," she says. "It brings back a lot of bad memories."

Andy is now on his seventh caregiver in less than two years. Most of them left because the work was deemed too hard and the pay -- about $28,000 a year -- too little. His last caregiver put Andy on a vegetarian diet, helping him lose 60 pounds and get down to 310. She played with him, taking down his basket of toys, balls and xylophones. But she left this summer.

Mr. Misura's brother, who is divorced and whose own children are grown, has taken over for now. He moved in with Andy, and receives payment from the state. Andy's father still lives in the camper.

Write to Clare Ansberry at clare.ansberry@wsj.com 1

A group of parents and their supporters say the mercury is responsible for their children's autism. Government agencies say no such connection can be made.
http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20051009_aut09x.38515fa.html

BY JENNIFER LEVITZ
Journal Staff Writer

Last year, a panel at the National Academy of Sciences tried to finally settle a gut-wrenching debate: Could a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines until a few years ago be linked to soaring autism rates?

The academy's Institute of Medicine concluded: "The evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship" between the preservative thimerosal and autism.

Furthermore, the panel said, the government should stop pursuing the thimerosal theory and channel autism research into more "promising areas."

Many parents of autistic children don't buy that conclusion. And they have forged a national parents' movement that is working Congress, funding research, buying billboard space and storming Washington. Wendy Fournier, of Portsmouth, president of the National Autism Association and mother of an autistic child says: "Our kids have literally been stolen, stolen, from us! And Damn it, we won't stop until the government comes clean about what they did!"

On Friday and yesterday, Fournier and 150 leaders of other parent groups from around the country held a "Power of Parents" rally on Capitol Hill and lobbied doctors inside a convention of pediatricians. Fournier said some parents were told to leave.

Depending upon whom you talk to, the parents are either looking to blame someone or looking for the truth.

"Clinging to the notion that mercury is somehow related to autism, it's my belief and the belief of the American Academy of Pediatrics that they're barking up the wrong tree," said Dr. Julia McMillan, a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

But said Boyd Haley, chemistry professor and a heavy-metals expert at the University of Kentucky, "The parents are correct on this. The parents are the heroes.

"The people who say there is no causal link are going to be humiliated," he said.

THE CONTROVERSY began in 1997 when Congress, concerned about mercury in the environment, ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to evaluate mercury in food and drugs.

Environmental accidents and studies of island populations that eat predatory fish had shown that unsafe levels of mercury could damage brains, kidneys and developing fetuses.

The preservative thimerosal (also known as Merthiolate) was already in use in 1938 when the FDA first started requiring pharmaceutical companies to prove their products were safe. There had never been a study on thimerosal's effect on developing infant brains.

It was in over-the-counter products and vaccines.

The pharmaceutical companies used the preservative to kill germs in vials that contain 10 doses. A nurse or doctor could put a needle in and out of the vial without picking up bacteria.

The companies could always make vaccines in single-dose vials, which don't require thimerosal, but the process is costlier: about $4 more per vial.

Thimerosal, the parents of autistic children claim, became dangerous when the government expanded its list of mandated vaccines in the early '90s. Apparently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its advisory bodies, which coordinate vaccine schedules, had not tallied the total amount of mercury infants were getting from the vaccines.

When the Maryland-based FDA did in 1999 -- on Congress' orders -- it found the levels of mercury exceeded at least one guideline, the one set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

(The standards are based on methyl mercury, the type of mercury found in fish and emissions; thimerosal contains ethyl mercury. They are the two most toxic forms of mercury, though there is a debate over which is worse.)

How much mercury were infants getting?

Infants who got routine shots at two months were also getting 62.5 micrograms of mercury. At an average weight, that worked out to 118 times the EPA standard for daily consumption.

Health officials prepared to tell the public in the summer of 1999 that thimerosal was going to be phased out of vaccines over theoretical concerns about mercury; vaccine companies voluntarily agreed to transition to thimerosal-free vaccines.

Internal e-mails obtained by Congress show health agencies feared shaking public trust in vaccines, which have been so successful in preventing diseases such as diphtheria, which once killed thousands.

Officials also worried about public perception.

In one e-mail, Peter Patriarca, a former FDA scientist, wrote to the CDC, predicting that the public announcement: "Will raise questions about FDA being 'asleep at the switch' for decades, by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many childhood vaccines, and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products.

"We must keep in mind that the dose of ethyl mercury was not generated by 'rocket science;' conversion of the % of Thimerosal to actual ug (micrograms) of mercury involves 9th grade calculations? Why didn't the CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations while rapidly expanding the childhood immunization schedule."

Asked why the CDC did not add up the mercury, Glen Nowak, CDC spokesman, said in a phone interview: "I think that was something, looking back, that we wish more attention would have been paid to."

Coincidentally or not, the diagnosis of autism skyrocketed in the last decade as the list of mandated immunizations increased. A neurological disorder that can profoundly affect a person's ability to communicate and form social relationships, autism was once considered rare, about 4 in 10,000. While scientists debate the reason for the rising numbers, the CDC says rates are now as high as 1 in 166. In Rhode Island, the number of autistic children in special education jumped from 30 in 1992 to 605 in 2002.

IT DIDN'T TAKE long for parents to start connecting thimerosal and autism rates.

