Fluoride Dangerous for Infants

ADA reverses position, warns its members that fluoride is too dangerous to be consumed by infants
by: Ben Kage
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

(NewsTarget) On Nov. 9, the American Dental Association released an email
alert to its members warning that, in order to prevent tooth damage,
fluoridated water should not be mixed into formula or foods intended for
babies aged 1 and younger.

Currently, two-thirds of the U.S. public water supply has fluoride
chemicals added, a move centered on a now-disproved theory that fluoride
ingestion prevents cavities. Research by the Centers for Disease Control
has shown that fluoride absorbs into tooth enamel topically, but ingestion
of the chemical can cause adverse reactions. Also, the CDC admitted that
enamel fluoride concentration was not inversely related to cavities.

Fluoridated bottled water is available in stores across the United States
along with instructions to mix into formula, which is what prompted the
ADA to warn its members.

"Infants could receive a greater than optimal amount of fluoride through
liquid concentrate or powdered baby formula that has been mixed with water
containing fluoride during a time that their developing teeth may be
susceptible to enamel fluorosis," stated the ADA report, describing the
condition marked by pitting and white spotting as well as yellow and/or
brown teeth.

Paul Beeber, lawyer and New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation
(NYSCOF) president, noted that news releases from the NYSCOF in 2000 and
2004 cited studies that linked fluorisis to infant foods mixed with
fluoridated water. However, Beeber remarked, it took the ADA until 2006 to
release its alert, right after the FDA disapproved of marketing
fluoridated water to babies in October and the National Research Council
reported that babies are fluoride overdosed from "optimally" fluoridated
water supplies.

"The ADA claims the NRC report didn't question the safety of fluoridation
but it did, as the ADA now admits," Beeber said. "The NRC also revealed
fluoridation's adverse effects to the thyroid gland, diabetics, kidney
patients, high water drinkers and others."

He added that the ADA warning had only gone out to its members, and asked,
"Who will alert parents?"

The Environmental Protection Agency, which sets allowable water fluoride
levels, is required to consider the most vulnerable members of a
population, so allowable fluoride levels should be near zero to protect
infants.

"This should end water fluoridation," Beeber said. "Fluoridation is a
failed concept that must be abandoned before more Americans are harmed."

Study into Raising Glutathione

Researchers in Texas Launch Autism Study Using Protein Supplement
Wednesday November 22, 1:12 pm ET

DALLAS, Texas, Nov. 22 /PRNewswire/ - Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and Immunotec Research Ltd. have initiated a study in which a specially formulated whey protein isolate (Immunocal)will be used to raise glutathione levels in an attempt to lessen symptoms of autism.

Autism is a neurological developmental disorder that affects children's ability to socialize normally, impairs language skills, restricts their interests and curiosity and causes other behavioral abnormalities. Most cases are diagnosed before three years of age, and there has been an alarming increase in the number of cases diagnosed over the past two decades. Currently, 1 in every 175 American children is being identified as having autism, and these numbers are on the rise each year. To date, medical treatment of this disorder has been minimally effective.

Although the causes of autism have not been clearly identified, research has suggested that chronic biochemical imbalance plays a role. Studies have shown that levels of the major intracellular antioxidant "Glutathione" is typically about 50% lower in children with autism. Glutathione, which is produced by every cell in the body, is responsible for a number of functions including removing or neutralizing dangerous substances that we are exposed to on a daily basis, including toxic metals. Toxins, pollution, disease, stress, and poor diet can all contribute to loss of glutathione. When glutathione levels reach a critically low degree, we are much more vulnerable to toxins and immune dysfunction.

Principal investigator for this study is Dr. Janet Kern, an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern, which is internationally recognized for its clinical and research programs.

"Some children with autism are poor detoxifiers relative to normally developing children, and in particular, have trouble excreting toxic metals," said Dr. Kern. "Toxic metals that are not eliminated may build up in the brain. Plasma glutathione has been found to be lower in children with autism, particularly, in children with autism who have regressed. We want to clearly establish that raising glutathione levels in these children will improve their ability to detoxify these substances and in that way improve some of their symptoms."

Dr. Jill James, Professor of Pediatrics at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, will be a co-investigator. Dr. James is noted for her landmark studies in autism and toxicology and is among the first scientists to point out the links with low glutathione levels. " We know that Immunocal has been used to raise glutathione in other studies very effectively in areas such as cancer and lung disease. We want to take advantage of this same technology", stated James.

