Date:	Meets the 3rd Saturday of each month
Time:	1:30-4:30 p.m.
Location:	Peppermint Ridge - 825 Magnolia Avenue, Corona CA 92883
Information:	Contact Tami Duncan
Child care:	Not offered at this time, sorry
March 17	Dr. Nicola McFazdean from Stillpoint Center - The Lyme and Autism connection...putting the pieces together

Date:	Meets the 2nd Saturday of each month
Time:	1-4:00 pm
Location:	Vineyard Newport Church / Christian Fellowship, 102 Baker St. East, Costa Mesa
Directions:	Off the 405 freeway exit Bristol, go SOUTH, turn left on Baker. Turn left on the 55 freeway access road and make the first right info the church parking lot.
Information:	Contact Lisa Ackerman
Child care:	Not offered at this time, sorry
Note:	This is a non-faith based group. Please do not contact the church for info about TACA.
March 10	Two Topics: Evaluating Treatments (Both Traditional therapies & biomedical intervention) and Alternative Funding Ideas Presented by Lisa Ackerman (based on member surveys & feedback) Location: Newport Vineyard Church – Costa Mesa Time: 1-4pm Fee: FREE RSVP required: NO – just come on down!
April 14	Behavior Management 101: For parents of ASD Children – targeting difficult behaviors and how to deal with them. By Erica Roest, PhD, MEd, BCBA, Autism Behavior Consultants. Location: Newport Vineyard Church – Costa Mesa Time: 1-4pm Fee: FREE RSVP required: NO – just come on down!

Date:	Meets the 2 nd Thursday of every month; First meeting February 8th
Time:	7-9 p.m.
Location:	Immanuel Presbyterian Church, downtown Los Angeles, 3300 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010
Information:	Contact Julia Berle and Stan Kurtz
Child care:	This is not offered at this time, sorry.

Date:	Typically meets the fourth Tuesday of each month
Time:	6:30-9 p.m.
Location:	Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church, 17010 Pomerado Road, San Diego, CA 92128, Skylight East and West rooms
Note:	We have no affiliation to the church, so please do not contact them regarding our group.
Information:	Contact Becky Estepp
Child care:	We are sorry – this service is no longer available.
March 27	Lisa Ackerman, School Strategies & Inclusion Options
April 24	Dr. Amen Spect Imaging and Treatments for ASD
May 22	Elizabeth McCoy: "Special Needs Trusts"
June 26	TBA
July 24	Dr. Deborah Swain: "Tomatis"

Date:	Meets the 2nd Tuesday of every month
Time:	6-7:30 p.m.
Location:	NEW - Family Resource Center, 1425 Corporate Center Parkway, Santa Rosa, CA, 707-524-6677
Information:	Contact Cathy Ference
Child care:	This is not offered at this time, sorry.

Date:	Meets the 3rd Monday of each month
Time:	6:30-9 p.m.
Location:	Whole Foods Market, 2655 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance (Rolling Hills Shopping Center)
Information:	Contact Beth Muholland
Child care:	This is not offered at this time, sorry.
March 19	David Sponder, Sponder Works "RDI"
April 16	Marianne Emigh, Lindamood-Bell
May 21	Dr. Nicola McFazdean and Tami Duncan "Lyme Disease & Autism"
June 18	Erica Roest "Assessments & Testing"

Date:	3rd Wednesday of month (except February 14)
Time:	6:00-6:30pm “Happy Hour” with GFCF Snacks & Coffee for Support 6:30-8:30pm Speaker
Location:	Kaweah Delta Multi-Service Center Auditorium, 402 W. Acequia, Visalia. (Except February 14; see below)
Information:	Contact Lynne Arnold
Child care:	This is not offered at this time, sorry.

Date:	Typically meets the 1st Sunday of each month
Time:	7-9 p.m.
Location:	Jumping Genius, 22750 Roscoe Blvd West Hills, CA (the corner of Roscoe Blvd & Fallbrook Ave)
Information:	Contact Moira Giammetteo and Cathy Beier
Child care:	This is not offered at this time, sorry. Because of liability insurance limitations of the donated facility there are no exceptions to this policy, we are sorry.
March 4	Sarit Ariam, Special Education Attorney "Major Changes in Special Education Law: What you need to know to help your child"

The new numbers, based on 2002 data from 14 states, are higher than previously reported.

Advocates said the study provides a sad new understanding of how common autism is, and should fuel efforts to get the government to spend hundreds of millions of additional dollars for autism research and services.

"This data today shows we're going to need more early intervention services and more therapists, and we're going to need federal and state legislators to stand up for these families," said Alison Singer, spokeswoman for Autism Speaks, the nation's largest organization advocating more services for autistic children.

The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calculated an average autism rate 6.6 per 1,000. That compares with last year's estimated rate of 5.5 in 1,000.

The research involved an intense review of medical and school records for children in all or part of 14 states and gives the clearest picture yet of how common autism is in some parts of the country, CDC officials said.

However, those states are not demographically representative of the nation as a whole, so officials cautioned against using the results as a national average. The study doesn't include some of the most populous states like California, Texas and Florida.

Also, the study does not answer whether autism is increasing a controversial topic, driven in part by the contention by some parents and advocates that autism is linked to a vaccine preservative. The best scientific studies have not borne out that claim.

"We can't make conclusions about trends yet," because the study's database is too new, said Catherine Rice, a CDC behavioral scientist who was the study's lead author.

Autism is a complex disorder usually not diagnosed in children until after age 3. It is characterized by a range of behaviors, including difficulty in expressing needs and inability to socialize. The cause is not known.

Scientists have been revising how common they think the disorder is. Past estimates from smaller studies have ranged from 1 out of every 10,000 children to nearly 1 in 100.

Last year's estimate of 5.5 out of every 1,000 U.S. children was based on national surveys of tens of thousands of families with school-age kids. That fit into a prevalence range found in other recent studies.

The CDC also has been developing an alternate way of measuring autism prevalence, building a network of university and state health departments for ongoing surveillance of autism and developmental disabilities. The study released Thursday is one of the first scientific papers to come out of that effort.

"This is a more accurate rate because of the methods they used," said Dr. Eric Hollander, an autism expert at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The study involved 2002 data from parts or all of 14 states Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Researchers looked specifically at children who were 8 years old that year. They said most children with autism are identified for medical or educational services by that age.

The researchers checked health records in each area and school records when they were made available, looking for children who met diagnostic criteria for autism. They used those numbers to calculate a prevalence rate for each study area.

The rates varied from 3.3 per 1,000 in the study site in Alabama, which was made up of the state's 32 northernmost counties, to 10.6 in the site in New Jersey, which involved four counties, including metropolitan Newark.

Researchers say they don't know why the rate was so high in New Jersey. They think the Alabama rate was low at least partly because researchers had limited access to special education records there.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures

But wait, there’s more:

A sad reality as an epidemic is ignored

Alan E. Moses
February 11, 2007
Source: American Chronicle

With the CDC’s latest report about the numbers of autism cases being much higher than before thought, the news media ignores this epidemic. Television news stations devote two days to the death of a celebrity. Anna Nicole Smith’s death is somehow the most important topic of discussion.

There are no questions as to why this two part study is almost 12 years old? No one is asking why this study could not have been compiled with more recent data? Why again they used data from six states then 14? I as many others would like to know the true numbers and not a purposely watered down and out of date version. What is the ratio of those born in 1992 compared to those born in 1999? I believe then we would be blown away by the increase.

But then again I am not sure that the CDC really wants this information to be released at this point. And because autism has higher rates among males I would have liked that ratio to have been released. As of now 1 in 150 just doesn’t seem that bad to most.

As with most parents in the autism community I have been shunned as overly emotional about this subject. Politicians, medical professionals, school administrators, teachers as well as family and friends all seem to ignore our plea. We are looked at as crazy and so that is why our kids are like they are.

There isn’t even a true understanding that ADD along with many of the other related alphabet set of diagnoses in all reality appear to be sharing some symptoms. All are treated as solely psychiatric disorders and not biological.

Being one of many parents I have a justified belief that the cause of these disorders is environmentally related. I have had to endure many negative reactions from the people and agencies that I believed would have the most concern. Many times I have felt as if I was alone and just spinning my wheels as nobody cares.

Then I come to the realization that I am far from alone. All I do is reflect about the conversations that I have with others. Many of them are dealing with having to rely on anti-depressants and a son using meds for ADD along with daughters that suffer from asthma. And when you include the grandparents dealing with Parkinson’s and or Alzheimer’s you begin to see a pattern.

Does no one notice that it seems as though almost everyone has some form of auto-immune or neurological disorder? Imagine going to sleep in 1979 and waking up in 2007.

You would be thinking “Oh my God, What is going on here?” There comes a time for a reality check.

I can’t help but remember the Love Canal tragedy. I also remember how it was dealt with. It just quietly went away as no blame was given and those that suffered were not even offered sympathy. I just fear that we are attempting to do the same now. The problem is that we have no place to hide anymore.

National Autism Association Renews Call for CDC to Declare Autism a National Emergency

CDC Study Finds One in 150 Children Now Diagnosed with Autism

Nixa, MO - The National Autism Association (NAA) today is asking again for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to treat the epidemic of autism among children as a national emergency following the release of the agency’s latest study claiming a new diagnosis rate of one in 150.

“While it’s nice that the CDC has shared these findings with the public, they must move forward with a plan to treat the children suffering with autism now,” said NAA board chair Claire Bothwell. “This agency has yet to answer the question, ‘Why are so many children sick?’ If this were an epidemic of practically any other disease among the children of this country, they would have long since investigated how it could have happened and made earnest attempts to find treatments.”

Citing the impossibility of an epidemic occurring as a result of genetics alone, the organization is repeating earlier requests for federally-funded research into relevant environmental triggers, including vaccines and the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal. “After this latest study, the CDC cannot continue to sweep unpopular factors in this epidemic under the rug, including vaccines and thimerosal. The future of a sizeable portion of an entire generation of children is at risk. Without effective treatments, taxpayers will soon bear the burden of care, estimated at over $3 million per individual,” commented Ms. Bothwell.

NAA has been critical of the CDC’s research emphasis on counting affected children, rather than addressing causation. With the passage of the Combating Autism Act in December of last year, Congress has called for research into environmental factors including vaccines and their components. “This latest study underscores the need for this type of research to take top priority. Perhaps this time, the CDC’s own numbers will finally drive the point home that this is an emergency and should be treated as such,” commented Ann Brasher, NAA vice president. “The one in 150 children they counted need research that can help them recover and reach their full potential in life. Time is of the essence.”

For more information, visit www.nationalautism.org

Think autism, THINK CURE

Some other links – over 250 stories inside of 10 days on the 1 in 150 numbers:

Autism: What’s in a Number? A Second Look at the CDC’s Report

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK By GARY LANGER Director of Polling, ABC News
Feb. 9, 2007

Increases In Autism Rates Not Surprising To Education Expert

National Autism Association Renews Call For CDC To Declare Autism A National Emergency

Study Offers Treatment Hope For Rett Syndrome

Study Profiles Rate Of Autism In Wisconsin

Severe Autism Spectrum Disorder Could Be Reversible

As Many As 1 In 150 American Children Could Have An Autism Spectrum Disorder

CDC Releases New Data On Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) From Multiple Communities In The United States

Autism Prevalence In The U.S. Rises To 1 In 150

Article B: Have You?
By J.B. Handley – Generation Rescue

If you are the leader of an autism organization, a scientist involved with autism, a benefactor generously giving money to autism, or anyone else who can influence the arc of this debate, I have some simple questions for you,

“Have you ever met a child who has recovered from autism? A child who is indistinguishable from his or her peers?”

I’m waiting…let me ask it again.

“Have you ever met a child who has recovered from autism? A child who is indistinguishable from his or her peers?”

I’m waiting… let me ask it one more time.

“Have you ever met a child who has recovered from autism? A child who is indistinguishable from his or her peers?”

If the answer is “no,” and autism is something you consider a priority in your life, how can you not have met a recovered child? In fact, how can you not, the first time you hear a story of recovery, find that child and that family as quickly as you can and figure out how in the world this child recovered and what you can learn to help other kids? How can you not!

My neurotypical son, now seven, just joined cub scouts. Last night, pinewood derby. An electric event, so many excited boys, thrilled with their creations, a truly joyous event. The boys are grades 1-6, they all go to my son’s school, there’s about forty of them in the gym for the derby. In this group, unbeknownst to most, are three recovered boys. Not one. Not two. Three. In three different grades.

Three!

Of course, I spend a lot of the night watching the three, looking for some sign of their past, a past I know very well through their parents. Their parents, we are all friends. We share a secret few understand. They all, I’m sure, pray that we soon join their very special club and have the chance to cheer our own `autistic’ son on when he’s old enough to be a cub scout. These three beautiful boys, their story is my son’s story. The same regression, the same physical sickness, the same disappearance. It would be hard to believe where they are now if you didn’t see it with your own eyes. They are just like all the other boys.

The parents all credit biomedical intervention. The Defeat Autism Now! movement and doctors. Dr. Rimland’s legacy, in this gym tonight. Of course they do, they are one of tens of thousands who watched their child come back to them with the help of biomedical intervention. Tens of thousands.

“Have you ever met a child who has recovered from autism? A child who is indistinguishable from his or her peers?”

I have. I have met dozens. As a parent, it’s a divine experience. It can also make you crazy.

How could the CDC not acknowledge these children?

How could the IOM not acknowledge these children?

How could the AAP not acknowledge these children?

How could Autism Speaks, as they rapidly consolidate our non-profits, not even mention the word “biomedical intervention” on their website or profile a single recovered child? How could they put a page up profiling Dr. Rimland but somehow not have the word “recovered children” in his profile? Shameful, Autism Speaks, shameful. We are not your constituency, how dare you appropriate Dr. Rimland? He had no respect for organizations that turned a blind eye to recovered children. Gary Goldstein? Dr. Rimland could barely say his name without turning red. I demand, and I encourage other parents to do the same: take that page down. Take it down now. It’s what he would want.

“Have you ever met a child who has recovered from autism? A child who is indistinguishable from his or her peers?”

Have you?

Read more at GenerationRescue.org

Editor’s note: It’s kind of appropriate for the numbers going on that we get some good news. Recovery from autism is possible and this is the story I would like to see in the news.

Article C: Weldon, Maloney Introduce Legislation Banning Mercury from Vaccines
Legislation Eliminates Toxin Exposure for Children and Pregnant Women

Washington, Feb 8, 2008 - U.S. Reps. Dave Weldon, M.D. (R-FL) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) today reintroduced H.R. 881, The Mercury Free Vaccines Act of 2007. As an increasing number of studies raise concerns about mercury exposure and the body’s inability to eliminate mercury, the Weldon-Maloney bill aims to virtually eliminate such exposure from vaccines.

In 1999, the Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended the removal of thimerosal from child vaccines. Eight years later, thimerosal (50% mercury) still remains in some childhood vaccines – particularly the flu shot. Over the past two years, the CDC has significantly expanded the pediatric flu vaccine recommendations, significantly increasing the exposure of infants and children to mercury containing vaccines.

“While the FDA warns pregnant women about eating fish known to be high in mercury, the CDC is encouraging pregnant women to get a mercury-laced flu shot. It’s long overdue that we ban the practice of injecting mercury into humans in general and infants and pregnant women in particular,” said Weldon, a physician. “Today’s bill sets in place a date by which mercury must be removed from all vaccines. Years of encouraging the CDC, vaccine manufacturers, and public health officials to completely remove mercury have been ignored. Perhaps the force of law is the only way to guarantee what is long overdue.”

“It’s a simple concept: kids shouldn’t be given anything that’s toxic. The pharmaceutical industry is starting to get the mercury out, but we need to know that it’s gone without any doubt,” said Maloney.

Mercury is a neurotoxin and is harmful to the developing central nervous system of fetuses and infants. The EPA found that 1-in-6 infants are born with a blood mercury level exceeding the level considered safe by the EPA.

The Legislation:
- Requires that beginning with the 2007/08 flu season, the flu shots for children under age three and pregnant women may not contain more than 1 microgram (mcg) of mercury;

- Requires that beginning with the 2008/09 flu season, the flu shots for children under age six and pregnant women may not contain more than 1mcg of mercury;

- Requires by July 1, 2008, all other routinely administered childhood vaccines, may not contain more than 1mcg of mercury, and on Jan 1, 2009, all pediatric, adolescent and adult vaccines that contain more than 1mcg of mercury are banned;

- Expresses the Sense of the Congress that the CDC should incorporate into its vaccine promotion messages, a recommendation against administering a mercury-containing vaccine to pregnant women.

Similar legislation is also expected to be introduced in the Senate in coming weeks.

3) Vaccine News

ARTICLE A: Historic Debate on Autism & Vaccines

Vaccines and Autism, Is There a Connection?
A Thoughtful Debate with David Kirby & Arthur Allen
Held on January 13, 2007
› Flyer
› See preview of the debate (less than 2 min)
› Watch full debate
› See David Kirby’s debate slides
We would like to thank our Event Sponsors: Generation Rescue, Safe Minds, TACA, Autism Research Institute, Fox 6 News San Diego, Schuman Hoy & Associates, Berle Family, Stan Kurtz's Children's Corner School, UCSD TV, Alternative Health Care of California & The Trinity Autism Center, Stillpoint Center Integrative Medicine, and The Cognitive Science Department of the University of California, San Diego. Without them this event would not have been possible.

Special thanks to David Kirby & Arthur Allen for participating in this historic event. We appreciate their time and efforts in discussing this important topic potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of children. More on this debate in the PERSONAL NOTE as part of this TACA Enews.

Article B: The latest from David Kirby

Finally, a Topic Too Hot For The View - www.huffingtonpost.com

Daytime television has not been the same since Rosie O’Donnell took a pugnacious seat at the talkative table known as The View. Rosie has pumped more heat and energy into that show than a year’s worth of colorful coffee-filled mugs.

Love her or loathe her, Rosie O’Donnell has shown the nerve to think out loud - a rare and valuable commodity in the overly scripted world of television.
She has injected the show with some Nielsen-loving controversy and ratcheted up revenues in the bargain.

So when I heard that Rosie and The View were doing a one-hour special on autism (airing Monday 1/29), I assumed the subject would be handled with the same feisty, fearless, take-no-prisoners aplomb as usual.

After all, autism and controversy are practically siblings. If ABC would let Rosie trash Trump, bash Bush and oppose Oprah, surely they would let her wade into the burning contretemps of why 1-in-166 American kids are struggling with autism today.

I was even more encouraged when a producer invited me to the show. They were asking several experts to sit in the audience, who might be called upon to answer questions. She couldn’t guarantee that I would be called, but asked if I could be there “in case the question of causation comes up,” (My book was about mercury, vaccines and autism).

“Causation,” of course, is the autism question of the century. Why do we have so many sick kids? Is this all simply genetics? Then why is there so much more autism now? What changed, and what are we doing to find out?

You won’t find out on Monday’s program.

Instead, The View presented a respectful and sometimes teary portrait of families living with autistic children -- their daily struggles and special needs. Several kids were onstage, some verbal, some not, and they handled themselves very well. It was a fine show about autism awareness, and the producers are to be lauded for it, especially for asking what will happen when so many disabled, dependent kids turn 21.

During the breaks, however, I could hear women in the audience murmuring to each other: “But what causes it? Why so many children? What about mercury? How can I get more information?”

During the final break, I asked Rosie when the question of causation would come up.
“We’re not doing that,” she said, bluntly. “We’re focusing on families and their kids.”

“Rosie,” I replied, “I think a lot of people are wondering about what’s causing this.”

“We don’t know what causes it,” she said. “You just want me to ask so you can talk about mercury.”

Stung, I explained that her audience members were asking, and that production staff had also asked me about causation privately backstage.

“We’re not doing causation,” Rosie repeated. “In fact, I told them not to book you.”

So, a deliberate decision had been reached before the show to avoid the elephant-in-the-room question. Then why did they book me, I wondered?

As Rosie turned away, I blurted out: “Would you at least take a look at my book?”

She spun around and met my eyes. “I read your book. I thought it was very good.”

This was encouraging, if a bit bewildering.

“I think mercury may have something to do with it,” she said. “I just can’t say that right here.”

My head spun as the show wrapped up. Had The View finally squelched Rosie O’Donnell? Did mercury trump Trump? Was this the heavy metal that dare not speak its name, at least on a network flush with Pharma ads?

It’s hard to say for sure. Last year, former host Star Jones posed the vaccine-autism question on the air, (but then again, look what happened to her).

After the show, Rosie approached me again, this time with the polite tact of a Sunday school teacher.

She apologized. She said there had not been enough time to cover the causation issue, and that the producers decided to focus only on families.

Families, I said, want to know the cause, too. The View could easily have done just one segment on it, presenting all sides.

“I don’t run this show,” Rosie said with a soft smile. She promised to try for a special on causation, perhaps later this spring.

Again, I don’t know why the decision was made. But I do know it was a bit surreal to sit through an entire show dedicated to autism without anyone asking why kids develop it.

I am not complaining because I wasn’t chosen to speak (I’ve been on TV before, including The View.) But I do know this: You can’t discuss causation without discussing the environment. You can’t talk about the environment without talking about mercury. And you can’t mention mercury without mentioning vaccines.
So for now at least, the cause of autism is a topic too hot for The View to have a view.

