AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sunday January 13, 2002
INDEX:
* Study: Millions of Americans Drink
Contaminated Water
* Iowa
and United States Autism Ambassador and CO-Ambassador go to
Mt Pleasant, Iowa
* "Watkins:
Education Bill is Good Step"
* A
new year for education?
* Study
to look at possible benefits of musical training on brain function in
young and old
******************************
Study: Millions of Americans Drink Contaminated Water
By JOHN HEILPRIN
.c The Associated
Press
WASHINGTON (Jan. 8) - Millions of Americans have been drinking tap water
contaminated with chemical byproducts from chlorine that are far more than what
studies suggest may be safe for pregnant women, two environmental groups say in
a new study.
Chlorine is commonly used to disinfect drinking water. When it is added to
water that contains organic matter such as runoff from farms or lawns, however,
it can form compounds such as chloroform that can cause illness.
The study released Tuesday by the Environmental Working Group and Public
Interest Research Groups identified areas that may have increased health risks
including miscarriage, neural tube defects and reduced fetal growth from women
drinking chlorination byproducts.
``By failing to clean up rivers and reservoirs that provide drinking water for
hundreds of millions of Americans, EPA and the Congress have forced water
utilities to chlorinate water that is contaminated with animal waste, sewage,
fertilizer, algae and sediment,'' the report says.
Jane Houlihan, EWG's research director, said the report also shows how that
cleanup failure has ``a direct impact on human health.'' Pregnant women need to
drink plenty of water, she said, but they can reduce their exposure to
potential risks through simple measures such as home filters and purchasing
bottled water.
One expert on environmental health cautioned that the link between the
byproducts and pregnancy risks is suggestive, not conclusive.
Still, if the pregnancy studies are proved, millions could be at risk, said Dr.
Robert Morris, an environmental epidemiologist at Tufts University School of
Medicine in Boston.
``That body of literature isn't necessarily conclusive but people ought to be
aware of it,'' Morris said. ``It's pretty clear that some of these compounds
can be pretty bad actors. The fact that these levels are as high as they are is
certainly something to be concerned about.''
The environmental groups combed water quality records in 29 states and the
District of Columbia and matched them with various research into birth defects
and miscarriages conducted by state and federal agencies and universities.
The groups said the places statistically most at risk due to chlorination
byproducts were those that are populous, lacked buffers from urban sprawl and
were downstream from agricultural sites. But women in small towns generally
face twice the risk from drinking high levels of the byproducts, Houlihan said.
Matching high rates doesn't prove the environmental risk caused the health
problems, however. Also, the results are limited because, among other reasons,
such health records do not exist in some states.
The Environmental Protection Agency already has decided that some chlorination
byproducts pose health risks and instituted stricter standards on Jan. 1 for
seven of them: five haloacetic acids, bromate and chlorite. The agency also
began requiring a reduction by one-fifth of the allowable level for
trihalomethanes, another chemical produced by adding chlorine to dirty water.
EPA studies showed that reducing the level of trihalomethanes might mean 2,332
fewer cases of bladder cancer per year, down from its estimate of up to 9,300
annual cases caused by trihalomethanes.
While the environmental groups said the majority of water suppliers were
meeting the current and future drinking water health standards, they also found
that since 1995 more than 11 million people in 1,044 communities were being
served water contaminated with chlorination byproducts for 12 months in a row
at levels above the new legal limit.
To reduce the risks, the groups said, the federal government should provide
billions of dollars more for cleaning up sources of contaminated water and
providing more buffer areas that can filter potential contaminants from
farmland and urban areas.
AP-NY-01-08-02 1601EST
AOL News: Study Says
Millions of Americans Drink Contaminated Water
******************************
Iowa and United States Autism Ambassador and CO-Ambassador
go to Mt Pleasant, Iowa
LD Wedewer, Iowa
and United States Autism Ambassador will join the meeting with the Iowa Second
District Congressional Committee on Sunday, January 16, 2002, in Mt Pleasant,
Iowa. LD Wedewer has been traveling Iowa in an effort to raise awareness on
medical and educational issues regarding autism.