The team will be using a protein supplement produced by Immunotec Research Ltd. near Montreal, Quebec, Canada, called "Immunocal". It is identified by the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR) as a glutathione precursor. Immunotec Research Ltd. has combined rigorous research and business acumen delivering natural healthcare and dietary supplements in 22 countries worldwide.

Source: IMMUNOTEC RESEARCH LTD.

Professor Challenges Autism Assumption

Professor Challenges Autism Assumption: A Willamette U. researcher says the notion that autistic children often have low IQs is flawed
The Oregonian
STEVEN CARTER
Saturday, November 25, 2006

The conventional wisdom that children with autism are often mentally retarded may be wrong, according to research by a Willamette University professor.

Meredyth Goldberg Edelson, trained as a clinical child psychologist, has discovered that decades of literature linking autism with retardation were based on flawed assertions or contained no empirical research at all.

Mental retardation -- as contrasted with the less precise term "mentally disabled" -- is defined by professionals as a disability that occurs before age 18, characterized by an intelligence quotient under 70 and serious limitations in social and adaptive skills.

Goldberg Edelson reviewed 215 studies on autism, dating to 1937, which made 223 claims about the rates of mental retardation in autism. Only 58 of those claims were supported by data, she found, and most researchers stated their results without reporting how they measured intelligence.

Most of the studies that measured intelligence used tests that were inappropriate, Goldberg Edelson found.

"Many times, if the researchers had a child they couldn't test, they just assumed he or she was retarded and assigned a low IQ score," Goldberg Edelson said.

Autism is a developmental disability that causes problems with communications and social interaction. It is characterized by repetitive behavior and devotion to routine. The severity of symptoms varies widely. The cause is suspected to be complicated interactions between environmental and genetic factors that aren't fully understood.

A child's cognitive ability has never been part of the criteria for autism, but it is frequently mentioned as an associated characteristic. A widely used reference book, the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," says in most cases, autism is accompanied by mild to profound mental retardation. Other current literature says mental retardation accompanies autism in 67 percent to 90 percent of cases.

Goldberg Edelson, a psychology professor, came to autism research through her husband, Stephen M. Edelson, a researcher and author who was studying effective treatments for children with autism. He asked her to check the intelligence of the children in his tests.

Eventually, she tested 293 children and discovered that their IQ frequently was higher than had been determined by prior tests. Goldberg Edelson found that often the children had been given timed tests or tests that required them to follow verbal instructions or give verbal answers, conditions that are frequently hard for autistic children to deal with.

Goldberg Edelson used untimed tests that measured nonverbal intelligence. On average, the children scored a 90 -- near average -- on the IQ scale. Only 19 percent were within the range of mental retardation.

That prompted Edelson to examine the literature on autism.

She found that much of it wasn't legitimate research, and those studies that did assess intelligence were flawed in their methodology. Her results were published recently in Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, a scholarly journal on autism.

Bertram Malle, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, said autism covers a wide spectrum of developmental disorders and some children with autism are highly intelligent.

"It's important for parents of autistic children to understand that there in a huge range of intellectual capacity and behavior," he said. "Some of the behavior is amenable to improvement.

Malle said he's seen cases in his own field, social psychology, in which long-held assertions turn out not to be valid. "Sometimes stereotypical beliefs are held on to," he said. "You make a claim, it's not challenged, and then the claim is repeated to the point that it becomes generally accepted."

Goldberg Edelson said it's clear that the real rate of mental retardation among autistic individuals isn't known. "I think we need to go back to the beginning and find out just what we do and do not know about autism and mental retardation, she siad.

Goldberg Edelson, 45, said she hopes that her research helps prevent therapists and educators from setting artificially low expectations for children with autism.

"In the 1950s, children with autism were institutionalized," she said. "If most children with autism aren't mentally retarded, we need to find ways for them to interact with society and help them become all they can."

Steven Carter: 503-221-8521

Death of a Hero

Bernard Rimland was one of my heroes.

If not for him I might be called a Refrigerator Mother.

If not for him Chandler may never have answered to his own name.

That he had the courage in the 60's to stand up to the establishment and say that his son had a medical illness, not psychological scars, changed the paradigm and began the search for treatments. And the first treatment that was found, was not discovered by Dr. Rimland himself, but mothers who began writing to him after his book was published to tell him that their children seemed to get better when they were on B vitamins. He listened to them, and Kirkland Labs listened to him, and the first real study on what would help our children was launched.

It was because he freed those mothers from the guilt that their children's disorder was caused by their lack of love that they could start finding a way to help their children.