But I imagine Rosie will not stifle herself forever. She knows The View was overwhelmed by emails before the taping- from supporters and opponents of the mercury hypothesis. She knows that pregnant women on staff were upset to discover that their flu shots were preserved with mercury (one mother-to-be who asked me nearly cried). And she knows that the show left viewers discomfited that their own causation questions were roundly unaddressed.

“I am so tired of ‘coping with autism,’” one young mother told me afterward. “How about stopping it? We don’t need more sob-fests. We need answers.”

In preparing the show, producers called on the National Autism Association, which supports mercury-autism research, for information. NAA President Wendy Fournier sent them everything she had, but nothing relating to causation was aired.

“You know the staff will be questioning vaccines for their kids and looking into it for their own benefit,” she said to me, “but they won’t share that information to protect the children of America.”

I hope ABC will let Rosie be Rosie, and let her express her real autism views on The View. But I am not holding my breath. Perhaps the Queen of Controversy will have to find another venue before she can finally say what’s REALLY on her mind.

(NOTE: Rosie did say on the air that causation issues could be found in books listed on The View’s website. Producers told me they would put my book “Evidence of Harm” on the site, for which I am very appreciative).

Article C: Dan Olmsted –

See all of Dan’s Age of Autism work

Mercury Rising
A Possible Link Between Chemical Exposure And Autism May Have Been Overlooked In The Very Earliest Cases At Johns Hopkins
by Dan Olmsted

A UNIVERSE OF ONE: Dr. Leo Kanner, the psychiatrist who first diagnosed autism at Johns Hopkins.

CHEMICAL SPILL: The papers of the late Frederick L. Wellman (above) include a study of organic mercury on plant fungi and brochures for commercial fungicides containing organic mercury (below).

Wellman worked with organic mercury at the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (the main building in a photograph from 1848).

DOSED: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services insists that organic mercury preservatives in vaccines given to young children are safe, but the centers for disease control asked drug manufacturers to start phasing them out in 1999.

TABLE OF THE ELEMENTS: A photograph from Frederick L. Wellman’s papers shows a chemical-lined lab in Costa Rica, where Wellman once worked.

IN 1943, A CHILD KNOWN ONLY AS FREDERICK W. became part of the first medical report of a strange new disorder. Frederick was Case 2 of 11 children whose behavior “differed markedly and uniquely from anything reported so far,” wrote Dr. Leo Kanner, the psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University who introduced the syndrome to the world and named it “autism.”

One of the children “spun with great pleasure everything he could seize upon to spin.” Many of the children flapped their hands; flew into unpredictable bouts of rage and aggression; spoke in inexplicable ways if they spoke at all, sometimes referring to themselves as “you” and others as “I”; showed remarkable abilities like keen memory and perfect pitch but abject inability to perform simple tasks; obsessed over objects but ignored human beings.

Kanner didn’t know why the children, all born in the 1930s, acted that way but noticed the parents were college-educated and career-oriented: lawyers, psychiatrists, scientists. He wrote, “In the whole group, there are very few really warm-hearted fathers and mothers,” and later speculated, “emotionally refrigerated” parents might play a role in causing the baffling disorder.

“Most of the fathers are, in a sense, bigamists,” Kanner wrote. “They are wedded to their jobs at least as much as they are married to their wives. The job, in fact, has priority.”

Now, Frederick W.’s father has been identified by this reporter, who has written about autism for two years for United Press International, as a scientist named Frederick L. Wellman, and new information has been unearthed that suggests Wellman’s career might indeed be a clue--though not the kind Kanner detected.

The Frederick L. Wellman Papers fill 18 boxes in the Special Collections Research Center at the North Carolina State University Libraries in Raleigh. The first item in the first folder in the first box is dated Spring 1922, when the senior Wellman was working toward his doctorate in plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin. Faded with age, the report is titled “Hot Water and Mercuric Chloride Treatments of Some Brassica Seeds and Their Effect Both on the Germination of the Seeds and the Viability of the Fungus Phoma Lingam.”

In layman’s terms, Wellman collected cabbage seeds infected with a common fungus and dunked some of them in a solution of mercury salts and hot water. “The lots treated with mercuric [chloride] were shaken vigorously at first to get thorough contact with the solution,” he wrote. His faculty adviser at the time was concerned about an epidemic of cabbage fungus that was wrecking havoc on Wisconsin farms, and he enlisted his student Wellman’s help in researching solutions.

By the time his son was born 14 years later, in 1936, Wellman had graduated to advanced plant pathology work at the U.S. Agriculture Department’s main research center in Beltsville, in Prince George’s County, just outside Washington.

In a résumé, he wrote at length about his experience there with fungicides. On cabbage seeds, he reported, “organic mercury compounds were found to be most satisfactory disinfecting agents.” For tomatoes, “proprietary organic mercury dusts also gave good results.” All three of the fungicide sales brochures in his archive were for organic mercury compounds--two of them containing ethyl mercury, which was introduced in commercial products just a few years earlier.

Ethyl mercury is also the active ingredient in a vaccine preservative called thimerosal. A maverick minority of scientists and a larger percentage of parents blame thimerosal--which is 49.6 percent ethyl mercury by weight--for the rising autism rate, up tenfold in 20 years to one in 150 8-year-old U.S. children, according to a report this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some parents say they watched their children become physically ill and regress into autism soon after they got shots that contained the chemical--a link public-health officials call coincidence, not cause and effect.

It might be just another coincidence that the father of autism’s Case 2 was working with new ethyl mercury compounds seven decades ago when his son was born. Or it might not.

Coincidence or otherwise, similar echoes emerge from cases 1 and 3 in Kanner’s original study. Case 1 grew up in a town called Forest, Miss., surrounded by logging camps, lumber mills, and a national forest being planted by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Forest is 50 miles from the Mississippi sawmills where ethyl mercury fungicides were first tested in the United States in 1929 to preserve lumber, a practice that quickly became widespread; that child was born in 1933.

Case 3 was the son of “a professor of forestry in a southern university,” Kanner wrote. That university has been identified as North Carolina State--the same school where Frederick L. Wellman ended his career as a visiting professor. Case 3’s father began research on Southern pines when he joined the N.C. State faculty in 1935.

In 1936, he assisted in the planting of pine seedlings in the university’s newly acquired Hofmann Forest. His son was born in 1937. Organic mercury fungicides, including an ethyl mercury brand, were often used to prevent “damping off” or fungal contamination of pine seedlings during that era.

An advocate of the mercury-autism hypothesis says the pattern in those early cases strengthens his concern.

“So now we have learned that Frederick Wellman handled ethyl mercury fungicides that were first introduced to the market in 1929 and that his child was Kanner’s patient No. 2,” says Mark Blaxill, whose daughter Michaela has autism. Blaxill is vice president of the advocacy organization SafeMinds, which argues increased mercury exposure is behind the soaring autism rate. “And we know that cases 1 and 3 grew up around the first application of ethyl mercury products. If that’s not a smoking gun, I don’t know what is,” Blaxill continues.

Consistent with that possibility, overlooked studies from the 1970s found a history of chemical exposures in a “quite startling” percentage of parents of autistic children; researchers could not isolate any one chemical as a common factor. More recently, studies have reported a statistically significant correlation between mercury pollution and autism rates.

A spokesman for the CDC cautions against making too much of Wellman’s background.

“I’ve learned from being at CDC it’s often difficult when you’re trying to establish cause and effect,” Glen Nowak, chief of media relations, says when the Wellman case is described to him. “There are other things that could have mitigated the effect, could have enhanced the effect, caused the effect. So a case study of one, you always want to be very careful.”

In 1999, the CDC and other public-health authorities urged vaccine manufacturers to phase ethyl mercury out of U.S. pediatric vaccines as a precaution, given the well-known toxicity of mercury in developing brains and the increasing number of required childhood immunizations that contained it. Thimerosal remains in most flu shots, which are recommended by a CDC advisory committee for all pregnant women and for children as young as 6 months. Due in large measure to reassurance from United States and United Nations health authorities, ethyl mercury continues in wide use in pediatric vaccines in developing nations.

“Evidence is accumulating of lack of any harm resulting from exposure” to vaccines containing thimerosal as a preservative, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services posted on its web site. The Department of Health points to a 2004 report by the prestigious Institute of Medicine, which discounted a link with autism and took the unusual step of recommending research funding go to more “promising” areas.

Mercury-based fungicides were banned in the United States and many other countries as understanding of mercury’s toxic effects became more sophisticated; they have not been on the market here since the 1970s. Such products were not a health threat when used properly, according to a leading manufacturer.

To be sure, there is no direct evidence of mercury exposure in any of the original cases, though Frederick W.’s mother had “kidney trouble” during her pregnancy--sometimes a sign of mercury toxicity. Frederick W.’s father worked with many dangerous substances besides mercury--a short list includes formaldehyde, arsenic, copper, sulfur, insecticides, and pesticides.

But it is also true that none of Kanner’s case studies from Johns Hopkins has been examined for such exposures, even as more researchers suspect genes alone cannot explain the rising number of diagnoses. The Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities Epidemiology, part of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, lists “Environmental Exposures” first among six areas of research on its web site. Johns Hopkins Medicine declined to comment for this story.

Ellen K. Silbergeld, a professor of environmental health sciences at Hopkins, is currently using a $204,000 grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to test whether humans respond in different ways to mercury exposure. The goal, according to her report’s abstract, is to understand “preventable risk factors for autism based upon the hypothesis that mercury compounds by themselves do not cause autism but may contribute to the risks... in combination with genetic susceptibility and co-exposures to other risks, such as infections.” Silbergeld declined to comment for this story.

A recent issue of the Autism Advocate, published by the Autism Society of America, the nation’s oldest and largest such organization, focused on “the possible link between autism and the environment.” “We already have enough evidence to make the judgments that environmental factors are critical issues for autism,” wrote Dr. Martha Herbert, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. “This newer model of autism implies that we have great opportunities to do constructive things about this challenge.”

In April the Institute of Medicine convenes a two-day conference titled, “Autism and the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for Research.”

Johns Hopkins’ Medical Privacy Board denied a request for information from the medical records of the original 11 cases reported by Leo Kanner, citing both privacy and practicality. The first three cases were identified independently.

THE HENRY A. WALLACE BELTSVILLE Agricultural Research Center is located just outside Washington’s traffic-clogged I-495 beltway. The Georgian-style main building is set back majestically from Route 1.

Off the highway, two-lane roads thread through 6,600 acres as the bustle of Washington yields to rolling countryside, big barns, and grazing cattle. The log visitors’ center with its massive stone fireplaces was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the mid-1930s. Yet even some longtime Washingtonians are unaware that the world’s largest agricultural research center lies in their midst.

When Frederick L. Wellman began working there in 1935, Henry Wallace was secretary of agriculture under Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the New Deal was launching initiatives to spur crop production and overcome the Dust Bowl days of the Depression. That year Congress passed a law mandating more basic agricultural research.

By then, Wellman had earned his Ph.D., wed a Wisconsin woman named Dora U’Ren, spent a year in Honduras with the United Fruit Co., and, in 1930, was hired at the U.S. Bureau of Plant Industry’s headquarters in Washington. He was preceded there by a colleague from Wisconsin, John Monteith, who was one of the most active experimenters in the world with mercury fungicides. Monteith wrote numerous papers about his tests on mercury fungicides at the bureau’s Arlington Turf Garden, now the site of the Pentagon. Monteith and Wellman had written a scientific paper on cabbage fungus in 1927.

During most of 1936, Wellman was hunting exotic plant diseases in Turkey, Egypt, and Iran. He was, as Leo Kanner wrote, a plant pathologist who “has traveled a great deal in connection with his work.”

Their child was born on May 23, 1936. Exactly six years later, in May 1942, the boy’s worried parents brought him to see Kanner at Johns Hopkins Hospital, about 30 miles up Route 1 from Beltsville. Kanner called him “Case 2: Frederick W.”
“The child has always been self-sufficient,” Kanner quoted his mother as saying. “Usually people are an interference. He’ll push people away from him. To a certain extent, he likes to stick to the same thing.

“On one of the bookshelves we had three pieces in a certain arrangement. Whenever this was changed, he always rearranged it in the old pattern.

“He had said at least two words (`Daddy’ and `Dora,’ the mother’s name) before he was 2 years old. From then on, between 2 and 3 years, he would say words that seemed to come as a surprise to himself. He’d say them once and never repeat them.”

Kanner was an international leader in diagnosing and treating childhood mental disorders--he wrote the book Child Psychiatry in 1935 and is widely credited with establishing the discipline in the United States. But he asserted in “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact”--published in 1943 in the now-defunct psychiatric journal The Nervous Child--that this was something completely different.

“These characteristics form a unique `syndrome’ not heretofore reported, which seems to be rare enough, yet is probably more frequent than is indicated by the paucity of observed cases,” Kanner wrote.

The children just did not appear retarded. “Even though most of these children at one time or another were looked upon as feeble-minded, they are all unquestionably endowed with good cognitive potential,” he wrote. “They all have strikingly intelligent physiognomies.”

What made them different, he concluded, was “an extreme autistic aloneness that, whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside.” He called the disorder autism, from the Greek word “autos,” or self, borrowing the term from a Swiss psychiatrist who used it to describe childhood schizophrenia. The children appeared to inhabit a universe of one.

In September 1942, Frederick W. was placed in a school for the developmentally disabled near Baltimore. His father transferred to the agriculture department’s international division. In early 1943, Frederick L. and Dora Wellman left the U.S. mainland for the next two decades. But they would return for their only child.
ELEMENTAL OR METALLIC MERCURY, the slippery quicksilver that used to spill out of broken thermometers, is made up of single atoms, No. 80 on the Periodic Table of Elements. Mercury can combine with other elements to form compounds; these compounds are called organic mercury if they include a carbon atom, inorganic mercury if they do not.

All forms of mercury are toxic, but organic mercury--which can cross the body’s blood-brain barrier and the placenta--is especially dangerous.
One kind of organic mercury, methyl, “bioaccumulates” or builds up in some large fish. Pregnant women are advised not to eat too much of certain fish for fear of causing neurological damage to their offspring.
Ethyl is a sister compound from the same alkyl subgroup of organic mercury; it has one more carbon and two more hydrogen atoms than methyl. But ethyl mercury is man-made--it was not present in the environment, and humans were not exposed to it, until a Ukrainian immigrant named Morris S. Kharasch created the first commercial formulations just before Kanner’s earliest autism cases were born.

In the 1920s, in part based on expertise he developed in chemical warfare research for the United States during World War I, Kharasch filed 11 patents that paved the way for several ethyl mercury products by the end of that decade. His dual focus was evident in his Who’s Who entry: He had been “awarded patents along pharmaceutical lines, and treatment of fungus diseases of small grains.”
Those patents led directly to thimerosal--trademarked as Merthiolate by Eli Lilly and first used in vaccines by 1931. They also led to three ethyl mercury fungicides, the DuPont and Bayer brands Ceresan and New Improved Ceresan, marketed in a partnership called Bayer-Semesan; and Lignasan, used to treat timber.

Wellman’s North Carolina State archive, in a folder titled “Memorabilia,” contains sales brochures for both kinds of Ceresan. “New Improved Ceresan usually destroys seed-borne diseases either by direct contact with the spores or by forming a vapor which penetrates every crack and cranny of the seed,” the brochure reads. It also helped protect seeds “against certain soil-borne organisms.”

The pamphlets also warn the compounds are “poisonous and precautions with all packages must be observed. Use a dry filter dust mask or clean dry cloth over the nose and mouth, as New Improved Ceresan is poisonous to inhale.” (The third of three fungicide pamphlets in Wellman’s archive was for Semesan, another organic mercury compound from Bayer-Semesan.)

Used properly, mercury fungicides were never a health hazard, according to Germany-based Bayer CropScience.

“Investigating the health and environmental aspects of our products has always been an important activity for Bayer,” the division’s web site says. “Although the correct use of mercury-containing seed treatments would be safe to the environment even by today’s standards, these pioneer seed-treatments were replaced, at the end of the 1970s, by a new generation of mercury-free products.”

A DuPont spokeswoman, Gabriel King, says she cannot comment in detail because “going back that far, it’s the institutional memory--there’s just nothing there.”

DuPont and Bayer both referred this reporter to CropLife America, a trade group. A CropLife spokeswoman says it, too, lacks familiarity with mercury fungicides.
Wellman was aware that, with mercury fungicides, he was handling “a very strong poison.”

In 1940, while at Beltsville, he wrote he had become familiar with “toxic values of chemicals [and] injurious effects of disinfectants on human beings or animals that might be involved.” He wrote that mercury--including the inorganic kind he first tested on cabbage seeds as a Wisconsin student in 1922--can have devastating effects: “It must be remembered that the mercury chloride is a very strong poison, and special care must be taken in using it and disposing of the poison solution.”

Whether or not mercury affected Wellman’s child is speculation, of course. Yet there are possible clues. Frederick W., for example, was born three weeks early by cesarean section because his mother had “kidney trouble,” Kanner wrote.
According to the CDC’s toxicological profile for mercury, “The kidney is one of the major target organs of mercury-induced toxicity.” Elsewhere it states: “You can be exposed to mercury vapors from the use of fungicides that contain mercury. Excess use of these products may result in higher-than-average exposures. .
“Family members of workers who have been exposed to mercury may also be exposed to mercury if the worker’s clothes are contaminated with mercury particles or liquid,” it says.

Decades ago chemists were much less sophisticated about the dangers of some of the substances they worked with. “There were chemists, there were chemical assistants who would suck chemicals through pipettes in those days,” says Thomas Felicetti, executive director of Beechwood Rehabilitation Services in Langhorne, Pa. Felicetti published a study in 1981 that found children with autism were far more likely to have parents whose jobs brought them in contact with chemicals.

Felicetti’s study was a follow-up to one in 1974 by Dr. Mary Coleman, a leading autism expert at Georgetown University who has since retired. Her study of 78 autistic children found “an unusual amount of exposure [of parents] to chemicals in the preconception period.” Twenty of the 78 children were from families with chemical exposure; in four of those families, both parents had chemical exposures. Seven out of eight of those parents were chemists.

“Of the control parents” whose children did not have autism, she wrote, “there was only one family (again both the father and the mother) who were working as chemists in a laboratory.”

In a 1976 book she edited, The Autistic Syndromes, Coleman wrote that “since the incidence of individuals exposed to chemicals in all related occupations in the United States is 1,059,000 in 91,000,000 or 1.1 percent of the population . . . to find that 25 percent of any sample has had chemical exposure is quite startling.

“This is an area where more prospective research is needed,” Coleman wrote. That has never been done.

According to Coleman’s book, the idea of parental exposure leading to autism in a child “can not be dismissed, because of the theoretical possibility that chemical toxins could effect genetic material prior to conception.”

Dozens of studies have implicated mercury in genetic damage, including chromosomes breaks, point mutations, and partial and complete deletions. One study on hamsters (it is unethical to test toxic substances on humans) found mercury produced more point mutations than lead, a widely recognized threat to children’s mental development.

The scientific literature is also full of evidence that fetuses and young children can suffer long-term harm, including brain damage, from mercury exposure even if their parents do not.

The case that galvanized world attention occurred in Minamata, Japan, in 1956, when wastewater from a Chisso Corp. chemical plant spilled toxic levels of methyl mercury into Minamata Bay, and pregnant women ate contaminated fish. Children born to mothers who ingested methyl mercury from contaminated fish while pregnant had profound physical and neurological problems even though their mothers did not show any impairment.

In 1972 thousands of people in Iraq ate bread made from grain treated with methyl mercury fungicide that was intended for planting, not human consumption. Hundreds died. A follow-up study on children whose mothers ate contaminated bread after giving birth and who were exposed only through their mothers’ breast milk showed problems including language delay that led one parent to describe the children as “needles blunted by the poison.” Language delay is one of the hallmarks of autism as well.

Eating ethyl mercury-treated grain led to similar poisonings in Ghana in 1967. Twenty people died. Of those who survived, “toxic effects appeared earlier and were more severe in children than in adults,” according to a report of the incident published in 1974 in the journal Archives of Environmental Health. “Four children developed disturbances of speech which led to stammering and scanning. . . . Mental abnormality was observed in one boy who showed outbursts of anger unrelated to circumstances. A girl developed encephalitis [brain swelling] and became completely paralyzed . . . [with] complete loss of speech.”

The report added: “Of all the fungicides in modern use, the alkyl-mercury compounds [which include ethyl and methyl mercury] offer the most serious health hazards. This is the conclusion reached by many workers . . . who have undertaken many investigations of persons at risk of occupational absorption of alkyl mercury compounds. Serious concern has therefore been expressed about the necessary contamination of the environment with mercury, particularly from its use as fungicides in agriculture and in industry.”

Two recent U.S. studies have found a possible association between environmental mercury and a risk of autism in American children.

Raymond Palmer and colleagues at the University of Texas found the autism rate was higher in Texas counties with more mercury exposure from toxic industrial releases. In the other study, researchers found children living in areas with the highest level of mercury pollution in the San Francisco Bay area were roughly twice as likely to have autism.

The Environmental Protection Agency now says 6 percent of American children are born to mothers with a mercury level high enough to put them at risk for health problems.

IT IS SAFE TO SAY THAT LEO KANNER was not looking for environmental exposures as a cause of the strange new cases he was seeing.

By the time the Wellmans arrived at Johns Hopkins in 1942 with Frederick W., Kanner had observed a number of such children who would form the basis for his landmark description of autism as a “markedly and uniquely different” disorder.

He believed they had something else in common.

“In the whole group,” he wrote in his original study, “there are very few really warmhearted fathers and mothers.” In subsequent studies he became more emphatic, describing “the almost total absence of emotional warmth in child rearing.”

“As a rule, the parents of our autistic children are cold, humorless perfectionists,” he wrote in 1954. “[T]he emotional refrigeration which the children experience from such parents cannot but be a highly pathogenic element in the patients’ early personality development, superimposed powerfully on whatever predisposition has come from inheritance.”

Kanner’s speculation about the parents’ role was tempered by his beliefs that most of the children he saw had been that way since birth, and that their autism was “inborn.” By the end of his long and distinguished career at Hopkins, he had completely dropped the idea of parental responsibility, and noted: “At no time have I pointed to the parents as the primary, postnatal sources of pathogenicity.” Kanner was also harshly critical of the claims of Bruno Bettelheim, who blamed autism on the homicidal feelings of mothers for their child. Another autism pioneer, Bernard Rimland (who died in 2006), demolished the psychological-damage idea for good in his 1964 book Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior.

Kanner made another key observation in that original 1943 study.

“There is one other very interesting common denominator in the backgrounds of these children,” he wrote. “They all come of highly intelligent families.”

The Wellmans certainly fit that mold--Frederick L. Wellman had a Ph.D. in plant pathology, his wife was a college graduate, and he had four talented siblings: an opera singer; a newspaperman and best-seller author; a writer for adventure magazines; and a painter, writer, and radio commentator. Yet only the Wellman sibling with a clear chemical connection, Frederick L. Wellman, had a child with autism.

In Thomas Felicetti’s 1981 study, there was no “intellect effect,” he said; chemical exposure was the difference. One parent applied roof tar, which contained a number of toxic chemicals.

Rimland, the researcher who disproved the idea that “refrigerator” parents made their children autistic, pointed out in a 2002 written statement in his role as head of the Autism Research Institute that Kanner earned his M.D. in 1919 in Berlin, came to Hopkins in 1928, “and has been reported to have seen well over 20,000 children in the course of his psychiatric career. . . . It is remarkable, in retrospect, that none of the children were seen in Kanner’s first 12 years of practice [at Hopkins], and all 11 were born after 1930, when, as it happens, mercury-containing vaccines were first used in this country. A coincidence? Very unlikely.”

Others, including the author of a new book, argue autism has been around for ages and only awareness of it has increased. In this view, increasing exposure to mercury--or any other environmental agent--could not be causing an autism epidemic for one simple reason: There is no autism epidemic.

“The most important piece of evidence provided by those who believe that thimerosal is related to autism is that rates for all the various autism spectrum disorders have risen dramatically over the past few decades,” writes Roy Richard Grinker, a George Washington University anthropologist, in Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism.

Grinker, who has a teenage daughter, Isabel, with autism, argues in his book that the “evidence” just doesn’t hold up. “[T]he increase in the rate of autism is more likely due to the result of new and improved science--more reliable definitions of autism and more awareness of autism among health-care professionals and educators. Maybe we are finally diagnosing and counting autism correctly.”

Another expert who argues autism is not new is Dr. Darold Treffert, a Wisconsin psychiatrist who has worked with autistic patients for decades.

“Autistic disorder did not begin with Kanner’s description of it in 1943 any more than Down’s syndrome began with [Dr. Landon Down’s] description of it in 1887,” Treffert says in an e-mail. In fact, he says, Down identified several children who today would be described as autistic.

But the incidence could have increased due to new factors, Treffert continues. His belief that autism has long existed “does not negate any present investigations of the etiology [cause] of autistic disorder, including the role of environmental or heavy metal factors.”

Despite those assertions, there is a distinct lack of observed cases before 1930--less than a handful in the United States, each of which might have had autistic symptoms but differ in many ways from Kanner’s original 11.

A chemical connection might also help explain why Kanner, in Baltimore, first described the disorder: He happened to be located near government researchers working with cutting-edge chemicals. Frederick L. Wellman did advanced work for the federal government in suburban Maryland, literally on the road to Baltimore, while the father of Case 8 was “a chemist and law school graduate at the government Patent Office,” another Washington agency. Other cases appear to have been local, based on the way they were first noticed or on their parents’ occupations--one mother, a pediatrician, became a Maryland public-health officer. Case 4 was the son of a mining engineer, which also suggests the possibility of some environmental link. (It is unclear why Kanner, who died in 1981, arranged the first 11 cases in the order he did, which is not chronological.)

Ricci King, a Washington state autism advocate, says she has long noticed a connection between farm backgrounds and autism, especially in children who never had been vaccinated. That fits with a link to fungicides, she says.

“For some reason in the back of my brain I was filing the fact that some of these parents were farmers, or lived near farm communities,” says King, who has a 14-year-old son, Robert Hedequist, with autism and moderates an international autism biomedical discussion group for parents and professionals, ABMD@yahoogroups.com.

“A light bulb went off for me at a conference in Portland [Ore.] in 2001 where I met a mother of five children, all on the spectrum, all unvaccinated,” King recalls in an interview. “She was from eastern Washington, she came from a family of farmers, and her husband was a farmer as well. All five of her children had regressive autism. Meeting her changed the way I look at autism, and prompted me to explore the connection.”

King says her “jaw literally dropped” when presented with the idea that mercury in fungicides could link Kanner’s early cases. “It would be hard to convince me that there isn’t a connection,” she says.

Again, that’s speculation. But Mercury, like many toxins, can linger in the environment and could theoretically be a risk for decades via earth, air, and water. At the Beltsville center where Frederick L. Wellman experimented with mercury fungicides in the 1930s--and where research on their agricultural uses presumably ended decades ago--mercury concentrations remained up to 2,000 times the U.S. average, according to a 1995 Coastal Hazardous Waste Site Review by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

AFTER LEAVING BELTSVILLE IN 1943, Wellman became head of the Department of Plant Pathology and Botany at the U.S. Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, making frequent forays around the world. The bespectacled scientist published several books as well as dozens of scientific papers. He founded the Caribbean Division of the American Phytopathological Society.

His career was his calling. The first chapter in his 1974 book Plant Diseases--An Introduction for the Layman begins with a stark depiction of what can happen without the contributions of plant pathologists.

“There are many plant diseases that have destroyed important food crops causing poverty, misery, hunger, and, finally, the ugliest thing in all human experience: famine,” he wrote. “I have seen and smelled villages in the last stages of famine. ...To me, privileged, fed, and protected, the sight seemed an impossibility.”

Wellman became the world’s leading authority on a fungus called Hemileia vastatrix, the cause of coffee rust disease. Again, mercury was part of the picture. He wrote:

Coffee seed is covered with a tough parchment-like shell and this may be washed and disinfected with strong chemicals. Solutions of formaldehyde, strong chlorides, salts of mercury and salts of copper can all be used and after half an hour of soaking, the treated seed rinsed in water.

While Wellman made a name for himself in plant pathology, Leo Kanner did the same in the field he named. Johns Hopkins became a “clearinghouse” for autism cases from as far away as South Africa. By 1958, he had files on 150 autistic children.

In 1971 Kanner wrote a follow-up paper on the first 11 children. “Twenty-eight years have elapsed since then. . . . The patients were between 2 and 8 years old when first seen at the Children’s Psychiatric Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

“What has become of them?” he asked. “What is their present status?”

Frederick W. was one of just two children whose outcome he considered favorable, Kanner said (Case 1 from Forest, Miss., was the other). In 1962 officials at the Maryland institution where Frederick W. lived wrote:

He is, at 26 years, a passive, likeable boy whose chief interest is music. He is able to follow the routine and, though he lives chiefly within his own world, he enjoys those group activities which are of particular interest to him. He was a member of the chorus in the Parents’ Day program and was in charge of the loud speaker at the annual carnival. He went on weekend trips to town unaccompanied and made necessary purchases independently.

Two years later the Wellmans took their son out of that institution and brought him to live with them in Puerto Rico. Their son “picked up a lot of Spanish and worked out a schedule of studying language lessons on records at 4 o’clock every afternoon,” they told Kanner.

Frederick L. Wellman soon retired from his Puerto Rican post, and the family moved to Raleigh, where he became a visiting professor at North Carolina State.

“We settled into a new home and [Frederick] did his part in it,” the Wellmans wrote Kanner. “He has become acquainted with the neighbors and sometimes makes calls on them. We tried him out in the County Sheltered Workshop and Vocational Training Center. He took right to it, made friends with the teachers, and helped with some of the trainees. Through his relationship there, he took up bowling and he does pretty well.”

Frederick L. Wellman retired from N.C. State in 1970. He, his wife, and their son lived in an apartment building until the elder Wellmans died in the 1990s; Frederick W. turned 70 last May.

A man who twice answered the intercom at his current residence said it was a wrong number. A letter sent to his address received no response.

So the last word must come from Kanner’s follow-up more than a quarter-century ago.

In 1969, Frederick W. began working at the National Air Pollution Administration, now part of the Environmental Protection Agency, doing routine tasks like running a copy machine. His boss wrote in 1970 that he “is an outstanding employee by any standard.”

Mark Blaxill of SafeMinds says the new information about Frederick W. and the other early cases is a call to action.

“It’s important not to make overly large claims from this evidence, but we need to take seriously the early environmental clues like this,” he says.” Johns Hopkins has detailed data on the first couple of hundred Kanner patients. Perhaps there are more clues in that sample, like an undiscovered environmental cluster, that no one has considered before.

“I would hope that Hopkins might consider opening up those case files and, instead of focusing on the parents, start thinking about where these families lived and what the parents’ occupational exposures might have been.”

Dan Olmsted is a journalist with United Press International in Washington, where he writes the Age of Autism column, available at www.upi.com. Copyright 2007 © United Press International Inc. All rights reserved. Researcher Beverly Crawford contributed to this story.

Article D: New Vaccination Schedule from the American Academy of Pediatrics

AAP ISSUES RECOMMENDED 2007 IMMUNIZATION SCHEDULE

Below is a news release on a policy statement appearing in the January issue of Pediatrics, the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). To receive the full text of this report, please contact the AAP Department of Communications.

For Release: January 2, 2007, 12:01 am (ET)

CHICAGO - The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued the recommended 2007 childhood immunization schedule for the United States. The statement was approved by the AAP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).

The 2007 schedule includes the following major changes:

• Oral rotavirus vaccine for universal administration to all infants at 2, 4, and 6 months of age.

• Universal administration of a second dose of varicella vaccine at 4 to 6 years of age.

• The age range for universal annual administration of influenza vaccine has been expanded to children 6 to 59 months of age and those in close contact with children 0 to 59 months of age.

• Human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV) for girls 11 to 12 years of age, including catch-up immunization of girls 13 to 18 years of age. This vaccine prevents most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts, (AAP’s formal recommendation for HPV vaccine to be released soon.)

The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 60,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

 
Article E: MedWatch - The FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program

FDA issued a Public Health Notification to inform health care providers and consumers about 28 post-marketing reports of intussusception following administration of Rotavirus, Live, Oral, Pentavalent vaccine (RotaTeq). Intussusception is a serious and potentially life-threatening
condition that occurs when the intestine gets blocked or twisted.

Because vaccine adverse events are not always reported to FDA, there may be additional cases of intussusception following vaccination of which we are unaware. This information is important in helping FDA and CDC assess whether RotaTeq may be associated with an increased risk of intussusception and, if so, to what degree. Healthcare professionals and
others are encouraged to report any cases of intussusception or other serious events that may be associated with the use of RotaTeq to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Parents should contact their child’s doctor immediately if the child has stomach pain,
vomiting, diarrhea, blood in their stool or change in their bowel movements, as these may be signs of intussusception.

Read the complete MedWatch 2007 Safety summary, including links to the
Notification, Label and Patient Product Information.

FDA warns of vaccine complications

By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The government warned doctors and parents Tuesday of reports of potentially life-threatening twisting of the intestines in infants vaccinated against a virus that is the leading cause of early childhood diarrhea.

The condition, called intussusception, is the same that led to the withdrawal of the first rotavirus vaccine eight years ago.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was unknown whether the recently approved vaccine, called RotaTeq, caused the 28 new cases. The condition also can occur spontaneously.

Still, the agency said it was issuing the warning in part to encourage reporting of any additional cases of intestinal twisting or blockage to help it assess any risks associated with the three-shot vaccine series.

The vaccine’s manufacturer, Merck & Co. Inc., didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

The 28 cases included 16 infants who required intestinal surgery. There have been no reports of deaths.

RotaTeq received FDA approval in February 2006. At the time, the FDA and Merck said trials of the vaccine indicated it did not increase the risk of intussusception. But Merck and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are conducting follow-up studies of tens of
thousands of infants to track any long-term effects of the vaccine. The FDA also is monitoring reports.

About 3.5 million doses of the Merck vaccine have been distributed in the U.S., though not all have been used, the FDA said.
The earlier rotavirus vaccine, Wyeth’s RotaShield, was pulled from the U.S. market in 1999 after it was linked to a small increase in intussusception.
In the United States, rotavirus sickens about 2.7 million children younger than 5, sends up to 70,000 to the hospital and causes 20 to 70 deaths each year.

Article F: GARDASIL, A new vaccine and a new saga
Lobbying for Vaccine to Be Halted

By ANDREW POLLACK and STEPHANIE SAUL

Reacting to a furor from some parents, advocacy groups and public health experts, Merck said yesterday that it would stop lobbying state legislatures to require the use of its new cervical cancer vaccine.

The company said it made the decision after realizing that its lobbying campaign had fueled objections across the country that could undermine adoption of the vaccine.

At least 20 states are considering making its use mandatory for schoolgirls, and the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has already done so by executive order. Part of the states’ rush to embrace the vaccine has been instigated by Merck efforts that began before federal regulators approved the product last year.

The vaccine is aimed at a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. Critics of the vaccine on moral and other grounds have used Merck’s perceived influence as a weapon in fighting the drug’s use. And some public health officials who favor the vaccine say the movement to make it mandatory has come too fast.

Merck acknowledged that opinion yesterday, saying it would stop lobbying specifically for state mandates, many of which would require girls to be vaccinated before they entered sixth grade.

But Dr. Haupt said that Merck would continue to provide health officials and legislators with education about the vaccine and would continue to lobby for more financing for vaccines in general.

He declined to say how much money or staff resources Merck had expended in its efforts to require use of the cervical cancer vaccine.

The vaccine, which costs about $400 for the three-shot regimen, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June. Later that month, a federal advisory panel recommended that females 11 to 26 years old be vaccinated, although panelists have said that recommendation was not equivalent to recommending mandatory inoculation.

But the speed with which legislatures have moved to require use of the vaccine before school entry has galvanized critics. Some say making a vaccine mandatory would pre-empt parental choice; others contend that protection from a sexually transmitted virus would encourage promiscuity.

These people were joined by some worried about the influence of pharmaceutical companies. Merck has been a financial backer of Women in Government, a national organization of legislators whose members have sponsored some of the state laws to make the vaccine mandatory.

VACCINE SAFETY GROUP RELEASES GARDASIL REACTION REPORT

Calls on FDA and CDC to Warn Doctors and Parents to Report to VAERS

PRNewswire

(Feb. 21) Washington, D.C. – The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) today released a new analysis of the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports of serious health problems following HPV vaccination (Merck’s GARDASIL) during the last six months of 2006. Out of the 385 individual GARDASIL adverse event reports made to VAERS, two-thirds required additional medical care and about one-third of all reports were for children 16-years-old and under, with nearly 25 percent of those children having received simultaneously one or more of the 18 vaccines that Merck did not study in combination with GARDASIL. NVIC is calling on the FDA and CDC to warn parents and doctors that GARDASIL should not be combined with other vaccines and that young girls should be monitored for at least 24 hours for syncopal (collapse/fainting) episodes that can be accompanied by seizure activity, as well as symptoms of tingling, numbness and loss of sensation in the fingers and limbs, all of which should be reported to VAERS immediately.

“Because Merck only studied GARDASIL in fewer than 1200 girls under age 16 in pre-licensure trials, it is critical that doctors and parents be made aware of the nature of the initial adverse event reports coming into VAERS and that they report serious health problems after vaccination when they occur,” said NVIC President Barbara Loe Fisher. “There are twice as many children collapsing and four times as many children experiencing tingling, numbness and loss of sensation after getting a GARDASIL vaccination compared to those getting a Tdap (tetanus-diphtheria- acellular pertussis) vaccination. There have been reports of facial paralysis and Guillain-Barre Syndrome. And doctors who give GARDASIL in combination with other vaccines are basically conducting an experiment on their young patients because Merck has not published any safety data for simultaneous vaccination with any vaccine except hepatitis B vaccine.”

According to NVIC’s report, a majority of GARDASIL adverse event reports to VAERS involved those who suffered fever, nausea, headache or pain; 14 percent were for syncopal episodes with or without neurological signs; and 8 percent experienced tingling, numbness and loss of sensation, facial paralysis or Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Although adverse event reports to VAERS do not prove causation, they can provide an early warning sign that a new vaccine may be causing health problems that could be important. For example, reports to
VAERS of bowel blockage (intussusception) in babies following receipt of Merck’s Rota Teq (rotavirus) vaccine prompted the FDA to issue a public warning to doctors and consumers on Feb. 13.

“About 4 reports per day were filed with VAERS in December 2006 for the HPV vaccine,” said NVIC Health Policy Analyst Vicky Debold, RN, Ph.D. “Some of these girls are being injured when they collapse after getting the vaccine and others are complaining of neurological symptoms that should not be ignored. Doctors and nurses should take note of the patient safety issues related to giving this vaccine. Giving GARDASIL simultaneously with any of the 18 vaccines Merck did not study in combination is not an evidence- based guideline and should involve informed consent and a signed patient release. To avoid unnecessary injuries, teenage girls should be vaccinated laying down, not be left unattended and probably should not walk or drive themselves home from the doctor’s office after they get vaccinated.”

NVIC also found that there were several VAERS reports of HPV infection, genital warts and cervical lesions after GARDASIL vaccination. It is unknown if the girls were infected with HPV before being vaccinated or if GARDASIL failed to protect them. One case of HPV infection occurred in a 22-year-old girl who had participated in a Merck GARDASIL trial in 2003 when she had shown “strong conversion to all 4 vaccine types” but “tested positive for high risk HPV” in 2006, according to the VAERS report.

In a May 18, 2006 Background Document for the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRPBAC), the FDA staff stated that Merck clinical trial data indicated there may be “the potential for GARDASIL to enhance cervical disease in subjects who had evidence of persistent infection with vaccine-relevant HPV types prior to vaccination.” Girls and women now being vaccinated with GARDASIL are not routinely being tested for active HPV infection before vaccination.

The FDA staff also questioned whether the “HPV types not contained in the vaccine might offset the overall clinical effectiveness of the vaccine.” There are more than 15 types of HPV associated with cervical cancer but GARDASIL only contains HPV types 16 and 18. It is unknown whether non-vaccine HPV types will become more dominant in the future. However, there are indications this could occur because some of the seven strains of pneumococcal contained in Wyeth’s PREVNAR vaccine, which was recommended by the CDC for universal use in all babies in 2000, have been replaced by some of the more than 80 other pneumococcal strains not contained in the vaccine.

VAERS is a passive surveillance system and depends upon voluntary reporting of serious health problems following vaccination, even though safety provisions in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 mandated that health care providers report vaccine adverse events. There have been estimates that fewer than 10 percent, even as low as 1 to 4 percent, of adverse events which occur after prescription drug or vaccine use are ever reported to government adverse event reporting systems.

“If only 1 to 4 percent of all adverse events associated with GARDASIL vaccination are being reported to VAERS, there could have been up to 38,000 health problems after GARDASIL vaccination in 2006 which were never reported,” said Fisher. “How many girls are really having short-term health problems associated with getting this vaccine that could turn into long-term neurological or immune system disorders? And how many will go on to develop fertility problems, cancer or damage to their genes, all of which Merck admits in its
product insert that it has not studied at all? We just don’t know enough to be mandating GARDASIL for anyone, much less vulnerable 11 to 12 year old girls entering puberty.”

For a copy of NVIC’s Report on VAERS and GARDASIL, references for this statement and information about how to report a vaccine reaction to VAERS, go to www.nvic.org.

Vaccine Meeting, Merck Donation Coincide

Feb 21, 9:59 PM (ET)

By LIZ AUSTIN PETERSON

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Gov. Rick Perry’s chief of staff met with key aides about a new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer on the same day its manufacturer donated money to his campaign, documents obtained by The Associated Press show.

Texas became the first state to require the vaccine against human papillomavirus earlier this month when Perry issued an executive order requiring it for girls entering sixth grade. Lawmakers are considering overriding the measure.

A calendar for chief of staff Deirdre Delisi obtained under Texas’ open records laws shows she met with the governor’s budget director and three members of his office for an “HPV Vaccine for Children Briefing” on Oct. 16. That same day, Merck & Co. (MRK)’s political action committee donated $5,000 to Perry and a total of $5,000 to eight state lawmakers.

Perry spokesman Robert Black said the timing of the meeting and the donation was a coincidence. “There was no discussion of any kind of mandates,” Black said.

The documents obtained Wednesday by The AP provide new detail about the relationship between the governor’s office and Merck, which makes the only HPV vaccine on the market.

Perry’s mandate has inflamed conservatives, who say it contradicts Texas’ abstinence-only sexual education policies and intrudes too far into families’ lives. Though there is a provision in state law that allows parents to opt out of the vaccine, opponents say the shots are too new and too costly to force on young girls.

Merck had waged a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to get state legislatures to require 11- and 12-year-old girls to get the three-dose vaccine against the virus that can cause cervical cancer as a requirement for school attendance. But it announced Tuesday it was suspending those efforts after its motives were questioned. The New Jersey company stands to make billions if Gardasil is required nationwide.

Critics had previously questioned Perry’s ties to the company. Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff and Delisi’s predecessor, lobbies for Merck. And the governor accepted a total of $6,000 from Merck during his re-election campaign, including $1,000 in December 2005.

According to Delisi’s calendar, she met with Toomey three times in the six months before the order was issued. One meeting happened in August, on the same day two other Perry staffers met with a different Merck lobbyist for a “Merck HPV Vaccine update.” The other meetings came just after the November election and just before the legislative session began in January.

Black said he did not know what the two discussed. He said the pair have been friends for years and pointed out that Toomey has many clients other than Merck. He also insisted that the governor did not decide to issue the mandate until well after the election.

Merck spokesman Ray Kerins reached after business hours said he could not immediately comment but would look into the matter. Calls seeking comment were made to a home number for Delisi and an office number for Toomey, but were not immediately returned.

Cathie Adams, president of the conservative Texas Eagle Forum, said Black’s explanation of the timing of the campaign contribution didn’t sound right.

“We have too many coincidences,” she said. “I think that the voters of Texas would find that very hard to swallow.”

Bills have been introduced in about 20 states to require the vaccine, but some states have backed off because of concerns about the vaccine’s safety and other objections. Some parents’ groups and doctors particularly object because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted disease. Vaccines mandated for school attendance usually are for diseases easily spread through casual contact, such as measles and mumps.

A bill has passed the Virginia Legislature, but a spokesman for Gov. Timothy Kaine said he wants to review a provision that lets parents opt out before he says if he will sign it.

“He’s supportive of expanded access to this vaccine and thinks efforts to fight cervical cancer are critically important, but he would like to fully review the opt-out provisions that are in this legislation,” spokesman Kevin Hall said Wednesday.

Associated Press reporter Dena Potter in Richmond, Va. contributed to this report.

Merck Suspends Lobbying for Vaccine

Tuesday February 20, 5:46 PM EST

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Merck & Co. is immediately suspending its lobbying campaign to persuade state legislatures to mandate that adolescent girls get the company’s new vaccine against cervical cancer as a requirement for school attendance, the company said late Tuesday.

The drugmaker had been criticized by parents and doctors’ groups for quietly funding the campaign via a third party to require 11- and 12-year-old girls get the three-dose vaccine in order to attend school.

Some had objected because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted disease, human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer. Vaccines mandated for school attendance usually are for diseases easily spread through casual contact.

“Our goal is about cervical cancer prevention and we want to reach as many females as possible with Gardasil,” Dr. Richard M. Haupt, Merck’s medical director for vaccines, told The Associated Press.

“We’re concerned that our role in supporting school requirements is a distraction from that goal, and as such have suspended our lobbying efforts,” Haupt said, adding the company will continue providing information about the vaccine if requested by government officials.

Merck launched Gardasil, the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, in June.

Sales totaled $255 million through the end of 2006, according to Merck.

Last month, The Associated Press reported that Merck was channeling money for its state-mandate campaign through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators across the country.

Conservative groups opposed the campaign, saying it would encourage premarital sex, and parents’ rights groups said it interfered with their control over their children.

4) UPCOMING TACA ACTIVITIES!

Monthly Fun: Just for FUN – once a month
Come join your TACA friends at PUMP IT UP in Huntington Beach and newly added Rancho Cucamonga and Sorrento Valley for some good ol’ family fun! See schedule

5) Vendor Announcements

Dr. Jerry Kartzinel moves back to Florida

Dr. Kartzinel has resigned from Thoughtful House and is relocating to sunny Florida. He is joining Dr. Julie Buckley’s practice in Florida. On behalf of the Board of Directors and senior staff at Thoughtful House, we wish him well in this transition.

A letter was sent from Dr. Kartzinel to all of his current patients with his updated contact and practice information. For those patients that wish to remain at Thoughtful House, care may be transferred to Dr. Bryan Jepson at the Medical Center at Thoughtful House. This would be a seamless transition as Dr. Jepson will have full access to the records and continues to work in collaboration with Dr. Krigsman, Kelly Barnhill, CCN, as well as the research staff at Thoughtful House. To do this, please send an email to intake@thoughtfulhouse.org with your child’s name and your contact information.

Many thanks,

Anissa J. Ryland, Director of Operations
Thoughtful House Center for Children
Phone 512.732.8400
Fax 512.732.8353

NEW contact information for Dr Jerry Kartzinel:

Dr Jerry will now be practicing with Dr Julie Buckley in their Florida office. For contact information please see:

Nursing issues: please contact either Barbara (yes, the Barbara, for those who have been with me for a while!) or Brooke, at nurse@pppvonline.com

Scheduling appointments: please call the office at, (904) 543-1288 or email Laurie@pppvonline.com

New Office address:

Pediatric Partners of Ponte Vedra
5270 Palm Valley Road
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082
Phone: 904-543-1288 Fax: 904-543-1289

Note: Dr Jerry Kartzinel will continue his trips out to California. The next patient trip is being planned for the April / May timeframe. Please contact his office for details. Please note, there is a long wait list for California visits.

Newport Rib Company Gives Restaurant Relief to Parents Concerned with Gluten- & Casein-Free Foods
New Menu Provides Needed Dining Out Options for Those Suffering from Autism

Costa Mesa, Long Beach and Ladera Ranch, CA – February 21, 2007 – Newport and Naples Rib Companies announced today the addition of a Gluten- and Casein-free menu, giving concerned patrons safe dine-out options in addition to the company’s renowned barbequed favorites. Food intolerances to Gluten and Casein are linked to autism, and the new menu features an assortment of classic Rib Company dishes, newly added items and modified recipes prepared free of Gluten and Casein.

Gluten is a protein group found in wheat, grains and other flours that forms the structure of bread dough and is extremely common in many prepared foods. Casein is the principal protein of cow’s milk and is the most commonly used milk protein in the food industry. Research has identified food intolerances to these substances as contributors to autism and other disorders.

“Over the years the role that diet plays in the treatment of autism has become increasingly effective in helping children cope with the disease, and at the core of the problem are Gluten and Casein,” said Lisa Ackerman, executive director of TACA (Talk About Curing Autism, www.taca.org). “It’s a credit to the management and staff of Newport and Naples Rib Companies to give parents of autistic children the opportunity to enjoy the relaxation of dining out while still attending to the special dietary needs of the family.”

A staple in Los Angeles and Orange Counties for more than 20 years, the family-owned Newport and Naples Rib Companies have always operated with a sense of community and catered to the needs of families. The Ursini family, owners of Newport/Naples Rib Companies, has close associations with autistic children, and after learning of the connection between diet and successful treatment developed the alternative menu.

“It is a struggle for families with autistic children to go out to restaurants because Gluten and Casein are hidden in so many foods – they never really know what choices are safe,” said John Ursini, proprietor of Newport Rib Company. “The more we learned about the association with autism, we felt it was a natural decision to give Rib Company patrons the choice to dine out Gluten- and Casein-free.”

The new gluten- and casein-free menu items are available now for dining and take out from all three Rib Company locations. For more information on all Rib Company menus, catering and banquet services, please visit www.ribcompany.com.

Newport/Naples Rib Companies
Newport Rib Company @ Ladera Ranch is a full-service restaurant and bar that features indoor and outdoor family seating, a spacious bar with three high-resolutions televisions and the same friendly service that is a hallmark of every Ursini operation. Family owned and operated since 1984, Newport Rib Company, Naples Rib Company and Newport Rib Company @ Ladera Ranch feature the best in catering, take out and dine-in barbeque with baby back ribs, beef ribs, steaks, chicken, seafood and more. With two locations in Orange County and one in Los Angeles County, Newport & Naples Rib Companies are truly Southern California’s #1 place for delicious barbeque. For more information, contact managementteam@ribcompany.com; call (949) 631-2110; or visit www.ribcompany.com

NO INTEREST Loans for Special Need Families (LA & Orange Counties)

Dear Families,

The Jewish Free Loan Association continues to provide a unique and invaluable resource to the Los Angeles Community, particularly through the Children with Special Needs Loan Fund. By offering interest-free loans up to $10,000, JFLA helps alleviate the financial strain that families face when caring for a child with special needs.

JFLA is a non-profit, non-sectarian agency founded in 1904, offering interest-free and fee-free loans for a variety of needs. The Children with Special Needs Loan Fund helps residents of Los Angeles and Orange County with:

• Diagnostic Expenses;
• Therapy, including speech and language, occupational, physical and behavioral;
• Funding for behavioral supports, shadows and/ or inclusion specialists;
• Providing a bridge loan to cover expenses while families await reimbursement from Regional Center.

JFLA continues to meet its original mission of helping people to help themselves. There is currently over $6 million in loans throughout the community, with a repayment rate greater than 99 percent.

If you or someone you know is in need of an interest-free loan, please contact us for more information. You can contact me directly by phone or email at (323) 761-8830 ext. 107 or at shelly@jfla.org.

Sincerely,
Shelly Meyers
Loan Analyst / Program Manager
Jewish Free Loan Association

Parent/Child Dance Class

Several TACA parents have started taking “social” dancing with their child. We are learning the dances that require a partner, such as swing. This class is a good opportunity for practicing engagement and having fun together with your child.

Where: Costa Mesa, Harbor Blvd.
When: Saturdays, 9:00 a.m.
Cost: $100 a month per family

For more information contact parent liaison Jodi Horist at jhorist@socal.rr.com

Creative Solutions For Autism now provides Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) in-Home Service.

With this service, a trained technician conveniently delivers and installs a portable, soft chamber in your home. In addition, every treatment session is assisted by a qualified therapist, who oversees chamber operation for the duration of the treatment session, ensuring proper use and care.
What you need:
• A prescription from a physician

Prescription should include the following:
• Patient’s name
• Total number of treatments recommended
• Total number of weekly sessions recommended

For more information, please contact Dr. Denise Eckman or Asha Bhakta at info@creativesolutionsforautism.com.

Lovass Site Updated

I would like to share the news that The Lovaas Institute has just redesigned their website. It has a lot of great information, case studies, and links. Don’t miss the links to Research, Meeting Point, and Inspiration and Resources at the top right of the page. Even for those who do not use their services, it’s a great site to bookmark for information. Check it out: www.lovaas.com

From “Meeting Point” link:

Ongoing Research on the Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis Demonstrates Its Effectiveness

As more and more research is conducted, support for behavioral treatment only grows stronger. In the past two years, two replication studies from independent authors have bolstered the Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis in particular. Bibliographical information and a quote from each abstract are included below.

Sallows, Glen O. & Graupner, Tamlynn D. (2005). Intensive Behavioral Treatment for Children with Autism: Four-Year Outcome and Predictors.
American Journal on Mental Retardation, 110 (6), 417-438.

“We found that 48% of all children showed rapid learning, achieved average post treatment scores, and at age 7, were succeeding in regular education classrooms. These results are consistent with those reported by Lovaas and colleagues (Lovaas, 1987; McEachin, Smith, & Lovaas, 1993).”

Cohen, Howard, Amerine-Dickens, Mila, Smith, Tristram. (2006). Early Intensive Behavioral Treatment: Replication of the UCLA Model in a Community Setting. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics,
27 (2), 145-155.

“Children in behavioral treatment scored significantly higher in IQ and adaptive behavior scores than the comparison group. Further, 29% (6 of 21) children were fully included in regular education without assistance and another 52% (11 of 21) were included with support.
This compares to only 5% (1 of 21) children in the control group who were placed in regular education.”

Jennifer McNulty

6) Books & Web sites

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Strange Son from Portia Iverson debuted in January 2007.
www.strangeson.com

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Truly an amazing book, December 30, 2006
Reviewer: Lisa Ackerman (Newport Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews

As a parent of a child with autism I have read well over 200 books on the topic. I learn something from just about every book I pick up. And as you would expect some books are bombs where I feel they were a waste of time providing no information and perpetuating the myth of no hope. Other books are tremendous providers of needed information and take great efforts to open your eyes to a new concept or paradigm. This is one of those books.

The book by Portia Iverson featuring the amazing Soma, Tito and her son Dov was one of those books that not only opened my eyes but taught me a few things that are extremely important.

1) There is always a soul waiting to be untapped in the body of a person with autism. It is up to us to figure how to connect with them and more importantly get them to communicate with us.

2) Some words to all parents with a child affected by autism: Never give up. You have not done “everything” because there is more out there to do in every situation for every child or adult affected.

3) Autism is not autism - it is autismS. Each person is unique and how they are affected and what unlocks their abilities.

This book is a tremendous story of accomplishments that needed to be shared. I highly recommend it for any parent, researcher or someone who wants to get a glimpse of autism and its mysterious way it can affect a person. It provided great insight and information that will remain with me forever.

This book is not about recovery but a major breakthrough that could greatly change the lives of families with a non verbal and severely autistic child. It could also provide light to someone that has a high functioning child. It is that profound.

Thank you for writing it Portia and sharing this important story.

7 ) TACA Volunteer Opportunities

TACA has grown so much over the past six years and our amazing volunteers help make TACA do what it does for families. Currently over 100 volunteers allow TACA to run and serve the almost 2300 families. Volunteer hours are crucial to our operations and so needed and appreciated.

It is our goal to make volunteer positions available to those in our community (family, friends, vendors, and sometimes our parents) as times permits in our busy schedules!

Please consider these volunteer opportunities --

TACA Costa Mesa Librarian:
Coordinate with Erin Brady (TACA Costa Mesa’s current librarian) on an alternating schedule of the librarian duties. Erin can only attend half the meetings a year. She needs someone to assist with librarian duties which include; transport three suitcases full of TACA Costa Mesa Library (books, tapes, sign out log) to the Costa Mesa meetings on the 2nd Saturday of every month from 1-4 pm. Stay at the meetings to help families check out books. Log all check outs in the library index. Then remove the three cases and coordinate with Erin on the next meeting. Send emails for books/items that are overdue and need to be returned at a TACA meeting. Roughly a 20 hour YEARLY commitment. For more information or to sign up, please email Erin Brady at e-brady@sbcglobal.net

TACA San Diego Volunteer Opportunity
Coordinate with Becky Estepp on selling TACA products before and after meetings. Must show up 15 minutes before the meeting starts to set up the TACA products. Must stay 15- 30 minutes after the meeting is over to sell the products. For more information or to volunteer, contact Becky Estepp.

Thank you for considering a volunteer position at TACA.

8) CONFERENCES & NON-TACA Events

"Special Needs Trusts SSI, Medi-Cal, and Conservatorships: preparing for your child’s adulthood"

Date and Time: March 3, 10 AM-11:30 AM
Location: 4035 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. Suite 235, Westlake Village, CA 91326
To RSVP: Please call 805-778-0600 or e-mail Anna@wachbrit.com

Description: Understand benefits your child can access at the age of 18: SSI, Medi-Cal, Medicare, IHSS, Social Security Disability and more! Explore the use of special needs trusts and other supporting documents such as powers of attorney, revocable living trusts and healthcare directives to ensure that your assets are used to increase your child’s quality of life and not destroy your child’s eligibility for essential benefits. Determine whether limited or general conservatorship is appropriate for your child and how to get started. Does your child have assets in his or her own name? Come learn how these can cost your child benefits and what to do about it.

Speaker: Ms. Wachbrit is one of the nation’s leading Estate and Special Needs Planning Attorneys and is the founder of the Academy of Special Needs Planners - a national organization of attorneys dedicated to improving the quality of Special Needs Planning. Recently quoted in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times on Special Needs and Estate Planning, Ms. Wachbrit’s teaching and speaking credits include: California State University, Northridge Center on Disabilities, 21st Annual Conference, Autism Society of America, Ventura County Chapter TACA – San Fernando Valley Chapter, LARK First Annual Transitions Summit.

"Reading and ASD: Finding the Right Fit"

Presented by Foothill Autism
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
(A look at various techniques to help children on the spectrum learn to read.)
Speakers: Panel of Experts in the Field
Schedule: Networking from 7:00 - 7:30 PM, Featured speakers 7:30 to 9:30 PM
Visit www.foothillautism.org or call (818) 66-AUTISM for more information

“Understanding Autism: Social Skills Assessment and Intervention”

Hosted by the Center for Autism Research, Evaluation and Service (CARES)

Friday, March 16 & Saturday, March 17 - 7:30 am - 4:15 pm

Distinguished speakers include: Drs. Scott Bellini (Indiana University, Bloomington), David Krug (Portland State University) and Alan Lincoln (Alliant International University, San Diego)

Location: Convention Center at the California Center for the Arts, 340 N. Escondido Blvd., Escondido, CA 92025

Register by calling CARES (858) 623-2777 ext. 397 today! Early bird registration through February 28 costs $300 for both days. Professionals will earn 12 CEU’s for attending.

Feel free to contact me with any questions., Linda Quirmbach, Ph.D.
(858) 663-3811, Registered Psychologist at CARES, Supervised by Alan Lincoln, Ph.D.

“EXCELLENCE IN AUTISM” SERIES

Save the Date! Saturday, April 7, 11:30 am

Beacon Day School for Children with Autism
In conjunction with Autism One
Proudly Presents
PORTIA IVERSEN - author of Strange Son and Cure Autism Now Co-Founder

Portia Iversen, author of Strange Son, and co-founder of CAN (Cure Autism Now) will launch the Excellence in Autism Series Saturday, April 7 at 11:30 am, on the Beacon Day School campus (588 North Glassell, Orange, CA).

“Love introduced two mothers, one who lived in India and the other in the United States. Their passion to seek health for their children, both afflicted by autism, brought the two women across continents and over oceans. Each stimulated the other with her fervor to find medical breakthroughs.” —Maya Angelou

Date: Saturday, April 7, 11:30 am
Admission: No charge – FREE and open to the public
Place: Beacon Day School, 588 North Glassell, Orange, CA
More information: Call 714.288.4200
Please visit: www.BeaconDaySchool.net to learn more about our Series

9) Personal Note

We already are in the 3rd month of 2007 – remember when you were a kid and the new millennium seemed a million years away? Shouldn’t we be driving Jetson type cars or transporting from place to place like they did in Star Trek? I also thought scientific discoveries and saving lives would be amazing in the new millennium. Certainly we should know what causes many diseases and disorders with cures and amazing medical discoveries - even autism! By now we should have found ways to have it NOT affect more families and their children and certainly a cure would be here. Certainly?

Well we are not there yet. The CDC is still using 2002 data and surveys to just COUNT the number of individuals affected with autism. So now we can say that 1 in 150 children in the U.S. have full blown autism. The CDC says so. Seems staggering doesn’t it? Why doesn’t the world see that?

When folks not in our autism journey (I call them the “unaffected”) ask me, “Is there really 1 in 150 children affected with autism in the U.S?” I ask then to randomly pick five schools near their home, find the administrator that has been there forever (you know that principal, office manager or teacher that started when the school was built) and ask them. Ask them have they seen an increase in autism? How many children in this school have autism?

If you take the two local schools and the school my son goes to the numbers are a lot higher than 1 in 100. In fact I don’t want to do or think about the math. It is scary.

Autism is affecting hundreds of thousands of children in our country and millions across the world. Families are sitting at their kitchen tables or laying awake at night trying to figure out answers to help their beloved child or children affected. All they want is their hopes and dreams for their children to stay alive and avoid total despair.

Many have called autism the silent epidemic. And I agree. This epidemic seems to be silent because a lot of our kids cannot talk. Sometimes families cannot leave their houses so no one seems them. Sometimes families are so beat down working to obtain services, health care, and coordinating with an army of providers that calling their local political representative is not high on the list to do. Taking care of their kids and families is a Herculean effort every day – something most “unaffecteds” don’t truly understand. Basic survival is the daily goal.

Many months while sitting down to do the TACA eNews (which takes at least a week), it is hard to figure out what to write in these personal note sections of the TACA newsletters. It seems overkill to just talk about “me” or my family. I felt this month was appropriate to talk about the future and being a part of change. Be prepared that as April autism awareness month rolls around everyone will get dozens of ideas from TACA on how to spread the word. We can no longer be the silent epidemic. It is time to get loud.

Your friends on the journey,
Lisa A, Jeff & Lauren’s mom, Glen’s wife
and ENews Editor Kim Palmer (thanks Kim!)

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT TACA: www.tacanow.org.