Many issues will be brought up by the Autism Ambassadors including the budget
cuts and how individuals with autism will be effected and new autism
legislation for sponsorship to protect individuals with autism.
The Autism Ambassador will be accompanied by Joyce Minor, Iowa and United
States CO-Ambassador and Associate to the ambassadors Jonna Boelke.
They will meet at the International Room in the Iowa Wesleyan College Library
in Mt Pleasant, Iowa The Meeting will begin at 2:00 PM and Convene at 4:00 PM.
This meeting is open to the public.
******************************
"Watkins: Education Bill is Good Step"
MIRS (Michigan Information and Research Service, Inc.),
January 10, 2002
State Superintendent Thomas WATKINS and State Board of Education
Secretary Michael David WARREN joined President George W. BUSH in
Washington D.C. Wednesday for a celebration of the “No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001.”
Bush signed the historic bill into law Tuesday during a three-state tour
in Ohio, New Hampshire and Massachusetts with members of Congress who led the
effort to pass the legislation. Department of Education spokesman T.J. BUCHOLZ
said Watkins feels the bill package is a step in the right direction and one
that the Department of Education will implement fully into Michigan.“We've
come together today to hear the President and show bi-partisan support for a
non-partisan initiative,” Watkins said. “Liberals from Massachusetts and
conservatives from Ohio were side by side to celebrate this important
legislation. I am excited about the possibilities it presents to our
educational system.”The bill creates, among other things, a national test in
reading and math for students in third through eighth grades beginning in the
2005-06 school year. The results from these tests will be made available in
annual report cards so parents can measure school performance and statewide progress
and evaluate the quality of their child's progress in key subjects.Federal aid
would be available for schools that did not improve two years in a row, but
schools that failed to improve six years in a row could be restaffed,
reconstructed in the form of a state takeover or placed under the supervision
of a private company.The sweeping legislation is the first major piece of
education reform since the original Elementary and Secondary Act was signed
into law in 1965. However, the $130 billion slated for public schools at that
time has not reduced the achievement gap between well-off and lower-income
students or between minority students and non-minority students, Bush
said.“The new education bill will help states strengthen their education
systems by focusing them on improving student performance and at the same time
offering them historic levels of financial support and unprecedented
flexibility and local control,” Warren said.The sweeping piece of federal
legislation also does the following:- Statewide reports will be created to show
progress for all student groups based on race, disability, poverty and
ethnicity, thereby closing achievement gaps between disadvantaged students and
other groups of students. The goal is to make the school accountable so that
all will be proficient within 12 years.- Requires a school district to provide
transportation for a child to a new school if the child's school has been
deemed as failing for two consecutive years.- Implements Bush's Reading First
initiative by increasing federal funding for reading programs from $300 million
in Fiscal Year 2001 to more than $900 million in FY 2002 and tying federal
funding to the use of scientifically proven methods of reading instruction.-
Creates the Early Reading First program to support pre-reading development of
preschool-age children, particularly those from low-income families.- Provides
$2.8 billion for teacher quality and allowing local school districts to use
more federal money to hire new teachers, increase teacher pay, improve teacher
training and development.- Allows parents to transfer their child as soon as
the 2002-03 school year to a better performing public or charter school once
the child's present school is identified as failing. Thousands of schools
already have been identified as failing under current law, Bush said.- Expands
the charter school initiative.- Allows Title I funds to be used for
supplemental education services — tutoring, after school services and summer
school programs — for children in failing schools. The services can be
provided by faith- and community-based organizations.While in Washington,
Watkins and Warren joined other chief state school officers from around the
country for meetings with senior officials from the U.S. Department of Education
in an effort for states to partner to ensure an effective implementation of the
new law. U.S. Department of Education Secretary Rod PAIGE invited both
Watkins and Warren to Washington.“These federal reforms will help pave the
way for change in classrooms around the country,” Watkins said. “Educators
throughout Michigan are looking forward to making these reforms a reality.”