If there is ANY justice in this world, Dr. Bernard Rimland will get the Nobel Prize.

The Autism Research Institute

UPDATE:

Autism World Loses A Giant: Bernard Rimland

Autistic children and their parents said goodbye to their best friend and greatest champion on Tuesday, November 21st when Dr. Bernard Rimland, founder and director of the Autism Research Institute, passed away at the age of 78.

Dr. Stephen M. Edelson, who is assuming the position of Director of ARI, says, “Dr. Rimland will go down in history as the person who ended the ‘dark ages’ of autism and spearheaded the fight to bring hope and help to autistic children. When he began his work in the field of autism in the 1960s, psychiatrists blamed parents for their children’s autism, institutionalized those children, and ‘treated’ them by drugging them into submission. Today, autistic children receive effective educational interventions and biomedical treatments that bring about dramatic improvement and often even recovery. At every step of this revolution, Dr. Rimland led the way—and at every step, he had to fight tooth-and-nail against an establishment determined to maintain the status quo.”

Dr. Rimland’s forty years of work on behalf of autistic children began with a single child: his own son, Mark Rimland, born in 1956. In the most recent version of the DAN! treatment manual, Dr. Rimland wrote, “Mark was a screaming, implacable infant who resisted being cuddled and struggled against being picked up. He also struggled against being put down. Our pediatrician, Dr. Black, who had been in practice for 35 years, had never seen nor heard of a child like Mark. Neither Dr. Black nor I, who at that time was three years beyond my Ph.D. in psychology, had ever seen or heard the word ‘autism.’”

It wasn’t until Mark turned two that Dr. Rimland’s wife, Gloria, remembered reading in college about children with symptoms like their child’s. Digging through a dusty box of Gloria’s textbooks in the garage, Dr. Rimland saw the word “autism” for the first time. That discovery was the first step in a quest that covered nearly half a century.

Dr. Rimland’s battle to help autistic children began in the early 1960s, when psychoanalysis reigned and professionals believed that autism stemmed from a “refrigerator mother’s” subconscious rejection of her child. Treatments, prescribed by leading authority Bruno Bettelheim and other psychoanalysts, included having children kick and spit on statues representing their mothers.

Knowing that Mark was a greatly loved child and that the “refrigerator mother” theory was both wrong and destructive, Dr. Rimland set out to discover all that was known about autism. He scoured libraries for articles on autism, including foreign articles he had translated, and found, as he noted later, “not a shred of evidence” to support the hypothesis that bad parenting caused autism.

What he discovered, instead, was powerful evidence that autism was a biological disorder—a fact that seems obvious now, but was revolutionary at the time. He outlined this evidence in his seminal book Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior, published in 1964. The book changed the autism world forever: it won the Century Award for distinguished contribution to psychology and, as one reporter put it, “blew Bettelheim’s theory all to hell.” For parents, the nightmare of being blamed for their children’s terrifying disorder was over.

Most people would be content to rest on their laurels at that point, but Dr. Rimland was barely getting warmed up. He’d revolutionized an entire field, but he still had no way to help his own son. So he formed the National Society for Autistic Children (NSAC), now known as the Autism Society of America. Through this group, parents of children with autism—a very rare disorder, at the time—could offer each other moral support and practical advice about which therapies worked and which didn’t.

Dr. Rimland started ASA in large part to promote “behavior modification” (now known as Applied Behavioral Analysis, or ABA), a treatment then being pioneered by a very controversial young psychologist named Ivar Lovaas. Authorities in the autism field scoffed at Lovaas’s claim that autistic children could be helped by something as simple and straightforward as behavior modification, but Dr. Rimland spread the word through NSAC and parents began fighting for this therapy for their children. Today, of course, ABA is the educational treatment of choice for autistic children, and many autistic children who receive early ABA improve dramatically.

Dr. Rimland knew, however, that educational treatments alone could not adequately address a devastating biological disorder such as autism. In 1967, he started the nonprofit Autism Research Institute in order to create a worldwide research center and clearinghouse for biomedical treatments (which barely existed at the time). In 1985, he retired from his career as a psychologist for the Navy to devote the remainder of his life to autism research.

The first treatment Dr. Rimland investigated, based on reports from parents of autistic children, was high-dose vitamin B6. Other authorities in the autism field considered the idea that a vitamin could correct a brain disorder to be preposterous, but time and research proved them wrong. To date, 22 studies (including 13 double-blind studies) show that vitamin B6, typically combined with magnesium, benefits a large percentage of autistic children.

“One of the most remarkable things about Dr. Rimland,” says Dr. Edelson, “is that he realized in the early days that parents held many of the keys to solving the mystery of autism. From day one, he listened to them and respected them—and he followed their lead. If five or six parents reported, ‘DMG makes my child much better,’ he didn’t ignore them; instead, he organized a study to see if other children responded the same way. For a professional psychologist, even one who was the parent of an autistic child, this was a revolutionary viewpoint—and it’s a key reason why ARI has always led the way in identifying new treatments and uncovering the roots of autism.”

One important clue contributed by parents of autistic children put ARI squarely in the middle of a huge controversy: the debate about the safety of vaccines. Early in his work, Dr. Rimland received many reports of children who had no disability before receiving DPT vaccinations. As time went on, the number of reports snowballed, and included other vaccines. At the same time, as the number of vaccines received by children grew, autism rates began climbing relentlessly. When Dr. Rimland learned that most childhood vaccines contained thimerosal—a preservative that is nearly 50% mercury, a powerful neurotoxin—he realized that the escalating numbers of vaccines given to children could be the culprit behind skyrocketing rates of autism. His suspicions grew when he discovered that the symptoms of autism bear many similarities to the symptoms of mercury poisoning.

The medical establishment, not surprisingly, expressed great antagonism toward this theory. They turned a blind eye as well to strong evidence implicating wheat and milk proteins, persistent measles infection in the gut from MMR vaccines, and other environmental factors in causing or exacerbating autism. And they continued to scorn biomedical treatments, even when hundreds and eventually thousands of parents reported that these treatments worked – often dramatically. So Dr. Rimland began yet another new project, this time aimed at quickly identifying causes of autism and promoting the safe and effective treatments that mainstream medicine refused to investigate.

To accomplish this mission he created the Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) project, jump-starting the project in 199- by bringing together dozens of the world’s leading researchers in different fields to create a state-of-the-art treatment plan and prioritize research goals. This small first meeting grew into a worldwide DAN! movement that now includes huge standing-room-only conferences, major research projects, a treatment manual, and hundreds of DAN!-trained physicians. A happy offshoot of this massive effort is the “Recovered Autistic Children” project, in which parents whose children improve or even recover because of DAN!-oriented treatment are spreading the word that “autism is treatable.” Dr. Rimland and Dr. Edelson also collaborated on Recovering Autistic Children, a book of stories about children who improved or recovered as a result of DAN!-oriented treatment.

In addition to these projects, Dr. Rimland served as a technical advisor for Rainman, the Academy-Award-winning film that introduced millions of moviegoers to the world of the autistic savant. As editor of the Autism Research Review International, now in its twentieth year of publication, he also provided parents and professionals with crucial information about autism treatments and research—as well as with his trademark editorials, often scorching in their condemnation of established medicine’s failure to help autistic children.

Dr. Rimland achieved worldwide fame and a reputation as a giant in his field, and his friends ranged from Hollywood stars to national media figures. Yet unlike many professionals, he didn’t know the meaning of an “ivory tower.” In his few free moments each day, he responded to letters, phone calls, faxes, and emails from thousands of distraught parents around the world. His vast network of friends knew him as an extraordinarily generous soul and an irrepressible “yenta,” whose greatest joy lay in bringing strangers together for the benefit of all. He was also a soft touch, incapable of saying “no” to any worthwhile cause—no matter how large or small. (The San Diego branch of the Autism Society was probably the only chapter whose Christmas party once featured an internationally-renowned autism researcher playing Santa Claus.)

How did Dr. Rimland find time to juggle enough huge projects for ten lifetimes, and also help out every friend (or stranger) who needed a hand? He spent seven days a week in his office. Some nights, he slept on the office floor. And everyone who worked with him knew that if the phone rang at 10 p.m., it was Dr. Rimland with another idea – often an earth-shaking one. (Not all of his ideas and interests involved autism. He owned several patents for inventions, and was an inveterate “tinkerer.”)

Dr. Rimland’s remarkable wife, Gloria, gracefully handled his nearly-impossible schedule while keeping a home with three children running smoothly. The autism community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Gloria Rimland for the inspiration and moral support she provided Dr. Rimland throughout the years – as well as her willingness to share her husband with an entire world of “autism parents.” The autism world sends its deep condolences to Gloria and to their children, Mark, Paul, and Helen.

“Our community is greatly diminished by the loss of Dr. Rimland,” says Dr. Edelson. “His legacy, however, will live on in the work of ARI and the DAN! project – and in the joy of families whose children, dismissed as ‘hopeless’ and ‘incurable’ by the medical establishment, are now leading happy, healthy, productive lives. It’s exactly the legacy that Dr. Rimland would want.

____________

A graveside memorial service will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, November 22,
at 2 pm on the Shalom Lawn at Greenwood Memorial Park in San Diego. The
public is welcome to attend.

In lieu of flowers, Dr. Rimland's family asks that donations be made to the
Autism Research Institute (4182 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116).
Donations can also be made online on ARI's website www.AutismResearchInstitute.com.

More coverage:

Bernard Rimland; psychologist 'ended the dark ages of autism'

By Jack Williams
STAFF WRITER
Union Tribune
November 22, 2006


Bernard Rimland, a psychologist whose unremitting quest for answers to
autism opened a new era of treatment and hope for victims of the brain
disorder, died of cancer yesterday. He was 78.

Dr. Rimland, executive director and founder of the Autism Research
Institute in Kensington, died at Victoria Special Care in El Cajon, said
Jean Walcher, a spokeswoman for the family.

In challenging the once-prevailing theory that the condition stemmed from
a mother's subconscious rejection of her child, Dr. Rimland found that
autism was a biological disorder. His evidence was outlined in his seminal
book, “Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural
Theory of Behavior,” published in 1964.

“Dr. Rimland will go down in history as the person who ended the dark ages
of autism and spearheaded the fight to bring hope and help to autistic
children,” said Dr. Stephen M. Edelson, his successor at the helm of the
Autism Research Institute.

As the father of an autistic son, Mark, born in 1956, Dr. Rimland began to
exhaustively research what at the time was a mystery to parents as well as
the medical profession.

In so doing, he once noted, there is “not a shred of evidence” to support
the hypothesis that indifferent parenting caused the disorder.

In 1967, while employed as a Navy psychologist, Dr. Rimland founded his
nonprofit institute a block from his home to create an international
source of research and information for biomedical treatments. When he
retired from his Navy job in 1985, he devoted the rest of his life to
autism research.

“Now I spend 80 hours a week on autism,” he told The San Diego
Union-Tribune in 1998.

“He was the pioneer who changed everything about the way autism is viewed;
parents and professionals owe him everything,” said Chantal Sicile-Kira,
an autism author and activist who has a 17-year-old son with the disorder.

“Bernie was like a god to parents like me,” Sicile-Kira said. “He's
revered all over the world for moving forward biomedical interventions
through research.”

Dr. Rimland created the National Society for Autistic Children, now known
as the Autism Society of America, to bring together parents of children
with autism and to promote a treatment known as Applied Behavior Analysis.
The latter, pioneered by psychologist Ivar Lavaas, has proved successful
as the educational treatment of choice for autistic children.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as
many as one in 166 Americans 21 or younger is afflicted with autism, which
affects children in different ways.

The variety of symptoms include withdrawal from human contact, sensory
confusion, parrotlike speech, a compulsion for sameness and a repetitive
self-stimulating behavior such as tapping teeth.

Sometimes the symptoms are accompanied by extraordinary talents, as in the
case of the autistic savant portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 1988
Academy Award-winning movie “Rain Man,” for which Dr. Rimland was a
technical adviser.

In the 1990s, Dr. Rimland expanded his influence by co-founding Defeat
Autism Now!, widely known as DAN!, which brought together dozens of the
world's leading researchers in diverse fields to define research goals and
pursue a state-of-the-art treatment plan.

The effort spawned annual conferences on both coasts, major research
projects, a treatment manual and hundreds of DAN!-trained physicians.

Dr. Rimland also reached parents and professionals as editor of a
newsletter, Autism Research Review International, updating readers on
treatments and research.

He was at the forefront of the controversial concept of vitamin therapy to
address autism, particularly high doses of B6. More than 20 studies show
that B6, typically combined with magnesium, benefits a large percentage of
autistic children, according to the Autism Research Institute.

Equally controversial was his suggestion that child vaccines containing
thimerosal, a preservative that is nearly 50 percent mercury, could
promote autism. His suspicions grew when he discovered that symptoms of
autism bear many similarities to the symptoms of mercury poisoning.

“Bernie wasn't afraid to have people say, 'Gosh, this guy's nuts; it's a
crazy idea,' ” Sicile-Kira said. “He felt that if it could be validated by
research it's worth trying so long as it's not going to hurt somebody.”

Dr. Rimland, a San Diegan since 1940, was born Nov. 15, 1928, in Cleveland.

In the early 1950s, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in
experimental psychology at San Diego State College. He received a
doctorate in the discipline in 1954 from Pennsylvania State University.

As a research psychologist in the Navy, he designed tests to measure a
recruit's aptitude for various jobs. In 1955, he became an adjunct
professor in psychology at San Diego State.

When he became a first-time father in 1956, he began to seek solutions and
answers to his son's behavior.

“Mark was a screaming, implacable infant who resisted being cuddled and
struggled against being picked up. He also struggled against being put
down,” he later wrote.

After finding no psychological basis for the disorder in his research, he
devoted his free time to studying neuropsychology in an effort to
understand the physiological factors. His quest led to the manuscript for
“Infantile Autism,” which received the Award for Distinguished
Contribution to Psychology before it was published as a book.

Once the book was published, he was inundated with letters and calls from
parents.

“I will never stop until I have found the answer or die, whichever comes
first,” he told The San Diego Union in 1988. “I will find the answer, and
if living to be 150 is what it takes – I'll do that, too.”

In recent months, as he fought cancer that originally was diagnosed in the
prostate, Dr. Rimland was forced to reduce his workload. By the end of
July, he was doing what work he could from his home.

Survivors include his wife, Gloria; sons, Mark Rimland and Paul Rimland,
both of San Diego; daughter, Helen Landalf of Seattle; and two
grandchildren.

Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. today at Greenwood Memorial Park, 4300
Imperial Ave., San Diego.

Donations are suggested to The Autism Research Institute, 4182 Adams Ave.,
San Diego, CA 92116.

Jack Williams: (619) 542-4587; jack.williams@uniontrib.com

From USAAA:

This USAAA WeeklyNews Special Edition is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Bernard Rimland

by Lawrence P. Kaplan, PhD
Executive Director, USAAA

I first met Dr. Rimland about ten years ago at an autism conference. I never realized at that time how much he would have impacted my life today. After listening to his conference presentation, my wife and I were excited to learn that we were on the right track with biomedical interventions that we had implemented long before many parents started their journey with alternative medicine.

Fast forward to 2004. I sent Dr. Rimland a galley (an unformatted version of a book's manuscript) of Diagnosis Autism: Now What?, my book that would be published in 2005. Two months later, I received a call from Dr. Rimland endorsing the book as well as spending a considerable amount of time discussing the current autism research. It was after having this memorable discussion with Dr. Rimland that I knew that it was time to form USAAA. I just didn't know when USAAA would become a reality.

My last personal meeting with Dr. Rimland was in the Long Beach Westin Hotel restaurant at a DAN conference in October, 2005. He was sitting in a corner by himself, and I asked him if I might join him for a few minutes. We ended up talking for nearly an hour about how he wanted to form a roundtable group of many autism organizations, including USAAA, to strengthen our position in advancing the cause of including biomedical interventions and environmental research into legislation. For me, it was an invigorating conversation with a soft spoken, well respected individual who had done more for autism than anyone else in the last forty years.

That was the last time I spoke with Dr. Rimland. USAAA was officially founded in July of 2005. In almost a year and a half, we have hosted an international conference (last August); we are co-hosting the Autism Vancouver Biennial Congress next March; we publish a weekly email newsletter to over 50,000 subscribers, and; we are embarking on an exciting new research project in a few months. All of this was developed with the support and inspiration from Dr. Rimland.

His memory will be honored and cherished by all of us who were fortunate enough to know him, as well as the thousands who benefited from his creation of the world-renowned (Autism Research Institute).

We, at US Autism and Asperger Association, will not only remember the incredible dedication of Dr. Rimland and the impact he had on all of us, but will continue his quest to improve the lives of thousands of children with autism - bringing relief, hope, and even recovery to families worldwide.

Escape From LA

So we have decided to say goodbye to Hollywood and head back east. Raising Chandler in Los Angeles was not the best, so we are moving to a quiet little town in Maine. We are in the process of slowly making our way, taking the old school trip across the country.

Unfortunately my computer was stolen during the packing up and I have lost TONS of information. Among the losses were a good portion of my email and addresses. So if you have written to me, and I have not written back, I won't be answering you. If we have corresponded at all, please drop me an email and remind me of anything that I may have outstanding to you. That way I will also have your information again.

I will be checking in from the road periodically over the next month and get to do much more writing once we settle in.

Eastward Ho!

From PutChildrenFirst.com

Press Briefing:

Thank you all for your time today. My name is JB Handley. Along with
my wife, