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"Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet" ________________________________________________________________

RESEARCH

* Latest Wakefield Paper – Abstract

* Scientists Explore Dangers Of Pollution

CARE / EDUCATION

* Autistic Student Faces Charges

* Delight as Court Rules For New Zealand's Special-Needs Pupils

* Hamilton Interviewed on International Radio

Latest Wakefield Paper - Abstract

"The concept of entero-colonic encephalopathy, autism and opioid receptor ligands."

ds=11929383&dopt=Abstract <-- address ends here.

Wakefield AJ, Puleston JM, Montgomery SM, Anthony A, O'Leary JJ, Murch SH. Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study Group, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK, Centre for Gastroenterology, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK, Centre for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK, Department of Pathology, Coombe Women's Hospital and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

There is growing awareness that primary gastrointestinal pathology may play an important role in the inception and clinical expression of some childhood developmental disorders, including autism. In addition to frequent gastrointestinal symptoms, children with autism often manifest complex biochemical and immunological abnormalities. The gut-brain axis is central to certain encephalopathies of extra-cranial origin, hepatic encephalopathy being the best characterized.

Commonalities in the clinical characteristics of hepatic encephalopathy and a form of autism associated with developmental regression in an apparently previously normal child, accompanied by immune-mediated gastrointestinal pathology, have led to the proposal that there may be analogous mechanisms of toxic encephalopathy in patients with liver failure and some children with autism.

Aberrations in opioid biochemistry are common to these two conditions, and there is evidence that opioid peptides may mediate certain aspects of the respective syndromes. The generation of plausible and testable hypotheses in this area may help to identify new treatment options in encephalopathies of extra-cranial origin.

Therapeutic targets for this autistic phenotype may include: modification of diet and entero-colonic microbial milieu in order to reduce toxin substrates, improve nutritional status and modify mucosal immunity; anti-inflammatory/immunomodulatory therapy; and specific treatment of dysmotility, focusing, for example, on the pharmacology of local opioid activity in the gut.

PMID: 11929383 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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Scientists Explore Dangers Of Pollution

Heavy traffic creeps through the Streets at Southpoint parking lot. Scientists suspect that automobile exhaust may be one of many sources for pollutants leading to negative health effects.

The value of clean air and water is rising, as environmental researchers continue to discover a wide range of adverse health effects associated with pollution.

Certain demographic groups are especially at risk, said Dan Costa, chief of the pulmonary toxicology branch at the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in Research Triangle Park.

"Studies of populations in high-density areas suggest that health impacts from pollution are especially relevant to people with existing conditions," particularly older people with cardio-pulmonary diseases and children with respiratory conditions like asthma, Costa said. "Kids spend time outdoors, running outdoors; air pollution is going to affect them much more than indoor people."

Marie Miranda, an associate professor of the practice at the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, explained that both the behavior and physiology of children put them at risk.

"Behavior makes [children] more likely to be exposed to certain pollutants," she said. "They breathe in more air per body weight and drink more water per body weight, so they'll be exposed to more stuff.... And they have immature systems that may be affected more by pollutants." Miranda's group studies the health effects of lead, pesticides and other air and water toxins.

Jonathan Freedman, an associate professor at the Nicholas School, said the negative health effects of pollutants can often be unexpected.

"People assume diseases like diabetes are from mutations in the cell," he said.

"What people don't think about is that you may be pre-disposed to a certain disease, but unless you are exposed to certain toxins, you will never see effects of the disease."

Freedman investigates the adverse health effects of transition metals, such as cadmium, chromium and mercury, which can filter into the environment from sources as varied as cigarette smoke, automobile exhaust and the burning of fossil fuels.

After entering the lung, these metals and other particulate matter in the air can be absorbed into the bloodstream.

"[Transition metals] can cause everything from asthma to cancer to death," said Freedman, who is currently studying a potential link between autism and metal imbalances in children. "But they are one of the things people haven't looked at yet... and aren't high on the [Environmental Protection Agency] hit list."

Although the United States has successfully tightened environmental regulation in recent years, high growth areas like RTP pose special threats to the surrounding environment and the health of their residents, several researchers said.

"Nationally, air is getting cleaner, but there is potentially some health impact locally from growth that outpaces our attempts to keep the air clean," Costa said.

Freedman pointed to a 1996 report in Environmental Health Perspectives that compared the blood levels of various toxic elements in 1980s Mexico City residents to those who had died before the city's decades-long industrial boom. The study found a 10- to 50-fold increase in the levels of transitions metals, suggesting an identical danger for a high-growth area like RTP.

Costa, who helped develop EPA policy on the World Trade Center cleanup, stressed that environmental degradation can only be combated through the cooperation of government and the individual. The responsibility of the state lies in encouraging car-pooling and developing convenient mass transit systems, he argued, as well as working with environmental agencies on regulation. Miranda added that there also exists a need for family education to change behavior that may add to pollution around the home.

'People's living styles contribute to pollution whenever energy is wasted,' Costa said.

'Any kind of energy consumption eventually goes back to a source for that energy.'

Costa pointed to an EPA study suggesting that a large portion of RTP pollutants are nitrogen dioxide emissions from sport utility vehicles, which do not meet the same environmental criteria as other automobiles. 'Particles in the air associated with these vehicles have been major factors in the pollution in the [RTP] area,' he said.

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Autistic Student Faces Charges

An autistic student faces expulsion for allegedly attacking two Newton teachers. His father says teachers handled the situation improperly.

Evan Koons, an eighth-grader, faces juvenile assault charges. The 13-year-old punched special-education teacher Lisa Sharp in the ribs, threw a chair at her and tried to choke her Tuesday at Berg Middle School, Jasper County officials said.

Sharp was trying to comfort the distraught boy, Superintendent Philip Hintz said.

Police said another teacher was assaulted, but Hintz could not identify the second person. Several teachers were in the area, he said.

The boy faces one count each of aggravated assault and simple assault, which could mean probation or sentencing to a juvenile detention center.

The school board also will decide whether Evan should return to the classroom.

Evan has autism and attention deficit disorder, which require special discipline that teachers must be trained to follow under federal law, the boy's father said. Evan, 13, was upset Tuesday because he was late to school, Charles Koons said.

A teacher struggled to teach him science and told him to leave the classroom, but he refused, Charles Koons said.

The two argued, and Evan went inside an empty classroom. Sharp came into the room, and Evan attacked her, his father said.

"If he was that agitated, she should have left him alone to cool down or talked to him through the door," Charles Koons said.

Charles Koons also said the teachers ignored a school agreement that says teachers will call him if they feel overwhelmed by Evan.

Evan has been suspended twice this year - once in September for throwing a trash can, and again in November for poking another student with a pencil, his father said.

School officials switched Evan to special education classes in November.

County Attorney Steve Johnson, who filed the charges, didn't know Evan was a special-education student, but "it's not something we'd base our decisions on," he said.

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Delight as Court Rules For New Zealand's Special-Needs Pupils Here's what the power of one can accomplish

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A landmark High Court ruling on special-needs education has thrilled an Orewa mother of three learning-disabled sons who was one of the plaintiffs.

Claire Boulton and 13 other plaintiffs took the Government to court to get their children better access to special education.

The decision means parents of the country's 66,000 special-needs students may be eligible for wide-ranging compensation payments.

Mrs Boulton's sons Lawrence, 8, and Christopher, 6, suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder and take Ritalin. Nicholas, 9, has Asperger's Syndrome, a low-level autistic condition.

Mrs Boulton said the family had spent thousands of dollars getting private help for their sons after the funding of special-needs education through mainstream schools was revamped to exclude them in 1997.

On Wednesday, three years after parents first petitioned authorities for more help through the state education system, Justice David Baragwanath issued an interim decision placing the responsibility for providing special-needs education firmly back with the Government.

Not only may the Crown be liable for the costs of the long-running court case, estimated to be more than $50,000, but it may have to accept claims from parents who have sought help from private therapists and psychologists for their learning-disabled children.

The landmark ruling, against which the Government may appeal, has thrilled parents, teachers and other lobby groups who said special-needs children were falling through the cracks in an education system pledged to help them.

Problems started when the Special Education 2000 (SE2000) policy came into force in 1997, changing the way the Specialist Education Services unit operated.

Before then the service was totally financed by the Government and operated as an additional resource for state school students with learning difficulties.

At the time, about 18,000 students were receiving some form of special education at a cost of $188 million each year.

In 1997, under then Minister of Education Wyatt Creech, the unit's services became contestable and it began to charge schools and parents for its time.

Funding on a student-by-student basis was replaced with bulk funding, where a special education grant was allocated to boards of trustees based on school size and socio-economic rating.

Mrs Boulton said her eldest son had been receiving one hour each day with a teacher's aide at his primary school.

He was suddenly removed from specialist help when SE2000 was implemented.

She discovered children with a variety of learning impairments "up and down the country" were facing the same problem.

Parents and the Quality Public Education Coalition lobby group decided to apply for judicial review almost three years ago.

Mrs Boulton said the plaintiffs were not seeking more money from the Government but a more targeted allocation of the funds already there for special-needs children.

"At the moment no one is responsible for where the money provided by bulk funding is going once it is given to a school," she said.

"We're pretty sure it's not all going on special needs." Associate Education Minister Lianne Dalziel said the High Court decision "could compromise the education needs of all children by diverting precious resources away from them into a Wellington-based bureaucracy focusing on assessment".

The minister said no one wanted to a return to the "previous haphazard and inconsistent system".

But John Minto, senior vice-chairman of the Quality Public Education Coalition, called the minister's reference to heavy bureaucracy "scaremongering".

"The decision is not the end of the world in education as the minister is suggesting but rather a wonderful opportunity to finally get it right for children with special education needs." Claire Boulton agrees, although she says it is too late for many children who have missed years of much-needed special tuition.

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Hamilton Interviewed on International Radio

Lynn M. Hamilton, parent (the "M" stands for Mommy) and author of "Facing Autism: Giving Parents Reasons for Hope and Guidance for Help," will be interviewed by Dr. James Dobson on the international radio broadcast "Focus on the Family." Three distinct half-hour programs will be broadcast

on April 23-25th worldwide. To find a radio station in your area, along

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APRIL 21, 2002 - 12 Noon to 5pm

THIRD NATIONAL AUTISM AWARENESS RALLY:

"The Power of ONE! I.D.E.A."

FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

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FEAT'S "Night of Caring" April 27

Sacramento FEAT is holding its' 9th Annual "Night of Caring" Dinner and Auction fundraiser on April 27, 2002. If you have been helped by the FEAT and the Daily Newsletter and would like to show your appreciation you can by supporting our fundraiser. Make an auction contribution or sponsorship donation. Please call 916-843-1536 for more information. Thank you.

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