Congress Learns that Autism is Environmental

Wow... so I am watching this hearing, and I can't believe I am watching a hearing in the US Congress.

The horse is out of the barn. I don't know how Offit/Orac/Snyderman et. al. are gonna get it back in.

Autism is environmental. You heard it in congress. Barbara Boxer even learned the word "epigenetics".

Senate Hearings on Environmental Causes of Autism Tomorrow

The hearing will be streamed on this page tomorrow.

Senators to review research on autism's enviro causes
Environment and Energy Daily
August 2, 2010
Gayathri Vaidyanathan, E&E reporter

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will meet tomorrow to probe the state of research into the environmental causes of autism and other neurodevelopment disorders.

The Children's Health Subcommittee will hear from U.S. EPA and National Institutes of Health officials on the progress of federally funded work into the causes of autism and other development disorders of the brain.

It is likely that the hearing will be a step toward reauthorizing the 2006 Combating Autism Act, which is set to expire in 2011.

Autism is thought to result from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. While the interaction of genes and mutations is somewhat known by now, little work has been done on potential environmental risk factors. There are likely to be many disparate causes leading to autism.

The incidence of autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs, is increasing in the United States, with one in every 110 children affected. Rates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, in children are also rising -- nearly 4.5 million children between 3 and 17 years of age have it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The subpanel will hear from Isaac Pessah, director of the University of California, Davis, Children's Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention, which has received $7.5 million from EPA since 2007 for research to investigate possible environmental causes.

UC Davis is working on a project called MARBLES (Markers of Autism Risk in Babies -- Learning Early Signs) to identify early predictors of autism, whether genetic, environmental or immunologic. According to the project proposal submitted to EPA, the project will look at whether autistic children are differently exposed to metals, pesticides, polybrominated diphenylethers and other chemicals.

The work is a corollary to a long-term study called CHARGE in which UC Davis researchers are casting a wide net to catch possible environmental contributors in a group of 2- to 5-year-old autistic children. They are screening for pesticides, metals, flame retardant compounds, viruses and bacteria and pharmaceuticals.

UC Davis and other groups are also receiving money from NIH's National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program, and the subcommittee will hear from the program's director, Linda Birnbaum.

NIH is funding a study together with the nonprofit Autism Speaks that is enrolling mothers who already have one autistic child and are again pregnant to study exposures during fetal development.

The annual cost of caring for people with autism is $35 billion, according to Geraldine Dawson, chief scientific officer at Autism Speaks.

NIH has provided nearly $225 million for research, which Dawsom called miniscule. The funding comes from the Combating Autism Act, which authorized $7 billion for autism-related work including screening, education, intervention and research.

"President Obama has listed autism as one of three health concerns to be combated in the United States," Dawson said. "The current act is a step in the right direction, but due to the magnitude of the public health challenge that autism presents, we need a great deal more funding."

The rate of children with the disease has risen by 600 percent in the last decade, a number so dramatic it cannot be explained solely by better diagnosis, Dawson said.

Schedule: The hearing is tomorrow at 10 a.m. in 406 Dirksen.

Witnesses: Paul Anastas, assistant administrator of the Office of Research and Development, U.S. EPA; Linda Birnbaum, NIH's director of the National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences and National Toxicology Program; Isaac Pessah, director of the UC Davis Children's Center for Environmental Health and Disease Prevention; Bruce Lanphear, senior scientist at the Child & Family Research Institute; and Mary Moen, parent.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Kathleen Sebelius gave an interview to Moms Rising, and was asked some vaccine questions. Fran Drescher was present and asked her about spacing out vaccines:



Fran never got her answer, so no... the administration is not interested in opening up a discussion on spacing out vaccines. But it is curious that Ms. Sebelius claimed that vaccines are constantly being tested for efficacy and safety. Both individually and in combination.

Really?

Because there is no study into the four shots (seven vaccines) that my son received at 18 months when he regressed into autism. My understanding of the process is that they do test for efficacy, but not so much for safety, and very rarely to they test combinations of vaccines for either.

And of course there is no study that looks of the safety of the complete schedule in any way.

The vaccine studies that they actually do are small and don't follow kids for very long. I was horrified to learn that the safety study on the Hepatitis B vaccine that Chandler reacted to when he was a new born only followed children for THREE DAYS.

