SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism:
No Finer a Cause on the Planet"
________________________________________________________________
August 7, 2002 CALENDAR LISTING:
EVENTS@doitnow.com
RESEARCH
* Smaller Suburban Babies
* Dental Fillings Unlikely to Cause Mercury Poisoning
* Funding Affects Researchers' "Spin" On Results
* Gene May Protect Abused Kids Against Behavior Problems
* Video Modeling May Improve Perception of Emotion
* Regulatable Gene Therapy
* Sound Unlocks the Brain
COMMENTARY
* Commentary on ABCNews Autism Report by Nicholas Regush:
'AUTISM FIASCO'
AWARENESS
* Dinner Auction Nets FEAT $95K, Enjoys Record Attendance
* Writing Helps Woman Handle Hardship
RESEARCH
Smaller Suburban Babies
Study Shows an Increase in
Low Birth Weights
[By Nurith C. Aizenman in the Washington Post.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52523-2002Aug6.html
Low birth-weight babies have become increasingly prevalent in
the
nation's suburbs as more
women have children at older ages and use
procedures such as in vitro
fertilization that are more likely to produce
multiple births, according
to a study released yesterday.
The study by researchers at the State University of New York
Downstate
Medical Center found that
the suburban low birth-weight rate in the nation's
largest 100 metropolitan
areas rose more than 14 percent in the 1990s, from
6.1 percent of births to 7
percent, or 87,860 babies.
Although still lower than the 8.9 percent rate in cities,
where low
birth weight traditionally
has been associated with conditions of poverty,
the suburban rate rose
nearly three times as fast.
"This really took us by surprise," said the study's
lead author,
Dennis Andrulis, a professor
at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn,
N.Y.
The study, which was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation,
compared the success of
cities and their suburbs in meeting seven federal
health goals, including
lowering the rates of infant mortality, homicide and
syphilis.
While many cities and suburbs fell short of those objectives,
low
birth weight was the only
one for which city and suburban rates on average
were higher at the end of
the 1990s than at the beginning. And no cities,
and only two suburbs, met
the government's goal of a 5 percent low
birth-weight rate.
Low birth-weight infants are defined as those born weighing 5
pounds 5
ounces or less. The median
weight for newborns in the United States is 7
pounds 7 ounces.
The growing numbers of underweight babies in the suburbs is
of
concern, Andrulis said,
because they are at higher risk of developing a host
of disabilities, including
cerebral palsy, autism, mental retardation and
vision and hearing
disorders. "This is a not-so-early warning sign about the
health of our next
generation," he said.
Washington's suburbs reflect the trend -- with the low
birth-weight
rate increasing from 6.4
percent to 7.5 percent, or 4,753 births, over the
last decade. By contrast,
the District's low birth-weight rate decreased
from 15.1 percent to 13.1
percent, or 987 births.
The slower rate of increase of low birth weights in many
cities may
reflect efforts by local and
federal public health officials to improve
indigent women's access to
prenatal care and to educate women about the
risks of smoking while
pregnant -- which significantly increases their
chance of giving birth to an
underweight child, said study co-author Lisa
Duchon.
There are signs of
progress: According to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, the
percentage of women who smoked during pregnancy
has declined by nearly 40
percent since 1989. Similarly, the infant
mortality rate, which is
affected by access to prenatal care, declined
significantly in both cities
and suburbs over the last decade.
But even as officials have celebrated these gains, a variety
of
developments are fueling an
increase of underweight babies in the suburbs.
Among the most dramatic has been the advancing age at which
women are
having children. The
percentage of women between 35 and 39 who gave birth
increased by nearly 40
percent over the last decade to 4.04 percent in 2000.
The chance of having a low birth-weight baby increases
substantially
as a woman ages for a number
of reasons, experts say. For instance, "older
women tend to have more
multiple births, and multiple births are much more
likely to be born
prematurely because there is only so much room in the
uterus," said Mark
Klebanoff, a director at the National Institute of Child
Health and Human
Development.
An increasing number of women who would otherwise have
difficulty
conceiving are also taking
advantage of advances in reproductive
technologies, which studies
have shown roughly double the chance of
delivering a low
birth-weight baby.
About 29,000 children were born through such procedures in
1998 -- the
most recent year for which
statistics were available.
Authors of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center study cautioned
that
there may be additional,
underexplored factors behind the rise in
underweight babies in the
suburbs -- including changes in the
characteristics of suburban
populations.
If the number of underweight suburban babies continues to
grow,
schools, workplaces and
social service agencies across the nation could be
affected.
There are already indications that suburban hospitals in the
Washington area are adapting
to the increase.
For years, Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville would
refer
women likely to give birth
to underweight babies to District hospitals with
neonatal intensive care
units. But by 1996, Shady Grove was coming across
enough cases to warrant
opening an NICU of its own.
Since then, Anne Arundel Medical Center, Prince George's
Hospital
Center and Howard County
General Hospital have followed suit.
Shady Grove, meanwhile, has seen the number of patients in
its NICU
rise from 400 a year to more
than 700. The facility now resembles a bustling
village for tiny people,
with its inhabitants housed in row upon row of
glass incubators decorated
with photographs and blankets.
Beside one such dwelling, Susan Ostrinsky sat in a rocking
chair on a
recent evening, cradling her
3-pound son, Benjamin, as she fed him through a
tube barely wider than a
thumbnail.
The mixed emotions she felt as she looked down at him
reflected both
the promise and the
predicament that underweight suburban babies represent.
On the one hand, she had much to be thankful for. Three years
ago,
after years of searching,
she finally met a man she wanted to marry. Now, at
38, she had given birth to
their first child.
But Ostrinsky also had some bad news to worry about. Born 6
1/2 weeks
premature, Benjamin now
appeared to have blood leaking into his brain. She
was trying not to dwell on
the implications.
"My emotions have been running the gamut," she
said. "It's been a real
roller-coaster ride."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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* * *
Dental Fillings Unlikely to
Cause Mercury Poisoning
[By Stephen Pincock, Reuters Health, London.]
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/reuters20020806_220.html
A range of ailments that some people attribute to the mercury
in
"silver" dental
fillings are more likely to be caused by other factors,
German researchers report.
Dr. Birgit Gottwald, from the University of Giessen, said that
some
patient groups in Germany
attribute hundreds of different physical
complaints to dental
amalgam, including fatigue, dizziness, lack of
concentration, headache,
burning sensations in the mouth and back pain.
"When you talk to groups of patients in Germany they
link all sorts of
disease to amalgam. I heard
of a group of patients who listed 1,000
disorders that can be linked
to amalgam," Gottwald told Reuters Health.
She and colleagues studied 40 patients with amalgam fillings
and
health problems they
attributed to amalgam, and 40 similar "controls" with
the same number of fillings
but no complaints. Their findings are published
in the August issue of
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
Participants were given a dental examination to measure the
quantity,
surface area and quality of
their amalgam fillings, then the researchers
measured the amount of
mercury in their blood and urine and assessed their
allergy to amalgam.
They also gave the study participants a series of
questionnaires to
assess coping strategies,
interpersonal problems, self-consciousness,
depression and other
problems.
Patients and controls had similar levels of mercury in their
blood and
urine, Gottwald said. Only
one patient tested positive for allergy to
amalgam, while 28% were
found to be allergic to other things, such as house
dust, pollen or animal hair.
"These patients, some of them knew they had allergies
not due to
amalgam, but they [heard]
reports in the media that something like an
amalgam allergy might exist.
We found that there were more likely
explanations for their
allergy than amalgam."
More of the patients than controls had "psychic
disorders," or
"unfavorable styles of
coping with stress," according to the report. The
researchers suggest that
some of the physical symptoms may be physical
manifestations or
"somatizations" of those illnesses.
"These patients are ill, but we don't think that they
suffer from
amalgam poisoning, we think
they suffer from psychic disorders and
allergies," Gottwald
said.
Mercury is poisonous in high enough concentrations, and the
symptoms
of mercury poisoning can be
the same as those reported by the patients in
the study, including an
inability to concentrate, dizziness, mental symptoms
and depression, she said.
"But you must have a certain concentration [of mercury],
and this
concentration cannot be
reached by inorganic mercury from amalgam."
Mercury has been used in dentistry for about 150 years but
some
believe the fillings can
give off harmful vapors that can be dangerous for
dentists and patients. But
dental associations say it is safe when mixed
with other metals and there
is no scientific evidence for a link between the
material and health
problems.
SOURCE: Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 2002;71:223-232.
* * *
Gene May Protect Abused Kids
Against Behavior Problems
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/08/020805075625.htm
New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
identifies a
genetic variation that might
protect abused children from developing
antisocial behavior.
Childhood abuse is a universal risk factor for antisocial
behavior,
says Terrie Moffitt, a
UW-Madison psychologist who contributed to the study.
Children who have suffered
physical or sexual abuse are twice as likely to
develop conduct disorders as
adults, yet, as Moffitt explains, which of them
will have behavior problems
later on greatly varies.
The new findings, scheduled for publication in the Aug. 2
issue of the
journal Science, suggest
that a genetic variation associated with low levels
of a certain brain enzyme
may make some abused children nine times more
likely to exhibit antisocial
behavior.
As many psychologists search for environmental factors
linking
childhood maltreatment and
adult antisocial behavior, the group from
Wisconsin has looked to a
gene that regulates levels of monoamine oxidase A
(MAO A) - an enzyme that
cleans up excess neurotransmitters, chemicals in
the brain that transmit
nerve signals. Previous studies of MAO A activity in
both mice and humans have
shown that low levels of this enzyme increase
aggressive behavior.
"There are known genes that protect against malaria and
other
parasites," says
Moffitt. "We wanted to know if a particular MAO A genotype
could protect maltreated
children against antisocial behavior."
The research group, led by UW-Madison psychology professor
Avshalom
Caspi, studied 442 males
living in New Zealand for 26 years beginning at
their birth. The subjects
were part of the longitudinal Dunedin
Multidisciplinary Health and
Development Study started in 1972.
The group looked for variations in the MAO A genotype in all
participants and also
periodically assessed the subjects' history of abuse
and criminal convictions,
their penchant for violence and any symptoms of
antisocial personality
disorder.
Symptoms of this antisocial behavior include persistent
fighting,
bullying, lying, stealing
and disobeying the rules during adolescence; as
adults, the subjects may repeatedly
violate the law, show no remorse for
their actions and act
impulsively and aggressively.
By age 11, 36 percent of the subjects had been maltreated (8
percent
severely), as defined by
frequent changes in primary caregiver, rejection by
the mother and physical or
sexual abuse. Although only 12 percent of the
maltreated children had low
activity levels of the MAO A, they accounted for
44 percent of their
generation's total convictions for assault and other
violent crimes.
"As adults, 85 percent of the severely maltreated
children who also
had the gene for low MAO A
activity developed antisocial outcomes, such as
violent criminal
behavior," says Moffitt. "The combination of maltreatment
and the genetic variation
magnified the odds by nine times."
On the other hand, the group found that children who had been
maltreated but who had
higher levels of MAO A were unlikely to develop
behavior problems,
suggesting that the gene regulating the enzyme does serve
a protective function.
"The genotype of high MAO A activity," explains
Moffitt, "may promote
'trauma resistance.'"
Based on these initial findings, Moffitt says, "The
combination of the
low-activity MAO A genotype
and maltreatment predicts antisocial behaviors
about as well as high
cholesterol predicts heart disease."
Low levels of the MAO A enzyme may help explain why some
abused
children are more likely to
develop aggressive or criminal behavior, but
Moffitt stresses that it
does not explain why people are violent: "Low
levels of the enzyme did not
predict antisocial outcomes in the whole
population. It's relation to
aggression only emerged when we considered
whether the children had
been maltreated."
However, the UW-Madison researchers suspect that the MAO A
genetic
variation may play a similar
role in protecting people who have experienced
other stressful events, such
as car accidents or wars.
Besides showing the interaction of the MAO A enzyme and
maltreatment
on behavior, the group
thinks its findings are important for another reason:
methodology. Discovering the
link between a gene and a disorder is hard,
says Moffitt. "This
problem has plagued research into genes for
schizophrenia, autism,
depression and hyperactivity."
The key to finding the link, she says, is to focus on
subjects who
share an experience.
"If researchers had not noticed that some people
exposed to pathogens from
mosquitoes escaped malaria, science would never
have known about the gene
for susceptibility to the disease," Moffitt
explains.
By turning to maltreatment -- an environmental pathogen known
to bring
about antisocial behavior --
the UW-Madison researchers were able to
identify a genetic variable
necessary to solve the equation of why only some
maltreated children develop
antisocial behavior.
* * *
Regulatable Gene Therapy
[By Martina Habeck, Drug Discovery Today.]
http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=020729&story=2
The gene therapist's dream of switching genes on and off at
will may
be a step closer: An
American biotech firm has shown that one of its
programmable transcription
factors can be activated by an oral drug. Their
system can be used to
activate and deactivate endogenous genes.
The company behind the new system, Sangamo BioSciences of
Richmond,
California, specializes in
engineering zinc finger-based transcription
factors. Zinc fingers are
small DNA-binding peptide motifs that contain one
or more molecules of zinc as
a structural component; they can be designed to
bind to virtually any DNA
sequence. Fused to an effector domain, for example
the activator protein p65 or
the repressor protein KRAB (Kruppel-associated
box), they make up
artificial transcription factors that can be used to up-
or down-regulate a given
target gene.
"It is a very general approach for gene regulation that
mimics the way
most organisms regulate the
expression of endogenous genes," says Sangamo's
CEO, Edward Lanphier.
Based on this approach, the firm has several gene activation
and
repression programs underway
in therapeutic areas such as cardiovascular
disease, cancer, and
infectious diseases. The most advanced therapeutic of
these involves upregulating
the endogenous gene for vascular endothelial
growth factor (VEGF), which
plays a key role in regulating vasculogenesis
and angiogenesis and is thus
an attractive target for the treatment of
ischemic heart and limb
diseases. Lanphier says pre-clinical studies have
shown that activating the
endogenous VEGF gene generates all the normal
isoforms of the VEGF protein
in their normal ratios. This leads to the
formation of histologically
normal vasculature.
In contrast, conventional gene therapy approaches that work
with only
one isoform of VEGF lead to
extremely leaky and histologically abnormal
vasculature. Sangamo plans
to file an investigational new drug (IND)
application in the second
half of 2003.
The ultimate goal, Lanphier says, is to be able to control
the
expression of engineered
transcription factors, and thus of endogenous
genes, pharmacologically.
Several genetic switches are already available to
control the transcription of
inserted transgenes. One of the lead
technologies is the
GeneSwitch system developed by Bert O'Malley and
commercialized by Valentis.
This plasmid-based system has the following
components: a mutant form of
the human progesterone receptor's
ligand-binding domain, which
allows the transcription factor to be activated
allosterically by very low
concentrations of the anti-progestin drug
mifepristone; the
transcriptional activation domain from the p65 subunit of
human NF-kB; and the
DNA-binding domain from the yeast GAL4 protein, which
allows the transcription
factor to bind to a transgene with a promoter
containing sequences
specific to the GAL4 DNA-binding site.
+ Article continues at: http://news.bmn.com/news/story?day=020729&story=2
* * *
Sound Unlocks the Brain
[By Sylvia Pagan in the New Scientist.]
Ultrasound beams could make it possible to treat brain
diseases with
gene therapy without making
a single incision.
Until now, the only attempts
at targeted drug delivery and gene therapy in
the brain have involved
opening the skull and injecting substances into
particular areas, which is
risky. This is necessary because the cells lining
blood vessels in the brain
are tightly bound together to keep out infectious
agents. This blood-brain
barrier also keeps out large-molecule drugs, and
the lipid particles or
viruses used to carry DNA in gene therapy.
But Ferenc Jolesz and his team at Brigham and Women's
Hospital in
Boston have found a way to
temporarily open the barrier. First, tiny protein
bubbles, which are already
used by doctors to improve ultrasound images of
blood vessels, are injected
into the bloodstream. Then an ultrasound beam is
focused on a specific
region, which bursts the bubbles in the blood vessels
in that area. Earlier this
year, Jolesz's team reported that the resulting
shock waves make the
blood-brain barrier permeable, so large particles can
get into the brain both
between cells and through cell membranes.
Now his team has shown this method could be used to deliver
genes to
the brain. They injected
three rabbits with the bubble mixture and focused
an ultrasound beam on
several different spots in their brains. Then they
injected the rabbits with a
modified herpes virus- a common tool in gene
therapy.
The virus reached the brain areas on which the beam had been
focused,
the team will tell a meeting
later this month. The method sidesteps the two
obstacles that make the
brain hard to treat: the skull and the blood-brain
barrier.
The researchers plan to make delivery even more specific by
putting
the viruses inside the
bubbles themselves. They think this method will also
work with large-molecule
drugs. But Jolesz cautions that it will take many
experiments to show that the
technique is safe and effective enough for gene
therapy.
"Applications could include the treatment of cancer and
different
neurodegenerative
diseases," says gene therapy expert Richard Mulligan of
Harvard Medical School. But
he adds that it's not enough to get viruses to
the right place in the body.
They must also be able to deliver genes to the
target cells, and the genes
must be properly expressed.
Various other groups are looking at the ultrasound technique
as a way
to improve gene delivery
elsewhere in the body. "I think it has a great deal
of promise," says
Christopher Newman of the University of Sheffield.
Ultrasound is attractive
because it has a very strong safety record, he
says.
* * *
Funding Affects Researchers'
"Spin" On Results
[I'm shocked. Shocked! Who knew? –LS.]
www.reutershealth.com/archive/2002/08/02/eline/links/20020802elin023.html
Reuters Health - Authors of journal articles about clinical
trials are
more likely to draw positive
conclusions from their findings if they
received funding from a drug
company or other for-profit organization,
Danish investigators report
in the August 3rd issue of the British Medical
Journal.
Drs. Lise L. Kjaergard and Bodil Als-Nielsen, from Copenhagen
University Hospital, studied
all 159 articles on randomized clinical trials
published between 1997 and
2001 in the British Medical Journal, a
publication that requires
authors to declare funding and competing
interests.
They examined each report for a link between funding source
and the
authors' conclusions,
specifically the "extent to which overall results
favoured the experimental
intervention."
Their analysis showed that conclusions of studies were far
more likely
to show a positive result
from the experimental intervention if the study
was funded by a for-profit
organization.
"The association was quite strong," Kjaergard told
Reuters Health.
"The interesting thing
was that it was only when they were funded by a
profit organization alone.
If someone else--a nonprofit organization--was
involved, somehow, then, the
association was not there."
Other sorts of competing interests, such as political,
personal or
academic interests, did not
significantly affect the conclusions.
The study did not determine what was responsible for the
link.
"Maybe they [companies] are just a lot better at finding
effective
treatments. That is one
possibility," Kjaergard said. "The other possibility
is, of course, bias."
She said a tendency for companies not to publish negative
data was
also "very likely"
to be part of the reason for the association. "But I know
that this has changed, and
drug companies in the UK are beginning to publish
their results regardless of
the outcome," she said.
The results emphasize the need for authors to state their
competing
interests very clearly, she
said. "Also, if they have no competing
interests, this should also
be clear from the report."
The analysis should also serve as a reminder for readers to
take
conclusions with a grain of
salt, she said. "They should do that with all
trials. They should always
look for bias and it is always a good idea to be
critical, irrespective of
the funding."
SOURCE: British Medical Journal 2002;325:249-252.
* * *
Video Modeling May Improve
Perception of Emotion
[By Blythe Corbett, Ph.D., UC Davis MIND Institute. This article is
from the current FEAT
quarterly newsletter.]
http://www.feat.org
Much of human learning occurs vicariously by simply watching
others in
a process referred to as
observational learning. Research has consistently
shown that children with
autism do not naturally learn through observation
and thus must be taught to
imitate and learn this basic skill. Video
provides a unique form of
observational learning. Video modeling is an
innovative intervention that
is well documented in the research literature
and has numerous
applications in the behavioral. However, it appears to be
an underutilized medium
despite early reports by behavioral scientists
demonstrating the efficacy
and promise of video in treatment.
Video modeling appears to be a particularly promising
treatment
approach for children with
autism who, according to parental report and
clinical observation,
frequently engage in repetitive TV/Video watching.
Many children who do not
readily imitate models and behavior in their own
environment will reproduce
verbalizations and actions from television and
videotapes. In fact, some
children with autism appear to learn better via
video technology than
face-to-face modeling and instruction.
Furthermore, the use of videotape permits the direct skills
training
of discrete behaviors that
are important in social communication (e.g.,
facial expression, speech
intonation), which are likely misperceived by the
child with autism in typical
social situations.
Currently Dr. Blythe Corbett, pediatric neuropsychologist and
behaviorist at the UC Davis
M.I.N.D. Institute, is conducting a pilot study
evaluating the efficacy of
video modeling to improve the perception of
emotion in children with
autism 4-to-I 2 years of age. The primary aim of
the video modeling pilot
study is to test the hypothesis that children with
autism spectrum disorder,
who demonstrate impairment in the processing of
emotional and social
information, can learn to Identify, interpret and use
emotional information in a
more socially appropriate, flexible, and adaptive
way. The treatment includes
the participant being exposed to videotaped
scenes of typically developing
peers engaged in a variety of age-appropriate
social and play scenes in
which they express basic emotions, which include
happ, sad, angry and afraid.
As part of the program, the participant will
engage in role-play and
behavioral practice.
The effectiveness of the intervention will be evaluated
through the
use of neuropsychological
and behavioral measures. In addition, functional
magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRl) will be used pre- and post-treatment in
collaboration with Dr. Susan
Rivera, also of the M.l.N.D. Institute. A
central hypothesis of the
fMRl component is that behavioral intervention
targeted at the basic
processes of emotion perception will result in the
reorganization of relevant
brain regions known to be involved in the
processing of emotion and
facial information. As part of the neuroimaging
study, participants will be
exposed to a simulator or “mock scanner” to
practice staying in the
scanner. The fMRl investigation will Include
high-functioning children
with autism from 84o-12 years of age. The study
will begin in July 2002. For
more information, contact: Blythe Corbett,
Ph.D. (916) 734-6159.
* * *
COMMENTARY
"On ABCNews Autism
Report by Nicholas Regush: 'AUTISM FIASCO'"
[Nicholas Regush is a formeer medical columnist for ABC
News.]
Visit Redflagsweekly.com
http://www.redflagsweekly.com
Today, I'm going to point you in the direction of one of the
worst
health news reports I have
come across in months, and it involves ABC News
where I produced TV segments
on health for a decade.
The report, which you can
read at ABCNEWS.com, is about autism. It is
unbalanced, foolish to the
point of stupidity and a classic example of
people producing health news
who have little understanding of what they are
doing. It means bad research
and lousy supervision.
A report like this involves a correspondent and a producer
and I
suspect that ABCNews.com
added some material to the report (which is often
done). And forget about the
supervision. It is much like the blind leading
the blind. You can read the
piece which aired on World News Tonight with
Peter Jennings at:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/autismWNT020801.html
(If you cannot click on the
above link, you can cut and paste it into your
browser.)