******************************
A new year for education?
by Chester E. Finn, Jr. of the Gadfly
Now that George W. Bush has signed the "No Child Left Behind"
act, the flashbulbs have just about stopped popping, and the policy (and media)
focus shifts back to terrorism and the economy, the education world will turn
to the low profile but crucial matter of translating this thousand-page bill's
dozens of programs and hundreds of provisions into schoolhouse practice. That
sounds like a bureaucratic yawner but in truth it matters quite a lot. To avoid
deadlock, Senate-House conferees punted some sticky issues to the Education
Department to resolve: determining what constitutes acceptable state tests, by
what criteria to approve a state's school accountability plan, what are
"qualified" teachers, and how broadly to interpret a clause that lets
schools avoid sanctions if their various pupil populations are making lesser
gains than are required under the "adequate yearly progress"
provision at the heart of the bill. With such sizable matters come reams of
lesser issues whose handling will determine how much traction this legislation
actually gains in millions of separate classrooms.History offers no grounds for
optimism that this will be done quickly or well. Congress habitually builds
such long timelines into these measures that the most important changes need
not even be made until someone else's term in office. (States have five years,
for example, to comply with the new testing requirement.) The last time around,
Bill Clinton's Education Department dawdled so long in implementing the 1994
education amendments that today—seven years later—most states still don't
comply with some of its core provisions.Such matters are traditionally
entrusted to change-averse civil servants overseen by inexperienced political
appointees who are watched closely by their masters lest they offend key
governors or Congressmen or make it harder for the President's party in
upcoming elections. (As the 2000 race gained momentum, the Clinton White House
made the Education Department stop pressing California on education compliance
issues.) Implementation thus becomes the stuff of interminable meetings,
countless forms, endless delays, and multiple extensions and waivers, as very
little changes in the classroom. That fate could befall "No Child Left
Behind." But Education Secretary Rod Paige and his team are gearing up for
a very different approach. Indeed, they see this as their real debut—the
White House staff having tightly controlled the legislative phase. Though quiet
and self-effacing, Paige is a steely and astute leader whose strong will and administrative
acumen made a big difference in Houston's sprawling school system. There he
showed himself especially good at distinguishing areas where schools should be
free to innovate from those requiring close central monitoring. If he and his
able lieutenants at the Education Department approach states in a similar vein,
they could reverse the ingrained, dysfunctional pattern of federal education
officials, which is to meddle in all the small stuff while paying scant
attention to the big issues, such as whether children are learning and
rich-poor gaps are narrowing.All this, however, is just the first act of a
three-act education drama. After a brief intermission, the Bush administration
and Congress must turn to "special" education—the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA)—which, after twenty five years, is in urgent need of
top-to-bottom rethinking. The White House has appointed a blue-ribbon
commission, chaired by former Iowa governor Terry Branstad, to sort through all
this and make recommendations, and recruited a reform-minded New Mexican named
Bob Pasternack to head this section of the Education Department. There's no
dearth of ideas for bold changes, such as "voucherizing" special ed,
as Florida has already done. But politics presses against any serious
reform of this domain. Elected officials are wary of its swarming lobbyists,
all claiming to be tending to America's neediest children even as they advance
the interests of sundry "experts."Act three of this drama involves
higher education, whose massive federal subsidy programs come up for renewal
two years hence. As with special ed, the policy challenge is to bring the
"No Child Left Behind" mindset, with its emphasis on academic
achievement and institutional accountability for student learning, to bear on
America's sprawling higher education system. The federal role here, too, should
shift from an obsession with inputs and services to a clear focus on results.