And of course these tests almost never include a true placebo group. Merely one version of a vaccine compared to another version of a vaccine or adjuvant.

Although it was good to hear it straight from the horses mouth that the vaccine schedule is what it is partly due to convenience. Gotta get as many shots in as many kids as possible when they are in the office! Brain damage be damned.

I came across an interesting movie quote in the NYT today. From a piece on the International AIDS Conference:

In a lovely ironic touch, the conference hall is only a few steps from the Ferris wheel in the Orson Welles film noir classic set in postwar Vienna, “The Third Man.” On it, a cynical dealer of counterfeit drugs tells his pursuer to look down at the people below and says: “Victims? Don’t be melodramatic.... Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?”

All that "constant testing" is not so much concerned with our particular little dots.



This is my little dot. His fevers, crying and constipation started three days after his first dose of Hepatitis B vaccine. I never could find a safety test that covered him.

The Autism File Media Channel

Over the course of the last year, Polly Tommy has proved her self, as I have previously mentioned, to have balls of steel. When threatened with having her magazine shut down if she did not fall in line with Big Brother and stop talking about those brilliant vaccines (Vaccines Are Safe, Vaccines Save Lives ® ™ PharmaCo, Inc.), and that evil Andy Wakefield (who wants children do die from measles even though he recommended the measles vaccine???) like a good little subject of the queen, she refused. Instead she went public with their threats, moved her magazine to the colonies, where the huddled masses yearning to breathe free come, and free speech is beloved, and is now upping the ante by starting her own media channel.



Polly has graciously offered me a show on the channel, and I am really tempted, but as I have also recently co-founded the Center for Personal Rights to advocate for informed consent and parental choice in vaccination, I think i am over my limit on commitment. However, I have decided to become a contributor and will be having pieces there from time to time when I am able.

And Kudos to the Tommy's for standing up and for bridging the autism communities across The Pond.

Unwanted H1N1 Vaccines Are HAZMAT And Are Being Disposed Of Accordingly

At the beginning of last years pharma fund raiser "pandemic", I wrote a lengthy piece reminding readers just how bad mercury really is to humans, and just how high the mercury content in the H1N1 flu shot was. These are the same vaccines that public heath officials keep referring to has having 'trace amounts' of mercury. I noted that they were so mercury toxic that they were classified as hazardous material and by law must be disposed of according to hazmat rules.

Now on the other side of the disease that killed ninety thousand Americans was the mildest flu in recorded history, more than $260 million dollars worth of vaccine, at least 40 million doses, are being disposed of accordingly. Being burnt in hazmat processing facilities with mercury scrubbers to keep this neurotoxin out of our environment.

Which again begs the question.... When we work so hard to keep mercury out of our waterways, WHY ARE WE PUTTING THIS POISON INTO OUR BABIES ON PURPOSE!!!!! IT IS ACTUAL HAZARDOUS MATERIAL!!! IT KILLS BRAIN CELLS!!! IT CAUSES MITOCHONDRIAL DISORDERS!!!!

Now I am going to be up all night worrying that the poor guy that has to burn all these vaccines is going to end up with Minamata Disease.

From Occupational Health and Safety Magazine:

Service Will Incinerate Unused H1N1 Vaccine
Jul 23, 2010

Clean Harbors, based in Norwell, Mass., is offering the service to health care providers because multiple doses of the vaccine contain enough mercury-based Thimerosal to be treated as a hazardous waste.

Clean Harbors of Norwell, Mass., now offers H1N1 Vaccination Incineration Services that will profile, collect, and dispose of unused 2009 H1N1 vaccine for health care customers nationwide. Multiple doses of the vaccine contain enough mercury-based Thimerosal to be treated by EPA as a hazardous waste and will be incinerated. Vaccine dated at the end of 2008 and early 2009 is now at the end of its shelf life and must be disposed, according to the company.

The HHS declaration of a 2009 H1N1 Public Health Emergency expired on June 23.

"We have seen many customers in various states looking for our H1N1 disposal capabilities," John C. Kelsey, the company's vice president, Healthcare Services, said in a July 22 e-mailed reply to questions about the service. "We wanted to announce it to the larger community as we are growing our customer count related to Healthcare Services. We have done a good amount of work in this area with vaccines through our hospital Pharmaceutical Waste programs."