Here are examples of statements about autism and also
vaccines in the
report which should never
have made it into the broadcast. They required
clarification and
counterpoint. In fact, the entire piece is narrow in scope
and conceived badly, resting
on high degrees of speculation, masquerading
somewhat as fact.(My remarks
are in caps).
1."It presumably affects the developing brain prior to
birth."
EVIDENCE PLEASE?
2."It's a polygenetic disorder, which means each case is
caused by
three to four interacting genes,
but you can't have a genetic epidemic. So
the increase would have to
be a genetic-environment interaction…" WHAT
KIND OF BAFFLEGAB IS THIS?
AND WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE?
3.And then vaccines are considered, but the report says that
"experts
say there is no scientific
evidence to support this." The emphasis in the
piece is that parents have
been frightened away from vaccines by talk of the
MMR (Measles, Mumps,
Rubella) vaccine being involved in autism. NO
COUNTERPOINT IS PROVIDED IN
AN AREA HOT WITH SCIENTIFIC CONTROVERSY.
4. "Some parents feared that mercury in vaccines might
cause autism,
but scientists say there is
actually very little or no mercury in vaccines
these days."
5. "Vaccines have not had mercury in them for
years." DEAD WRONG. AND
AGAIN, WHERE IS THE
COUNTERPOINT IN ANOTHER AREA HOT WITH CONTROVERSY? WHAT
ABOUT LAWSUITS REGARDING
THIMEROSAL,A MERCURY-CONTAINING ORGANIC COMPOUND
WITH POWERFUL NEUROTOXIC
EFFECTS?
It's really sad to see complex health issues treated in such
a sloppy
manner. These types of
reports simply create more confusion. World News
Tonight medical reports are
usually of poor quality but are no worse than
those produced at CBS or NBC
or CNN. Better to read newspaper accounts. They
will often, at the very
least, mention the counterpoints. In TV Land,
research is usually done on
the fly by people who don't have the required
scope to investigate in the
first place. Good grief!
Have A Good Weekend!
* * *
AWARENESS
Dinner Auction Nets FEAT
$95K, Enjoys Record Attendance
[By Nannette Henderson, Dinner Auction Committee in the
Families for
Early Autism Treatment's
quarterly newsletter, Summer 2002 and is mailed out
free to families and
providers in Northern California.]
http://www.feat.org
Oh, what a Night! The
tenth annual Families for Early Autism Treatment
“Night of Caring” Dinner and
Auction was a huge success, raising over
$95,000 to assist children
with autism and their families. Nearly 800 guests
were greeted by mistress of
ceremonies Lynda Clayton as they bid on unique
silent auction selections
and spending time catching up with family and
friends.
After a wonderful dinner accompanied by wine donated by Karly
Winery,
FEAT president Nancy
Fellmeth addressed the audience and presented Dr. Linda
Copeland with the Rick
Rollens Award for “Excellence in Services to Young
Children with Autism.” As
always, the professionally created video of our
autistic children stole the
show and the hearts of everyone. Special thanks
to John Volinsky and Nancy
Heath for producing this inspirational film.
The fun was just beginning as lively auctioneers Kelly
Brothers and
Pat Still led a brisk and
cornpetitive live auction. Offerings included a
vacation to the prestigious
Phoenician resort in Arizona as well as a framed
replica jersey signed by
Sacramento Kings star Peja Stojakovic. The
sentimental favorite was an
original artwork piece by Tre Tuttle, a child
with autistic spectrum
disorder who lives in the Sacramento area, which sold
for $1,300.
Thank you, Ire and family!
This event is not just one night. For
months sponsorships were
secured and raffle tickets sold. Dedicated
committee members gathered
auction items and checked on numerous
behind-the-scene details.
Families brought their children to photo sessions;
contributed information for
their child’s decorative “star”; and volunteers
stuffed and