FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
January 6, 2002
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Study Finds Excessive Mercury in Hair of Infants: ‘Cause
for Concern’
·
The South Rises Again (NC), Only It’s Autism
Study Finds Excessive Mercury in Hair of Infants: ‘Cause
for Concern’ Predicted Mercury Concentrations In Hair From Infant
Immunizations: Cause For Concern.
Redwood L, Bernard S, Brown D.
Coalition for Safe Minds, Cranford, NJ 07016, USA. tlredwood@mindspring.com
1: Neurotoxicology 2001 Oct;22(5):691-7
Mercury (Hg) is considered one of the worlds most toxic
metals. Current thinking suggests that
exposure to mercury occurs primarily from seafood contamination and rare
catastrophic events.
Recently, another common source of exposure has been
identified. Thimerosal (TMS), a
preservative found in many infant vaccines, contains 49.6% ethyl mercury (EtHg)
by weight and typically contributes 25 microg of EtHg per dose of infant
vaccine.
As part of an ongoing review, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) announced in 1999 that infants who received multiple
TMS-preserved vaccines may have been exposed to cumulative Hg in excess of
Federal safety guidelines.
According to the centers for disease control (CDC)
recommended immunization schedule, infants may have been exposed to 12.5 microg
Hg at birth, 62.5 microg EtHg at 2 months, 50 microg EtHg at 4 months, 62.5
microg EtHg at 6 months, and 50 microg EtHg at approximately 18 months, for a
total of 237.5 microg EtHg during the first 18 months of life, if all TMS-containing
vaccines were administered. Neurobehavioral alterations, especially to the more
susceptible fetus and infant, are known to occur after relatively low dose
exposures to organic mercury compounds.
In effort, to further elucidate the levels of ethyl
mercury resulting from exposure to vaccinal TMS, we estimated hair Hg
concentrations expected to result from the recommended CDC schedule utilizing a
one compartment pharmacokinetic model.
This model was developed to predict hair concentrations
from acute exposure to methymercury (MeHg) in fish. Modeled hair Hg
concentrations in infants exposed to vaccinal TMS are in excess of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety guidelines of 1 ppm for up to 365
days, with several peak concentrations within this period.
More sensitive individuals and those with additional
sources of exposure would have higher Hg concentrations. Given that exposure to
low levels of mercury during critical stages of development has been associated
with neurological disorders in children, including ADD, learning difficulties,
and speech delays, the predicted hair Hg concentration resulting from childhood
immunizations is cause for concern.
Based on these findings, the impact which vaccinal mercury
has had on the health of American children warrants further investigation.
PMID: 11770890 [PubMed - in process]
>> DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW <<
Subscribe, Read, then Forward the FEAT Daily
Newsletter.
To Subscribe go to www.feat.org/FEATnews
No Cost!
* * *
The South Rises Again (NC), Only It’s Autism
Confronting the Rise In Autism
The Triangle is a mecca for treatment of this developmental
disability
[Lead feature item, front page in The News &
Observer, Raleigh, NC. By
Sarah Avery.]
http://www.newsobserver.com/sunday/front/Story/901614p-901219c.html
The physical beauty of 5-year-old Patrick Lane, his deep
blue eyes dazzling under sunshine-white hair, conceals a neurological defect
that is at the center of a growing medical phenomenon. Patrick has autism, a developmental
disability currently diagnosed in at least one in 500 Americans. It was once
considered rare; in the 1960s, scientists pegged its occurrence at one in 2,500
people. So its increasing prevalence is as puzzling as its myriad symptoms.
Scientists have only theories why there are more and more
children such as Patrick. A leading reason may be an increased willingness
among doctors to make the diagnosis, especially when children are only mildly affected.
Then too, genes appear to play a role, perhaps lining up in such a way that
some unknown environmental toxin triggers a switch, and a seemingly normal baby
stops talking and ignores everything and everyone.
Whatever the causes, the higher incidence of autism is
especially evident in the Triangle. Drawn by a program developed at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the late 1960s, and additional
research at Duke University, people with autistic children often move to the
region for the diagnostic expertise, the treatments, the research, the
advocacy, and the public schools.
“We have more services than a majority of the states
in the country,”
said David Laxton, communications director with the Autism
Society of North
Carolina. “I had one person call on a Wednesday and said, ‘We’re
moving to
North Carolina on Saturday, and we need to know where to
live.’ “
No agency has tracked the historical incidence of autism in
North Carolina, but public school data offer some insight. With 401 autistic children
enrolled last year, the Wake County school system had more autistic children
than any other in the state, almost twice as many as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the
state’s largest school district. That number is also almost four times what it
was 10 years ago. Likewise, the percentage of autistic children enrolled in
exceptional children’s programs is higher in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school
district than anywhere else in the state.
Patrick’s parents, William and Helene Lane of Raleigh, had
lived in Raleigh for several years before Patrick was born; after his
diagnosis, the first-time parents discovered a large community they had no idea
existed.
“All of a sudden, you get swept up into a world that is
totally different,” Helene Lane said.
Patrick had always acted a little peculiar. He was
fretful, and often impossible to console. He didn’t walk until he was 15 months
old. He hated loud noises, so that in church, when everyone said “Amen,”
Patrick screamed. By age 3, he spoke
only about 100 words, and he mainly just echoed what someone else said.
“Being first-time parents, we didn’t know if his behavior
was different from other kids,” Helene Lane says. But they harbored suspicions. When he was 3, he began isolating himself
from his classmates in preschool, and his teacher suggested that the Lanes have
him tested for autism.
Helene Lane said the teacher’s suggestion came as a
surprise, but she was eager to get at the root of her son’s distress. So the
Lanes went to Project Enlightenment, a division of the Wake County Public
Schools for early childhood education, and from there he was referred to the Developmental
Evaluation Center in Garner.
Doctors and therapists conducted tests, talked with the
Lanes and observed Patrick in action over a four-hour evaluation. Halfway
through, Patrick became frustrated, hitting Helene and crawling all over her,
wanting to get away from the examiners.
“That was what we were used to,” Helene Lane said. “Whenever
he got upset, he started flailing at us, fussing and shouting.”
The diagnosis was clear.
Autism runs along a spectrum, from severe to
high-functioning, and
usually isn’t diagnosed until after age 2. Often, children
seem to develop normally and then appear to regress. Severely autistic children
withdraw from people, avoid eye contact, can be overly sensitive to light or
touch, engage in repetitive behavior such as flapping their hands, and may
erupt into tantrums or aggressive outbursts. In about half of cases, intelligence
is impaired.
Patrick was on the high end of the spectrum, with normal
cognitive abilities.
“We felt relief,” said William Lane, who practices
environmental law with the Kilpatrick Stockton firm in Raleigh. “You can’t come
to terms with something if you don’t know what it is. It gave us a diagnosis
that people understand, and not just lay people, but people who can help—counselors,
teachers, doctors.”
One of the first places the Lanes headed was to Chapel
Hill, home of a program called TEACCH, for Treatment and Education of Autistic
and related Communication handicapped Children.
The program began in the mid-1960s, and it was a radical
departure from the prevailing philosophy that autistic children withdrew in
response to cold, unfeeling mothers—the so-called “refrigerator mother”
syndrome.
Eric Schopler had studied autistic children as a doctoral
student at the University of Chicago and then as a professor at UNC, and he
came to the conclusion that the old Freudian interpretation was not only wrong,
it harmed families.
With grant money from the National Institute of Mental
Health, Schopler began using behavioral therapies tailored specifically to the child,
and involving the parents as integral partners. If a child used hand signals
instead of talking, for example, therapists and parents would work together,
using a reward system, to insist that the child speak.
It was highly effective. Children who had been deeply
withdrawn began communicating, and the parents, rather than being demonized,
were invested in the therapy. By the time the NIMH grant money ran out in five
years, Schopler had a devoted following. The parents insisted that the program continue,
and turned to the state for help.
“We decided to have a legislative breakfast where we’d
bring the kids and we could show how we’d worked with them,” Schopler said. “We
were able to use a church in Raleigh, and more legislators showed up than we
expected. And the main guy at the time
was Lt. Gov. [Pat] Taylor, who set the agenda for new legislation.