But the politics of higher education also work against fundamental reform—and
the status quo is buttressed by the widespread and carefully nurtured illusion
that U.S. colleges are doing fine just as they are.Plenty of other education
challenges will punctuate the play's intermissions, including such low profile
but consequential topics as Washington's handling of education research and
statistics. As with special ed and higher ed, these would benefit from the
impatient, results-minded focus that George W. Bush urged a year ago when he
launched the education bill just signed. In the best of all possible worlds,
that would turn out to be Bush's true education legacy: institutionalization in
Washington of the view that what matters in a federal program is not what rules
are followed, what services are provided or what's spent where, but whether
young people are actually learning what they should from institutions that are
accountable for such learning within their walls. This may be too much to
expect. But what's a new year if not a time for optimistic resolutions.This
editorial is a condensed version of an article that appears in the most recent
issue of The Weekly Standard. For the full version, see
"Leaving Education Reform Behind," by Chester E. Finn, Jr., The Weekly Standard, January 14,
2002.
******************************
Study to look at possible benefits
of musical training on
brain function in young and old
Toronto, Ont. -- If cellist Yo Yo Ma and fiddler Natalie
MacMaster live to be 80, will their musically-trained brains help them fend off
the ravages of age-related dementia? A Canadian study is underway to look at
whether musical training gives children an edge over non-musical counterparts
in verbal and writing skills AND gives the elderly an edge in preserving
cognitive function for as long as possible. It is one of the most ambitious
studies to date to look at musical training and its influence on the brain's
wiring across the age spectrum. The reseach is lead by neuroscientist Dr.
Christo Pantev at The Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Centre for
Geriatric Care in Toronto and will be carried out together with Profs. Larry E.
Roberts and Laurel Trainor from McMaster University in Hamilton. The project is
funded with a $200,000 US grant from the California-based International
Foundation for Music Research. "The brain is malleable from childhood to
adulthood," says Dr. Pantev. "If musical training is found to have a
beneficial effect on brain function beyond that involved in musical performance,
this may have implications for the education of children, for life-long
strategies to preserve the fitness of the aging brain, and for rehabilitation
and retraining strategies after the brain has been damaged by stroke or
disease." "The Foundation is committed to supporting quality research
that expands what we know intuitively about the importance and relevancy of
music in all aspects of life," says Glenn Holtz, Chairman of Gemeinhardt
Co. Inc. of Elkhart, Ind., and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the International
Foundation for Music Research. "We are honored to support the work of Dr.
Pantev and we look forward to sharing in the process of discovery that is at
the heart of this important work." Previously with the University of
Muenster's Institute of Experimental Audiology in Germany, Dr. Pantev has
studied the brains of professional musicians to learn how music can trigger
physical changes in the brain's wiring. His findings, published in major
scientific journals such as Nature and Science, have shown that musicians have
enhanced cortical auditory and somatosensory areas of the brain compared to
non-musicians. Moreover, musicians who commenced musical training at an early
age showed larger cortical areas compared to those who started later. In this
current study, Dr. Pantev and his team will study the brains of young children
enrolled at a Suzuki School of Music in Toronto and Hamilton, as well as the
brains of older adults, who have musical training, living at Baycrest Centre.
The Suzuki children, ages 4 to 6, will be introduced to violin or piano
lessons. Both the young and old groups will undergo testing to measure their
perceptual and cognitive skills compared against similarly-aged control groups
who have no musical training. Researchers want to answer four broad questions:
1. How does the functional activity of the brain differ between musicians and
non-musicians?
2. Are brain attributes associated with musical skill, the product of musical
training?
3. If training is found to modify brain development, are there benefits of
musical training for cognitive and perceptual skills beyond those involved in
music performance?
4. Does musical experience have life enhancing effects in the elderly brain?
Researchers will use imaging techniques -- EEG to measure electrical changes,
MEG to measure magnetic changes -- to monitor how the brain functionally
reorganizes in response to musical training. MRI will be used for obtaining the
corresponding anatomic information of the underlying brain structures.
Dr. Pantev was recently named a Canada Research Chair in Human Cortical
Plasticity. Based at the University of Toronto, the Chair will explore the most
effective strategies for rehabilitating brains damaged by stroke. Approximately
one quarter of those who suffer a stroke develop dementia, with speech and
attention being common problems.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-01/bcfg-stl010902.php
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