He said the cost varies but is "generally the same pricing as other materials requiring hazardous waste incineration. The vaccine doses are in inventory and will be shipped via DOT packages for proper disposal," Kelsey added. "We are seeing multiple truckloads per week of the vaccine now and cannot align total amounts but we do expect the need to occur from many locations as the normal pathway for outdated items."
OLFA North America

Unused vaccine doses normally are returned through Reverse Distributors, but these have no value and thus must be disposed as a waste, he said, continuing, "It is good that PHER funds can be used to reimburse organizations for the disposal process."

CDC mandates proper disposal of H1N1 vaccines and allows Public Health Emergency Response (PHER) funds to be available for the disposal. Health care providers interested in the service can call 888-304-7035, e-mail healthcareservices@cleanharbors.com, or visit www.cleanharbors.com/healthcare.

There is a saying in our community....

Giving Mercury to Children on Purpose is Stupid

Your Child is worth $2173.96 to Vaccine Makers

Inside Vaccines did the math.

Dr. Blaylock's Advice on How To Reduce Chance of Adverse Reaction From Flu Shot

Treatment for Toxic Vaccine Exposure, from Russell Blaylock, M.D.

The Following was composed by Dr. Russell Blaylock as a method to reduce autoimmune reactions to the flu vaccines only. Do not use this if you have the flu itself. These are just general observations and not medical advice. You should work with your doctor for a specific program.Treatment for Toxic Vaccine Exposure

1. Place a cold compress on the site of the injection immediately after the injection and continue this as often as possible for at least two days. If symptoms of fever, irritability, fatigue or flu-like symptoms reoccur -- continue the cold compresses until they abate. A cold shower or bath will also help.

2. Take fish oils -- I recommend the Norwegian fish oil made by Carlson Labs -- it has the correct balance of EPA and DHA to reduce the cytokine storm. The dose is one tablespoon a day -- if severe symptoms develop -- two tablespoons a day until well and then switch to one tablespoon a day. Children -- one teaspoon a day.

3. Curcumin, quercetin, ferulic acid and ellagic acid as a mixture -- the first two must be mixed with extravirgin olive in one teaspoon. Take the mix three times a day (500 mg of each)

4. Vitamin E (natural form) 400 IU a day (high in gamma-E)

5. Vitamin C 1000 mg four times a day

6. Astaxanthin 4 mg a day

7. Zinc 20 mg a day for one week then 5 mg a day

8. Avoid all immune stimulating supplements (mushroom extracts, whey protein) except beta-glucan -- it has been shown to reduce inflammation, microglial activation and has a reduced risk of aggravating autoimmunity, while increasing antiviral cellular immunity.

9. Take a multivitamin/mineral daily (one without iron -- Extend Core)

10. Magnesium citrate/malate 500 mg of elemental magnesium two capsules three times a day

11. Vitamin D3:

All Children -- 5000 IU a day for two weeks after vaccine then 2000 IU a day thereafter

Adults -- 20,000 IU a day after vaccine for two weeks then 10,000 IU a day thereafter

Take 500 mg to 1000 mg of calcium citrate a day for adults and 250 mg a day for children under age 12 years.

12. Avoid all mercury-containing seafood

13. Avoid omega-6 oils (corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, canola and peanut oils)

14. Blenderize parsley and celery and drink 8 ounces twice a day

15. Take Jatoba tea extract (add 20 drops in on cup of tea) one day before the vaccine and the twice a day thereafter. (you can get it at http://www.iherb.com/Amazon-Therapeutics-Jatoba-1-oz-30-ml/14429?at=0) It is inexpensive.

Film: Shots in the Dark

Made a film about the vaccine injured, including our community. It was made by the Film Board of Canada, but has not been released, and it is reported that the Canadian Prime Minister does not want it released.

It was posted on You Tube last fall. I am not sure how I missed this until now.

Shots in the Dark

CDC Vaccine Recommendations in Childhood Hits 70.. count 'um... 70 Doses!

Ding! Ding! Ding! America wins a prize!!!

CDC wants your child to have 70 vaccines by the time they are 18 years old!

70!

...50 of those are before the age of 6, and 37 of those are before the age of 18 months.

CDC is blind, deaf and dumb when it comes to vaccine injury and resistance to over vaccination.

Today the ACIP recommended a 5th dose of the 13 valent pneumococcal vaccine for those kids who only received the 7 valent version, which is essentially every child alive because that was the only version given until this year.

They are also recommending an additional flu shot this fall for any child who did not get the H1N1 last year.

I was a Navy brat, born in 1969, and the US Government vaccinated the hell out of me. I look at my shot record and it looks like they vaccinated me every time we moved. Just in case. (I got six polio shots!)

Yet my grand total until age 18 was 29 doses of vaccine. And my babies "need' 70?

Actually, come to think of it... how did I ever survive with less than half the vaccines that a child 'needs' today?!

Has anyone ever calculated the costs of those 70 vaccines? I wonder how much each child is worth to pharma as a vaccine receptacle?

We Finally Get a Vaxxed v. Unvaxxed Study, Vaccinated Primates Have Brain Changes Seen In Autism

We finally get a vaccinated v. unvaccinated study. No... no actual children yet, but infant rhesus macaque monkeys.



And no wonder main stream medicine doesn't want vaccine studies with an actual baseline (completely unvaccinated), because the results are dramatic.

The infant primates vaccinated according to the US vaccine schedule (equivalent to their size/development rate, pre 2002 shots WITH full doses of mercury) showed the same brain changes found in children with autism. The amygdala, the fear and anxiety center, did not mature properly in the vaccinated group, and those differences did not appear until AFTER the 12 month vaccines were given.

The abstract:

Influence of pediatric vaccines on amygdala growth and opioid
ligand binding in rhesus macaque infants: A pilot study

Acta Neurobiol Exp 2010, 70: 147–164
©2010 by Polish Neuroscience Society - PTBUN, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology

Laura Hewitson1,2,*, Brian J. Lopresti3, Carol Stott4, N. Scott Mason3 and Jaime Tomko1

1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA;
2Thoughtful House Center for Children, Austin, TX, USA; 3Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh School of
Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; 4Independent Chartered Scientist, Cambridge, UK;
*Email: lch1@pitt.edu

This longitudinal, case-control pilot study examined amygdala growth in rhesus macaque infants receiving the complete US childhood vaccine schedule (1994-1999). Longitudinal structural and functional neuroimaging was undertaken to examine central effects of the vaccine regimen on the developing brain. Vaccine-exposed and saline-injected control infants underwent MRI and PET imaging at approximately 4 and 6 months of age, representing two specific timeframes within the vaccination schedule. Volumetric analyses showed that exposed animals did not undergo the maturational changes over time in amygdala volume that was observed in unexposed animals. After controlling for left amygdala volume, the binding of the opioid antagonist [11C]diprenorphine (DPN) in exposed animals remained relatively constant over time, compared with unexposed animals, in which a significant decrease in [11C]DPN binding occurred. These results suggest that maturational changes in amygdala volume and the binding capacity of [11C]DPN in the amygdala was significantly altered in infant macaques receiving the vaccine schedule. The macaque infant is a relevant animal model in which to investigate specific environmental exposures and structural/functional neuroimaging during neurodevelopment.

Key Words: rhesus macaques, Macaca mulatta, non-human primates, animal model, neuroimaging, PET, MRI, amygdala, opioids, ethyl mercury, thimerosal, neurotoxicity

The full paper: Hewitson et. al.

The editorial written by the editor of the journal, who says:

An alarming finding is reported by Hewitson and coworkers showing that, in infant monkeys that were immunized, the amygdala does not show the normal pattern of maturation but is hypertrophied. Although these are only preliminary data, given the well-known role of the amygdala in generation of fear and other negative emotions, they support the possibility that there is a link between early immunization and the etiology of autism.

Mark Blaxill and Dan Olmsted's discussion of the paper: New Study Shows Vaccines Cause Brain Changes Found in Autism

It should be noted that in the spring of 2008, The American Academy of Pediatrics was informed of this study. At the conclusion of the DAN conference in Cherry Hill, NJ in April of 2008, Dr. Jerry Kartzinel personally discussed it with Dr. Louis Cooper who was there representing the AAP. Cooper skirted the issue, acting as if he was concerned with the cost of the study, and Kartzinel replied that the study was fully funded and underway. Cooper was clearly not comfortable with the discussion of the study, and changed the subject. In their discussion of what Cooper had seen at the conference and how to proceed with some sort of partnership between ARI and AAP, Cooper had already stated to Kartzinel:

"I’m concerned about immunization policy and how you protect immunization."