And it didn't take long for people to ask: What was mercury, a poison, doing in vaccines?

"It [would be] sort of like Gerber grinding up glass and putting it in baby food. Even if it's a little tiny amount, what would you want that in there for," says Sallie Bernard, of Aspen, Colo., who has an autistic son.

In 1999, shortly after the public announcement about thimerosal, Bernard and another mother, a nurse in Atlanta, started pulling the scientific literature on mercury poisoning and concluded that the symptoms of mercury poisoning resembled autism.

The mercury theories started going around the Internet. Mercury poisoning, they began to think, was why their children were speechless, spinning, rocking, flapping their arms, staring at Elmo with faces pressed right on the TV.

In Boston, the mercury argument made sense to Mark Blaxill, father to an autistic daughter, Michaela. "We played by the rules and were taking our kids to doctor," he says. "We look up and say holy crap -- there's a lot of sick kids around and we're not alone. Something is going on and no one is facing up to it."

The CDC had also started looking into the possible connection.

Autism is thought to be partly genetic. Some scientists believe it also has an environmental trigger.

According to documents filed with the House Committee on Government Reform, the CDC directed one of its scientists to analyze the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink, a database that tracks reports of adverse reactions to vaccines by keeping 6 million records from four HMOs.

The CDC's goal was to see if thimerosal was linked to neurological or kidney damage.

From 1999 to 2000, the scientist, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, culled records of 110,000 children.

He reported results of Phase I in 2000, saying he had found a "statistically-significant association" between exposure to thimerosal during the first six months of life and attention deficit disorder, tics, language and speech delays, and general neurodevelopmental delays.

For autism, the study found a "slight, but not significant increase for highest exposure," he told public health officials gathered at a meeting near the CDC's Atlanta headquarters in June of 2000.

Asked for his opinion of his findings, Verstraeten said: "When I saw this, and I went back through the literature, I was actually stunned by what I saw because I thought it is plausible.

He also said, at a different point in the meeting: "Personally, I have three hypotheses. My first parental hypotheses is parental bias. The children that are more likely to be vaccinated are more likely to be picked up and diagnosed. Second hypothesis. I don't know. There is a bias that I have not yet recognized and nobody had told me yet.'

"Third hypothesis. It's true, it's thimerosal. Those are my hypotheses."

The majority of attendees, including Verstraeten, said the results were preliminary; more analysis needed to be done.

Dr. Richard Johnston, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said he'd support a recommendation that infants of up to 2 not be given thimerosal-containing vaccines, if there was a choice.

"My gut feeling? It worries me enough. Forgive this personal comment," he told his colleagues, "but I got called out at eight o' clock for an emergency call and my daughter-in-law delivered a son by C-section. Our first male in the line of the next generation, and I do not want that grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on. . . . I think I want that grandson to be only given thimerosal-free vaccines."

Nowak, the CDC spokesman, said the agency didn't make that recommendation to the public because the research on thimerosal was preliminary and because there weren't enough thimerosal-free vaccines on the market.

The government's public health agencies allowed the vaccine industry to sell its stock of thimerosal-containing vaccines. Merck & Co., for one, would continue to ship vaccines with mercury in them for another year.

The House Committee on Government Reform said the agencies acted too slow.

"They could have, but did not require vaccine manufacturers to remove thimerosal from vaccines by a specific date," stated the House report, in an investigation led by U.S. Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican. "They could have, but did not, urge pediatricians to choose thimerosal-free vaccines when both were available."

The House committee blamed "institutional malfeasance" and said the government was protecting the pharmaceutical industry.

In the summer of 2000, as the CDC was studying thimerosal, Aly Fournier, of Portsmouth, was getting her shots, which contained thimerosal.

"For them to have this information. . ." said Wendy Fournier, Aly's mother, "they should have said, 'Whoa, whoa, we have a potential problem, we need to stop using thimerosal until we find out for sure what its effects are in these doses.' They didn't do it, they swept it under the rug."

THE CDC contracted with the Institute of Medicine to study the issue in 2001 and then again last year.

In the first study, the panel convened by the IOM considered a broad hypothesis: Was thimerosal linked to autism or any other neurologic disorders?

The IOM concluded it didn't have enough evidence to accept or reject the theory, but said a link was "biologically plausible," and called for more research.

Last year, the Institute of Medicine narrowed its focus. This time the institute only looked at the connection between thimerosal and autism, not the broader question of all potential brain damage.

"You're narrowing it so much. . . . It sort of eliminated everything that was somewhat supportive that there might be a connection," said Thomas M. Burbacher, director of the National Infant Primate Lab at the University of Washington.

Nowak, the CDC spokesman, said, "The primary concern, what we were hearing from parents was autism. That was the highest priority for people who were concerned about thimerosal."

U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, a Florida Democrat and a doctor, said the CDC shaped its request for the study in a way that gave little weight to lab studies on thimerosal.

Weldon said they looked at population studies in countries that had also used thimerosal. But, he said, "the bulk were from European children who received anywhere from half to a third of the mercury exposure that U.S. children received."

Dr. Marie C. McCormick, chairwoman of the Institute of Medicine's panel that looked at the thimerosal issue last year, said in an e-mail to The Journal: "He is correct if you look at the total dose up to age 2 years."

But in one study in Denmark, she said, infants had doses in the first year that were comparable to the United States.