“We started the breakfast without him, and he showed up
late and sat down next to a boy who was one of our toughest cases. The child
ate his food with his hands, and he was eating grits with his hands and got
grits on Taylor’s tie. But this politician was astute enough to see that the
child was making a social interaction.”
The success of the breakfast led to the passage, in 1972,
of a law that established three TEACCH centers around the state to offer
diagnosis and therapies. The centers, funded as a division of UNC’s psychiatry department
and offered without cost to families, were the first of their kind in the
country. They established North Carolina as a model of progressiveness in
autism treatment.
Now, TEACCH operates nine centers throughout the state,
including the original site in Chapel Hill and a new center that opened this
year in Raleigh. Together, the Chapel Hill and Raleigh centers handle 250 to
300 referrals a year; all nine centers have waiting lists.
Many of the people on those lists have moved from other
areas of the country, leaving behind family and friends for the opportunity to
get their child into a program. It’s a common phenomenon; in California, where
autism services are also strong, the number of autistic children has spiked
from 4,911 in 1993 to 15,441. Researchers there are exploring what, in addition
to the draw of services, is contributing to the increase.
A similar study is starting at UNC, which has begun
assembling a database to determine what is causing the rising numbers of autism
diagnoses.
For the schools, the climbing numbers of autistic children
have been matched by an increase in classrooms to serve them. Wake schools had
just 10 self-contained classes for autistic students, including pre-schoolers,
as recently as 1993. The school system now operates between 40 and 45 of the separate
classes, adding a strain on a system already pressed to keep up with overall
increases in special education enrollments.
Sharon Floyd, a former teacher of autistic children who
now works in Wake schools as a special education administrator, said the system
is facing a shortage of special education teachers, which affects classes for
autistic children.
“It’s kind of hard now to find all the teachers we
need,” Floyd said.
“Now when you’re opening six or seven classes a year, it’s
tough.”
Other students who show milder symptoms attend regular
classes for all or part of the day and may get specialized help in
less-intensive, part-day programs for students with various learning handicaps.
Many of the public schools train teachers and
psychologists at TEACCH centers, and use the TEACCH method, which relies
heavily on visual cues to help children learn. It’s an intensive approach.
“Years ago, we told people that if they’re thinking of
moving here, it is not Shangri-la and your child becomes immediately OK,” said
Lee M. Marcus, clinical director of the
Chapel Hill and Raleigh TEACCH centers and psychiatry professor at UNC-CH. “Nothing
is handed to people. Most of the time, this works. But it takes a lot of
support and a long-term commitment.”
Shelley and Dan Lakes have been waiting to start a TEACCH
treatment program for their daughter Carly since moving to the Triangle in
April. They relocated from Alabama in no small part to take advantage of the
autism services. Carly, who is 7, was diagnosed with autism when she was 3, and
the services in their small town were lacking. They had to travel 180 miles to Birmingham
just to get Carly diagnosed, they had few advocacy resources, and the public
schools were not well equipped to handle Carly’s hard-charging personality, so
Shelley home-schooled her.
“If it hadn’t been for the [lack of] autism services, we
would have stayed put,” Shelley Lakes said. The Lakes’ first stop in North Carolina
was TEACCH. After an initial assessment, they were put on a waiting list and
are hoping to begin the program this spring. Meanwhile, she is enrolled in a special
class at Vance Elementary. “It’s going to take awhile to get plugged into
things,” she said, “because we’re new here, and we’re not as familiar, so we
have to dig around.”
For William and Helene Lane, getting plugged in served as
their own form of therapy: “Doing something about it healed the pain,” William
Lane said. Once they got an appointment in the TEACCH program, the Lanes began the
long process of working with Patrick to help him speak and and interact more
naturally.
Helene Lane quit her job as marketing manager at Cisco
Systems and immersed herself in this new universe. She became a leader in the
Autism Society of North Carolina, one of the largest and most active chapters
of the national organization. And she learned to navigate the system, enrolling
Patrick in preschool programs and getting him an Individual Education Plan, which
school systems use to devise and map progress.
The Lanes agreed to participate in a research trial at UNC
to examine what role genes play in the disorder. Similar research is being
conducted at Duke among 200 families who have multiple cases of autism.
Eventually, genetics may prove to be at the root of the
disorder. When parents have one autistic child, they have a higher risk of
having a second child with the disorder—a 5 percent to 10 percent chance versus
the 0.1 percent to 0.2 percent chance for unaffected families. But those are
good odds, and the Lanes’ 3-year-old daughter, Kristina, is not autistic.
Discovering the basis for the disorder will answer the
mystery of why Patrick has more and more autistic peers. In the absence of
clear scientific explanations, theories arise. One of the most controversial
has been the suggestion that childhood measles, mumps and rubella vaccines have
caused autism. The notion stemmed from the findings of an English doctor who
used 12 cases to form an anecdotal association. Broader, more rigorous research
has discounted the theory.
But it instilled fears about the MMR shots, which then
prompted autism organizations, pediatricians and the federal government to
issue statements defending the safety and necessity of childhood vaccines.
“There is a theory of the month, or at least a theory of
the year,” said Dr. G. Robert DeLong, professor of pediatric neurology at Duke
and an autism researcher. “We don’t have anything that explains why autism
occurs, so that encourages all this quackery.”
Other theories include unknown environmental toxins that,
combined with a defective gene, spark the disorder. Diet, allergies, unusual
brain chemistry—all have been debated. DeLong said he is intrigued that antidepressants
helped a third of autistic children in a study he mounted, and he is continuing
research to see whether manic-depressive illness and autism are somehow linked.
Much of the increased prevalence might simply be due to
improvements in diagnoses, which ratchet up the numbers. In fact,
high-functioning children such as Patrick might have been considered quirky 30
years ago, but not autistic. Today, they are included in the diagnosis.
Part of the reason that doctors are more inclined to make
the diagnosis stems from the work of Schopler and others who debunked the “refrigerator
mother” notion, erasing the stigma.
Research has also shown that an early diagnosis presents
the best chance for improvement, offering interventions in the important,
formative years between infancy and age 6. And because many autistic people
have an extraordinary ability to focus and concentrate, they often gravitate to
fields such as engineering and computer programming. People with severe autism,
however, need lifelong assistance.
The Lanes said they wished Patrick’s behaviors had been
flagged earlier, because he has had only two years of therapy. In that time, however,
he has made tremendous progress. A casual observer might never know that
Patrick has autism—he speaks when spoken to, is polite and considerate and even
has a mischievous sense of humor.
And through work with TEACCH and the autism society, the
Lanes have learned to accommodate Patrick’s unique demands. They let him adhere
to routines, allowing him to put his pants on before his socks. They toilet trained
him by diagramming the process, step by step, and posting it in the bathroom.
In recent months, the Lanes have hired a speech therapist
at the Mariposa School, a Raleigh program that offers verbal behavior therapy
for autistic children, and will pay $3,000 to $4,000 for the service. For three
hours every week, the therapist plops down on the floor of Patrick’s bedroom and
runs a quick-paced session of verbal drills.
The work has helped him get placed in a regular classroom
for half a day at North Ridge Elementary School, getting more intensive
sessions in a special class the other half. Recently, the teacher in his
regular classroom noted that Patrick has been cutting up with a group of boys
at his table. It was the not-so-perfect behavior expected of 5-year-olds, and
for Helene Lane, it was cause for celebration.
“The other parents might have been worried,” Helene Lane
said, “but I was like, ‘Yes! Normal.’”
Staff writer Todd Silberman contributed to this
report.
Staff writer Sarah Avery can be reached at savery@newobserver
Lenny Schafer, Editor@feat.org • CALENDAR EVENTS@feat.org
Michelle Guppy
Catherine Johnson PhD
• Ron Sleith • Kay Stammers • Edward Decelie
UNSUBSCRIBE: FEATNews-signoff-request@LIST.FEAT.ORG
ALL
INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR
GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE
KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED
AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO
VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU
ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.