To my knowledge, AAP never got back to anyone on their input into, or involvement with, this primate study. Note that the study was not published by Pediatrics, where it belongs, as it is AAP's journal and AAP is Pharma's main vaccine distributor. I am sure they want this buried as deep as is possible.

I am interested to see what AAP's public comment will be on this. If there is one.

AAP's (@ameracadpeds)twitter page can be found here: http://twitter.com/ameracadpeds

Feel free to call this post to their attention.

Gulf Oil Spill Science Experiment On All Says Biologist

Gardasil May Cause Cervical Cancer

Awesome, right?

From the Examiner:

Warning, Gardasil may cause increased risk of cervical cancer
June 30, 10:34 Norma Erickson

Buyer beware: Gardasil, given under the wrong conditions, may increase the risk of cervical cancer.

Would you consent to giving your child a vaccine that caused an increased risk of cancer? That may be exactly what you are doing when you consent to Gardasil.

According to Information the manufacturer of this vaccine presented to the FDA prior to approval, if a person has already been exposed to HPV 16 or 18 prior to injection Gardasil increases the risk of precancerous lesions, or worse, by 44.6%. (See VRBPAC Background document, bottom of page 13) This documentation was presented on the 18th of May 2006.

That statement bears repeating, if you have been exposed to HPV 16 or 18 prior to injection and take the vaccine, you increase your risk of precancerous lesions, or worse, by 44.6%.

Is this information advertised? No! This information was actually presented to the FDA by Merck. It came from their own safety trials. The FDA did not respond by recommending screening for HPV prior to vaccination. The FDA did not even demand a warning be included in the package insert....

The Autism Rate is 3.5% in Israel? WTF!

UPDATE: This article was written carelessly... 3.5% was the rate of IVF in the general population... NOT autism. It should read: "a significantly higher number than the 3.5% IVF rate in the general Israeli population." Thanks Michelle.

But as the autism rate in the Minnesota Somali population is 1 in 28 and CDC, two years later, still can't find the time to go study them, and no one seems disturbed by that phenom... I don't think that my incredulousness over the blaze attitude with which dramatic changes in autism rates are met is unwarranted.

We have got to wake up..

Original Post: Talk about burying the lead!

This article on the high autism rate among IVF children in Israel (more than ten percent) almost casually mentions that autism, in the general population there is 3.5%! That is 1 in 29 children!

IVF Linked to Autism, Israeli Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (June 30, 2010) — The first "test tube baby" was born in 1978. With advances in reproductive science, an estimated one percent of all American babies are now born each year through in vitro fertilization (IVF). But IVF and other assisted fertility treatments may be solving one problem by creating another, suggests new evidence from Tel Aviv University.

In a recent study, Dr. Ditza Zachor of Tel Aviv University's Sackler School of Medicine reported a strong link between IVF and mild to moderate cases of autism. Her findings were presented last month at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia.

According to her research at the Autism Center at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Israel, which Dr. Zachor directs, 10.5% of 461 children diagnosed with a disorder on the autism spectrum were conceived using IVF, a significantly higher number than the 3.5% autism rate in the general Israeli population.

Where does this number come from? And why is this not on the front page of every newspaper in the world! A disorder that was only documented 70 years ago, when only 11 children in the world could be found by the father of child psychiatry over the course of 8 years, is now the dx of between 1 and 3.5 percent of the industrialized world? What the Fuck?!!!

The UK number is 1 in 60. The published US number is 1 in 90, but that is for 12 year olds, I don't even know what the rate is for my son's birth cohort in 2002, and I hear that in the halls of government the number 1 in 60 is being batted around as the real number in the US as well!

Last fall, the 09.09.09 campaign that the National Autism Association put on asked the question... when was autism going to be considered urgent.. it has gone from 1 in 250 to 1 in 90 since my son was diagnosed six years ago... NAA asked, does it have to get to 1 in 20 before people get upset and actually do something?

APPARENTLY NOT EVEN THAT HIGH A RATE WILL CAUSE ALARM!!! A 1 in 29 rate is buried in Science Daily?! I reiterate... WHAT THE FUCK!!

I can't help asking the question... are we seeing the beginning of the downfall of the human race? Remember the beginning of Shaun Of The Dead, how our hero was drifting through London not noticing that society was falling down around him? Is that happening here? What is happening?! Why is no one freaking out?!