McCormick said the Institute of Medicine committee acted independently and decided on its own that population studies were the best way to judge causality. She said the studies were convincing because they consistently showed no association. She said the IOM also looked at lab work, but found it theoretical at best.

The lab work, she said, showed that the mercury in thimerosal could be toxic, but failed to show how that could lead to autism.

"It's just not an evenhanded debate. The evidence is really on the side of no association, and I think it's going to accumulate further," she said.

The IOM did use one U.S. population study. The study turned out to be the final version of Verstraeten's Phase 1 study. This version of the study, which looked at different ages and groups of children, dropped any association between thimerosal and neurological disorders.

Yet Weldon said while the study made no connection, its author, Verstraeten, wrote:

"The bottom line is and has always been the same: an association between thimerosal and neurological outcomes could neither be confirmed nor refuted; and therefore more study is required."

AROUND THE COUNTRY, scientists continue to research thimerosal. Their studies are hailed as proof for or against a link.

Ethyl mercury, the mercury in thimerosal, was eliminated in an infant's stool in days, one study found. That's good news.

But the bad news: The National Primate Research Center at the University of Washington found that infant primates didn't excrete all the ethyl mercury.

Some of it converted to potentially harmful inorganic mercury and lodged in the brain.

"Smart people know there's a lot more questions to ask about thimerosal," said Burbacher, the author. "To say no more research is needed. That's ludicrous. You lose credibility."

Other scientists would like to work with the CDC's original data. But no one can seem to find it.

"They claim it's been destroyed," said Haley, the chemistry professor at the University of Kentucky. "This is by a government agency whose job it is to keep that kind of stuff. It's so symptomatic of someone who's seriously involved in a major cover-up."

Nowak, spokesman for the CDC, said it's true, the data sets from Phase I are gone. "They weren't kept," he said.

Those data "were a preliminary analysis and we weren't in the practice of saving data sets for those analyses."

EDWARD SAGEBIEL, spokesman for Eli Lilly, the Indianapolis-based company that developed thimerosal, said Lilly is facing hundreds of lawsuits by "parents who blame thimerosal for their children's autism."

"We believe that science, not politics or a legal system will really find the causes for autism," he said.

Another 4,900 parents have filed thimerosal claims with the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. In an effort to settle cases out of court, vaccine companies pay into the program, which awards an average of $800,000 to people judged to be harmed by vaccines.

In 2002, some lawmakers slipped a provision to shield vaccine makers from lawsuits into the massive Homeland Security legislation. "At the 11th hour at night, they put a provision in the bill," Congressman Burton, a Republican, testified. The provision was repealed by several Republicans and Democrats after parents rallied.

Many parents have now turned their attention to lobbying lawmakers to ban thimerosal. The preservative is still in one brand of infant flu shot, though thimerosal-free flu shots are available. In July, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican, filed a bill to ban mercury in shots for pregnant women and infants, as did Congressman Weldon. Six states have passed similar laws. An anti-thimerosal bill is pending in Rhode Island.

In May, 150 families in California chipped in for full-paged anti-mercury ads in USA Today.

In July, 700 marched at a "Power of Truth" rally in Washington. In August, "Mercury is toxic" billboards popped up around Chattanooga, Tenn., Raleigh, N.C., and Grand Rapids, Mich. There's a book out. And radio talk show host Don Imus is on a rant in support of the parents.

Despite getting booted out of a doctors' convention in Washington yesterday, Wendy Fournier, of Portsmouth, believes the mothers and fathers are "finally getting people to really listen and not think we're a bunch of lunatic parents."

Jennifer Levitz can be reached at jlevitz [at] projo.com.

Digital Extra: See related links, including a summary of the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform's report. Use the form below to send a private comment to reporter Jennifer Levitz.

By Brian Deer.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1774388,00.html

The doctor who sparked a worldwide scare over the MMR vaccine faces a six-week hearing before the General Medical Council (GMC) over allegations of serious professional misconduct, including dishonesty and intending to mislead.

A list of preliminary charges served on Dr Andrew Wakefield alleges that his research, which purported to find a possible link between MMR and autism, led to 11 different counts of misconduct.

It is claimed in the papers that he acted unethically, in a manner likely to bring the medical profession into disrepute and against the best interests of autistic child patients.

The GMC’s lawyers are halfway through a two-year inquiry into events surrounding the publication in February 1998 of a paper in The Lancet, the medical journal, written by Wakefield and 12 other doctors from the Royal Free hospital in London.

The paper triggered what was to become a worldwide alarm among parents over the safety of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. This was followed by falling immunisation levels and sporadic outbreaks of infectious diseases.

MMR vaccination in Britain had been running at 92% but after publication of the Lancet article fell to 78.9% in the first half of 2003.

The most recent figures show a rise to 81.7%, although the figure for London, the area with the worst take-up, is only 70.5%.

Following a Sunday Times investigation last year, the authors of the Lancet paper, except Wakefield, retracted the claim of a possible link with autism. The journal said it regretted publishing the paper.

The GMC’s inquiry, expected to conclude at a public hearing next June, is understood to be investigating Wakefield’s work with lawyers who were trying to sue MMR manufacturers while he was apparently acting as an independent researcher.

