Federal research grant
brings new center to study autism to NJ
By LINDA A. JOHNSON
The Associated Press
11/16/01 4:27 PM
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) --
Scientists at a new children's environmental health research center run by New
Jersey's biggest universities will try to solve the mystery of what causes
autism and related neurological disorders.
Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator and former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman on Friday
announced a 5-year, $5 million federal grant to fund the Center For Childhood
Neurotoxicology and Exposure Assessment.
Its scientists will
investigate the links between "neurotoxins," or chemicals around us
considered toxic to still-developing brains, and neurological conditions in
children. The research will focus on autism, attention deficit disorder and
learning disabilities.
The center is based at the
Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute at Rutgers University's
Piscataway campus. The institute, a joint project of Rutgers and UMDNJ-Robert
Wood Johnson Medical School, was chosen for the breadth of expertise of its
researchers and physicians in disciplines from neurotoxicology and exposure
assessment to genetics and treatment of learning-disabled children.
"Your work is going to
help us provide our children, and our grandchildren, with a healthy and safe
environment in which they can grow up and mature to achieve their best
results," Whitman said.
EPA and the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is funding research at the center,
and eleven others nationwide, with the aim of finding ways to prevent -- rather
than just treat -- conditions likely related to toxic exposures, Whitman said.
"We've witnessed some
alarming increases in learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder and
autism," she said.
Autism, usually diagnosed
by age three, leaves children with limited ability to communicate or interact
socially; many obsessively perform repetitive behaviors such as spinning in
circles.
Its increasing prevalence
is of particular concern in New Jersey, where state and federal researchers
investigated an autism cluster among children in Brick Township. A report the
scientists published this month in the journal Pediatrics shows one in 150
children in Brick have autism, or more than three times the estimated national
prevalence.
Young children are believed
more vulnerable than adults to the effects of chemicals around them in homes,
schools and outdoors because of their smaller size, faster metabolism and other
factors. In particular, toddlers spend considerable time crawling on carpeting
and tile made and cleaned with chemicals, and touching surfaces where lead dust
or air pollutants may have settled. Then they put their hands into their
mouths.
Scientists at the new
center will try to find whether such exposures are "environmental
triggers" for autism and related conditions.
Dr. George Lambert, the
center's director, said that while genetic factors are one cause of autism,
chemicals in the environment likely play a role because research among twins
shows if one has autism, there's a 35 percent chance the other won't.
Genes and chemicals may
interact, as well.
Dozens of researchers and
clinicians at the center will work on parallel tracks and share information
with each other and, periodically, with scientists at the other eleven centers.
In Piscataway, one group
will test the environment of individual children with autism and other learning
disabilities -- their homes, yards, schools and other places they go -- to seek
common chemical exposures to investigate. Children's brains will be scanned to
see if higher exposures to toxins cause different patterns of brain
development.
Other scientists will study
the effects of suspected chemicals on the brain cells and behavior of rat
fetuses and pups whose mothers were exposed to the chemicals. The first
chemicals to be tested are mercury, lead and valproic acid, a drug given to
some pregnant women to control seizures.
"It's quite
conceivable we'll have an answer soon," perhaps in 10 years, on what
causes autism, said Dr. Stuart Cook, president of the University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey, which includes Robert Wood Johnson and two other
medical schools.
The two federal agencies
fund three other new research centers, along with eight that are a few years
old, at other U.S. universities and medical centers. They focus on links
between toxins that may affect children and conditions including asthma, lead
poisoning and behavioral problems.
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