In the original Lancet paper, the only evidence against MMR were statements by the parents of eight children who linked the vaccine with autism. The GMC is now trying to establish how many of them were lawyers’ clients.

At the heart of the GMC’s allegations is the conduct of research carried out at the Royal Free following the award of a £55,000 contract from lawyers in August 1996 to perform tests on 10 children for the Legal Aid Board. Wakefield claimed last year the £55,000 contract was for a “quite separate” study. This is called into question by confidential Royal Free documents, including letters from Wakefield himself.

These documents indicate that the lawyers’ money was initially rejected by the Royal Free’s medical school, but that Wakefield then arranged for the hospital’s management to accept it and to pay it back to his research interests. The hospital has denied any wrongdoing.

The GMC is also understood to have put it to Wakefield that he did not have approval from the hospital’s ethics committee either for including data on specific children in The Lancet or for soliciting other doctors to perform potentially hazardous tests, such as lumbar punctures.

“These tests were, however, determined and routinely carried out on the children who formed part of the study without consideration of the individual history, diagnosis, symptoms and clinical needs of the children, and without an adequate evaluation of the necessity of the tests,” the GMC papers allege.

The purpose of the research is alleged to have been to advance a theory of Wakefield’s that live measles virus in MMR damages the gut, allowing large molecules derived from food to enter the bloodstream and then damage the brain.

Other allegations leveled at the 49-year-old former gut surgeon include that he called for a boycott of MMR without clear evidence that the vaccine could cause harm; that he knew children were recruited to his research through anti-vaccine pressure groups; that he retained and used human tissues without consent; and that he failed to answer questions from the government’s chief medical officer.

Sources indicate that in recent months additional complaints have been leveled at Wakefield by senior doctors and scientists, questioning much of his research since the early 1990s. These are understood to include claims that MMR and related vaccines may be responsible for the inflammatory bowel disorder Crohn’s disease, and other research papers, in The Lancet and elsewhere, making claims about autism.

Since leaving the Royal Free “by mutual agreement” in 2001, Wakefield has worked mainly in America, where he continues to campaign against MMR. He has also started a business in Austin, Texas, to carry out research on autistic children.

Wakefield, through his lawyers, declined to comment this weekend on the GMC’s allegations, but it is understood he denies any misconduct and insists he has acted properly.

Earlier this year he said through lawyers that the Lancet paper was “a report of findings of tests which had been performed solely on the basis of clinical need” and therefore did not require ethical approval. He denied any conflict of interest over the legal funding.

A statement on the website of his Texan company said this weekend:

“Despite continued misrepresentations in the media on his work, he and his collaborators continue to focus on evidence-based medicine and the clinical histories of the children that are affected.”

The GMC declined to comment on the documents but said preparation of the case was continuing.

http://kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=3869501&ClientType=Printable

Autism therapies subject of Arizona clinical trials
Clinical trials being carried out in Arizona will look at the effectiveness of two autism therapies, including one that has been met with skepticism by some doctors.

A clinical trial already under way is testing the effects of potent vitamin and mineral supplements on autism symptoms. Children with autism suffer from social withdrawal and the inability to interact and communicate with others.

A second trial beginning in about two weeks will test what's known as chelation therapy, in which a drug is used to extract heavy metals from the bodies of autistic children. Mercury has emerged as a prime suspect in the increasing numbers of autistic children in the United States.

Dr. Sanford Newmark, a Tucson pediatrician, is the lead physician on both the chelation and vitamin trials. He is conducting physical and nutritional examinations of all the children involved, totaling more than 150 from Tucson and Phoenix, and will monitor their physical health during the trials.

About half the autistic children will receive the active chelation drug or vitamins and a control group will receive a placebo.

Neither the families nor the researchers will know who is receiving which until the trials are concluded by early next year.

Seventy-eight autistic children, ages 3 to 9, are being recruited to test a vitamin-mineral supplement given in powder form three times daily during the four-month trial.

Jim Adams, professor of chemistry at Arizona State University, who is supervising both trials, said previous small studies have shown autistic children have lower blood levels of crucial nutrients than non-autistic children.

Some 80 children will be enrolled in the chelation trial. All will be given initial doses of the chelating agent known as DMSA, dimercaptosuccinic acid, which causes excretion of heavy metals in the urine.

Chelation therapy has been used on many autistic children in the country, but without any scientific proof that it works, and despite the skepticism and disapproval of many physicians.

"I have been very reluctant to recommend chelation," said Newmark, who specializes in integrative medicine, combining mainstream with alternative treatments.

"Right now, there is absolutely no scientific evidence it affects autism, so I don't have confidence in it. But that's why we want to do these trials, to see if we can offer parents some real answers."

The vitamin study is funded by the Phoenix chapter of the Autism Society of America, ASU and the Autism Research Institute.

By Dr. Paul A. Offit
San Gabriel Valley Tribune 

ON the morning of Aug. 23, 2005, Marwa Nadama brought her 5-year-old son, Abubakar, to the Advanced Integrative Medicine Center in Portersville , Pa. , to meet with Dr. Roy Eugene Kerry, a board-certified physician and surgeon. Abubakar was autistic. Dr. Kerry was certain that he could help. For years Marwa had struggled to help her son. But Abubakar remained distant and uncommunicative, unable to return her affection.

Now, however, there was a ray of hope. Television and newspaper reports claimed that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative in some vaccines, had caused autism. Although thimerosal had been
taken out of most vaccines by 2001, Marwa believed that its toxic effects hadn't been taken out of her son.

At around 10 a.m., Dr. Kerry gently took the boy's arm, cleaned an area of skin with alcohol, inserted a needle attached to a syringe containing EDTA (ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid), and directly injected the medicine into the boy's bloodstream. At 10:50 am, Abubakar Nadama was dead -- of a heart attack.

At the time that Kerry injected Abubakar with EDTA, epidemiologic studies performed in three continents by four separate groups had found that vaccines don't cause autism.

The findings were clear, consistent and reproducible. Also, the signs and symptoms of mercury poisoning are different from those of autism. If mercury in vaccines didn't cause autism, then why did
more than 10,000 autistic children this year receive the same chelation therapy that caused Abubakar's death?

One answer is the media concentration on scare stories linking thimerosal to autism.

The notion that vaccines might cause autism contains all of the elements of a great story: greedy pharmaceutical companies, government cover-up, uncaring doctors, and parents fighting against
all odds for their children.

But it isn't easy to promote this story. On the one hand, you have every major medical organization including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) stating that there was no link.

On the other, you had a few marginal scientists and clinicians who, in the absence of any solid, reproducible data said that it did.

The media solved the problem by quoting one person from column A representing the vast weight of medical and scientific data) and one from column B (representing conjecture in the absence of data).

Television producers refer to the column B guests as "the explosion factor." And it makes for great television. Giving the public bad information, unfortunately, often correlates with higher ratings.

Scientists, doctors, and public-health agencies also must share some of the blame. Although scientific studies have answered the question of whether vaccines cause autism, scientists have done little to
explain these studies to the public.

On July 19, 2005, Dr. Julie Gerberding, the director of the CDC, called a press conference to explain the science that refutes the notion that vaccines cause autism. Gerberding is an excellent communicator. And her message was clear and compelling. But that was it. One conference, on one day -- a tiny bell ringing against the constant, deafening drumbeat of alarmist weekly stories in the media that suggested otherwise.

Desperate parents also are a tragic component in this campaign of misinformation. Parents of autistic children desperately want to find something, anything that works. So they're susceptible to fad
therapies.

Several years ago it was the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine that caused autism. Before that, secretin, a small protein secreted by the intestine, was proposed as a cure; many parents traveled
hundreds of miles and spent thousands of dollars for secretin injections. Today, it's the mercury in vaccines.

Doctors who play to such fears are not uncommon. The phenomenon of Dr. Kerry isn't new.

During the polio epidemic in New York City in 1916, Dr. George Retan ignored warnings from his colleagues and drained spinal fluid from the backs of polio victims at the same time that he infused a salt solution into their veins.

The procedure killed more people than it saved. But like autism today, in 1916 no one knew what caused polio or how to treat it. And George Retan offered hope. He cared.

Because we are all responsible for the death of Abubakar Nadama, none of us will be held accountable.

We're off the hook. But, if we are to effectively prevent the next tragedy, then we must equal the passion of those who firmly believe that mercury in vaccines caused autism.

We must show that we are not just uncaring physicians standing at a distance behind the one-way mirror of science, but that we are also parents who don't want to see another child sacrificed at the alter of bad science. Otherwise, the death of Abubakar Nadama won't be the end of this.

Dr. Paul A. Offit is chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a professor of Pediatrics at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. E-
mail him at offitemail.chop.edu

By Steve Mitchell
http://about.upi.com/products/health_business/UPI-20051003-034424-8197R

UPI - More than one-third of pediatricians would cease providing medical care to a family that refuses all vaccinations, reveals a new survey coming on the heels of a warning by federal officials that a meningitis vaccine may cause a serious neurological disorder.

In recent years an increasing number of parents have become concerned about the side effects vaccines may cause in their children and have opted out of some or all routine childhood vaccinations.

To determine pediatricians' attitudes about such parents, Dr. Erin Flanagan-Klygis of Rush Medical College in Chicago and colleagues surveyed

302 physicians.

"No one had really looked at this," Flanagan-Klygis told United Press International. "Our goal was to start a dialogue about the practice (of refusing care to families who opt out of vaccinations) and create an awareness of the practice."

About 85 percent of the pediatricians responded that in the last 12 months they had encountered a family refusing at least one vaccine and 54 percent said they had encountered a parent who refused all vaccines, Flanagan-Klygis and colleagues report in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The pediatricians said the most common reasons parents gave for foregoing vaccination included concerns about safety, philosophical reasons and religious beliefs.

About 39 percent of the pediatricians said they would advise the family to seek medical care from another physician if all vaccines were refused. Approximately 28 percent said they would stop treatment if the family refused some vaccines. This did not vary with age of the physician, their sex or their number of years practicing medicine.

The reasons the pediatricians gave for dismissing the patients included a lack of shared goals and a lack of trust between the physician and the family.

The findings raise important questions about vaccinations and other medical issues, Flanagan-Klygis and colleagues wrote, such as whether refusing to provide care to families that opt out of vaccines might result in certain children or groups not receiving inoculations. Another important question is whether this behavior could lead parents to avoid seeking medical care for other conditions.

"Given the changing climate of confidence in childhood vaccination, future research should address these and other potential implications of practice dismissal in the face of parental vaccine refusal," the researchers wrote. "The answers obtained may provide insight into the influence physician behavior has on the health and welfare of children and communities for many years to come."

Dr. J.W. Hendricks, of Pediatric and Adolescent Care LLP in Tulsa, Okla., wrote in an accompanying editorial that he handles the situation by having parents sign a form stating they have elected to opt out of vaccines, but he continues to provide care.

"I feel a straightforward immunization refusal does not by itself damage trust, breach shared goals, or necessarily lead to a 'my way or the highway' confrontation," Hendricks wrote.

Flanagan-Klygis said she also thought it would be more advantageous for pediatricians to continue to provide care for families.

"As pediatricians, we're all committed to care of children and any way we can continue that care would be best," she said.

Dr. Edgar Marcuse, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle, told UPI he found it "disturbing" so many pediatricians said they would dismiss parents from their practice for refusing vaccinations.

Marcuse said pediatricians should instead work with families to address their concerns about the safety of vaccines. "We have to find ways to communicate with people whose perceptions are different from our own," he added.

Vaccines can cause minor side effects, but most healthcare professionals agree the available scientific evidence demonstrates the chances of serious complications are extremely rare. In addition, the chances of developing serious complications from vaccines are much lower than the risks of severe illnesses and death from the diseases they are intended to prevent.

The federal government's behavior, however, may have inadvertently fueled the vaccine controversy.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has refused to make accessible its database of vaccine-adverse events -- the Vaccine Safety Datalink -- to outside researchers, except under restricted circumstances.

Several groups that question the safety of vaccines circulated a petition last year to open the VSL database to the public, charging it "was being used by federal health officials to cover-up vaccine risks associated with mercury preservatives in vaccines."

Although studies have failed to find a link between vaccines and autism, some groups have suggested the mercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal could cause the mental disorder or other illnesses in children.

Most childhood vaccines are now available in formulations that contain no or only trace amounts of thimerosal.

Last week the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration issued an alert to consumers and healthcare providers after five cases were reported of Guillain Barre Syndrome in teens ages 17 and 18 who had received the meningitis vaccine Menactra, manufactured by Sanofi Pasteur.

Guillain Barre is a neurological disorder that can lead to muscle weakness, paralysis and difficulty breathing. The agencies said they could not determine if the cases of the disease were due to the vaccine, but said they were investigating.

FDA officials said they have not recommended any changes for vaccination. All five of the patients developed GBS symptoms that included weakness or abnormal sensations in the arms or legs about two to four weeks after vaccination. All were said to either be recovering or to have recovered.

http://tinyurl.com/7r5rs

By KRISTI L. NELSON, nelsonk@knews.com

About a dozen people, most of them alternative health practitioners or parents, gathered recently at Rarity Bay in Loudon to hear a Cleveland physician speak on flu vaccine.

Family practitioner Dr. David Adams presented "Flu Shots and Vaccines: What You Need to Know!" and moderated an informational discussion at the forum sponsored by Wholistic Wellness Network.
     
Among Adams' chief concerns was that the majority of flu vaccine in America still contains thimerosal, a preservative used since the 1930s that's almost 50 percent mercury.

Though the federal government decided in 1999 to begin phasing out mercury in childhood vaccines, an adult dose of most flu shots still contains 25 micrograms of mercury. Pediatric flu shot doses are about half the size of adults'.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states, "There is no scientific evidence that thimerosal in vaccines is harmful," but some national groups claim a link between mercury in immunizations and rapidly escalating rates of autism in the 1990s. Some parents allege the government has covered up a link between vaccines and autism.

"You're injecting yourself with a neurotoxin which the EPA would be horrified if you ate enough mercury-containing fish to have the same levels in your body," said Adams, who believes his son's autism was caused by ingredients in vaccines.

Dr. Lori Patterson, infectious disease physician for East Tennessee Children's Hospital, said the risk of flu - which kills 40-60 U.S. children a year and sickens millions more with influenza and secondary
infections - is higher than the risk of harm from trace amounts of mercury.

"Regular influenza kills people, including children - sometimes even previously healthy children," she said. "It's heartbreaking because it's totally preventable."

Flu vaccine without mercury is available, but the government has said it's more expensive to manufacture and is thus less in demand. Parents can request it, but realistically, less than 10 percent of flu shots available in America are thimerosal-free, though the FluMist nasal spray contains no thimerosal. FluMist uses a live but deactivated virus that is adapted to live only in the cooler temperatures of the nasal lining.

Parents present at the forum, including Kelly Riggs of Halls, expressed concern over the county's plan to administer FluMist in public schools this year with parents' consent. Riggs said that even though she would not consent for her child to have FluMist, she was afraid her child could get the virus from another FluMist-vaccinated child.

There have been no documented cases of a FluMist-vaccinated person making another person sick with influenza.

Adams opined that FluMist might be safer than the flu shot, both because of concerns with thimerosal and because FluMist more closely mimics the body's natural response to flu. However, he urged people to be "educated consumers" when deciding whether to get a flu shot.

"There's groups of people for which I think flu vaccine is a very good idea," such as those with compromised immune systems or some elderly people, Adams said. "My concern is, what are we doing to healthy people?"

Whether or not they get vaccinated, people should protect themselves from flu by learning how to boost their immune systems with vitamins, keeping stress down, getting plenty of sleep and water, and knowing how flu is spread, Adams said.

----
Flu Vax Facts for Fluarix

1.        Flu vaccines are typically made with 25 micrograms of thimerosal. 49% of thimerosal is mercury. The version you are getting today may have 5 micrograms or less. Since mercury is used in the manufacturing process there will always be a trace. There can be no safe amount of mercury injected.

2.       The CDC says on its website that mercury is a neurotoxin and to avoid eating fish because it may contain mercury. They state as an example a person weighing 110 lbs should have no more than 5 micrograms of mercury. This shot may contain 25 micrograms. You need to weigh at least 550 lbs for this vaccine to be safe. When pressed for clarification, the CDC said and I quote “you could die from the flu”. Do you see the risk/benefit here? Better to be brain damaged then get the flu?

3.       This vaccine contains formaldehyde. There is no safe amount that can be injected into people unless they are being embalmed.

4.       This vaccine has Guillain-Barré as a possible side effect. A temporary, Multiple Sclerosis=like illness. Also reported are breathing problems, hoarseness or wheezing, hives, paleness, weakness, a fast heartbeat, or dizziness.

5.       This vaccine is not 100% effective. From the package insert of the vaccine; “The effectiveness in preventing influenza illness often ranges from 30%–40%.”

6.       The cities picked for this year’s vaccine strains are Wellington, New Caledonia and Shanghai. The virus is harvested from the mucus of sick people in these cities to create the vaccine 10 months in advance.

7.       From the package insert: “Influenza virus is remarkably capricious in that significant antigenic changes may occur from time to time. It is known definitely that Influenza Virus Vaccine, as now constituted, is not effective against all possible strains of influenza virus. Protection is limited to those strains of virus from which the vaccine is prepared or against closely related strains.” This involves a lot of guesswork since the vaccine is made almost a year in advance.

8.       The package inserts published by the flu vaccine manufacturers state that "Animal reproduction studies have not been conducted with this vaccine and it is also not known whether influenza virus vaccine can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman.”

9.       From the package insert: “Administering vaccine before October should generally be avoided in facilities such as nursing homes, because antibody levels can begin to decline within a few months after vaccination.” If this vaccine worked, this would not happen.

10.    Neurological disorders temporally associated with influenza vaccination such as encephalopathy, (brain swelling) optic neuritis/neuropathy (Inflammation of the Optic Nerve) partial facial paralysis, and brachial plexus neuropathy (decreased movement or sensation in the arm and shoulder) have been reported.

11.     This vaccine is made in chicken eggs. Vaccine manufacturers have been asked by the FDA to screen for diseases like avian leukosis (bird leukemia). The new yellow fever vaccine is made in chicken eggs and has a label reflecting its “avian leukosis free” status. No one is sure if this virus is the same virus that causes human leukemia. Do you want to take that chance? What other viruses might be hiding in this vaccine?

12.    Half of our flu shot doses last year had to be discarded for contamination. Can you be sure this vaccine is bacteria free? The idea is to avoid virus. Not have it injected in.

INGREDIENTS

• Disodium phosphate dodecahydrate
• Magnesium chloride hexahydrate
• Octoxynol (a spermicide)
• Polysorbate 80 (Polysorbate 80 is an emulsifying agent, often used in ice cream to prevent milk proteins from completely coating the fat droplets. This allows them to join together in chains and nets, to hold air in the mixture, and provide a firmer texture, holding its shape as the ice cream melts.)
• Potassium chloride
• Potassium dihydrogen phosphate
• α-Tocopheryl hydrogen succinate (Vitamin E) (What if your body attacks this vitamin like it should the virus? This could be catastrophic)

Be careful driving or operating machinery until you know how FLUARIX affects you. FLUARIX should not normally interfere with your ability to drive a car or operate machinery. But in some people, vaccination can cause dizziness or light-headedness. Make sure you know how you react to FLUARIX before you drive a car or operate machinery, or do anything that could be dangerous if you are dizzy or light-headed.

For the TACA members who have asked – it is the United Way season and TACA is a charity listed. Here is some more information.

The United Way of America is used by many large and small companies across the country to manage their employee giving campaigns.  We are pleased to announce that donations to most United Way Campaigns can be directed to TACA. Most workplace campaigns take pledges in the last quarter of each year and offer variable payment methods for your gift in the following year. Campaigns often allow you to take out small amounts of money from your paycheck each month to fulfill your pledge.

For example, writing a single check for $300 may be a strain on your budget. But that same contribution, spread out over twelve months as a monthly $25 payroll deduction may not be as difficult. Remember that even if your employer does not actively pursue an office-wide campaign, often they will have set up charitable giving options that you can use. Don't be afraid to ask what the company policies are.

Whether you are a seasoned contributor at your workplace or planning a first-time gift, please consider choosing or "writing-in" TACA as a recipient of your generosity. The detailed information below may help you make informed decisions about your contributions.

CANNOT AFFORD THE UNITED WAY DEDUCTION? THERE IS ANOTHER WAY! Many TACA Families are encouraging their co-workers to donate to TACA as well. Often the designation of charity is left blank. Tell your co-workers about TACA and ask for their support.

United Way of America

United Way of America has a network of 1300 local affiliates throughout the country. Most of these affiliates will allow you to designate TACA as your charity of choice.

Most United Ways do not encourage giving to non-member organizations and your workplace coordinator may not know this option exists - but it does! You can write TACA in under the donor option section as follows:

Talk About Curing Autism
P.O. Box 12409
Newport Beach, CA 92658
Tax ID # 27-0048002

For United Way designation use: Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) #TAC100

As always, thank you so much for your support!

As we enter our second century of offering interest–free loans to people of all faiths, the Jewish Free Loan Association continues to provide a unique and invaluable resource to the Los Angeles Community.  I’d like to present to you the Children with Special Needs’ Loan Program.  By offering interest-free loans to help families care for a child with special needs, JFLA assists families dealing with health crises and financial problems caused by unexpected expenses.

JFLA is a non-profit, non-sectarian agency founded in 1904, offering interest-free and fee-free loans to residents of Los Angeles County.  The Children with Special Needs’Loan Program includes loans for:

• Diagnostic Expenses
• Funding to purchase specialized vehicles
• Home improvement for medical necessity
• Assistive Technology and Durable Medical Equipment Needs
• Funding for behavioral supports, shadows and /or inclusion specialists

JFLA continues to meet its original mission of helping people to help themselves.  There is over $5.5 million in loans throughout the community, with a repayment rate greater than 99 percent.

We have fliers available in both English and Spanish with additional information about the Children with Special Needs’ Loan Program.  Upon your request, I can email them to you as attachments or mail hard copies.  I appreciate you making this information available to interested families and individuals.  I am eager to speak with you about the unique services that JFLA offers and about a presentation of our services to your clients and/or staff.  If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me directly with questions at (323) 761-8830 ext. 109 or at ariella@jfla.org.

Sincerely,
Ariella Loewenstein
Program Coordinator and Loan Analyst
6505 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 715
Los Angeles , CA  90048
(323) 761-8830 ext. 109
Fax: (323) 761-8841
Email: ariella@jfla.org
Website: http://www.jfla.org

New book available:

 Based on the author's years of experience teaching social skills, this book addresses issues and skills that are often overlooked in other manuals. There is a comprehensive checklist to be used as an assessment of skills and as a method of creating goals for individual students. There are concrete strategies broken down into simple steps for using visuals, video modeling, peer play and natural occurring situations to facilitate social skills learning. Reproducible worksheets to reinforce these skills are also included for easy implementation. This great new resource will help parents and professionals get started teaching social skills right away! 200+ pages, by  BCBA & Kelly McKinnon, MA, BCBA  and Janis Krempa, M.Ed,

====

EXCITING CHANGES AT BEACON DAY SCHOOL!

Beacon Day School in Huntington Beach, Calif., continues to add new learning opportunities and life experiences for its students. Dr. Mary Jo Lang, founder and director of the school, recently announced several exciting new additions and expanded services:

• Separate classroom for elementary school age students
• Vocational program for older students, working with local non-profits
• Socialization programs, working with the OC YMCA and other organizations
• More off-site and in-house activities and programs for all students

Looking forward to 2006, the school will be moving to a new location in Orange, Calif., where it can continue to expand programs and serve greater number of students. Instead of one building, there will be two. One will house the administrative offices, testing facility and neuropsychological practice; the other will house the actual school with several classrooms for different age groups. An exciting addition will be a closed circuit TV system to allow parents to check in on their kids at any time during class, without disrupting students and activities.

Currently, the school is looking to add a qualified speech therapist to its staff. Qualified individuals should fax resumes to Dr. Lang at 949.752.2629. www.BeaconDaySchool.net

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: October 22nd and November 19th.
• 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!!

A special thanks to volunteer Lynn Milucky for being the host and organizer of these special events. These social events have concluded for 2005. Please attend the TACA Carousel rides at South Coast Plaza above.

Also a special thanks to PUMP IT UP for being a wonderful place for TACA families! If you have the desire to volunteer for your area, find an activity and location, and manage this for TACA – please let us know!

As we enter the “holiday” season with Halloween around the corner, I wanted to give you the “annual” ideas for gluten-free/casein-free for candies for the kids:

CANDIES:
We don’t always recommend candy everyday, but for special occasions, here are a few to choose from:

• Bottlecaps
• Skittles
• Starburst
• Gobstoppers
• Mix ups
• Pixy Stix
• Shock Tarts
• Tart 'N Tiny
• Fun Dip (Lik-M-Aid)
• Laffy Taffy
• Nerds
• Runts
• Tangy Taffy
• Gummi Savers
• Jolly Rancher Suckers
• Haribo Gold-Bear Minis
• Dum Dum Pops

Note;  a lot of sugar and dyes in the diet will make kids be more hyper and a little wacky. Save candy for special occasions and be prepared to live with your child that day!

Call Sorbee at 1-800-654-3997. They make lollipops with ingredients: sorbitol, citric acid, and are colored with turmeric, annatto and red cabbage juice.

Miss Roben’s has a great selection of chocolate that is GFCF!

Order early as they run out of stock as we get closer to ANY holiday
http://www.allergygrocery.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?
Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=AG&Category_Code=Chocolate_Candy

Happy, fun and SAFE Halloween! (My GFCF buddy is going as Sponge Bob)

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 1,927 people!
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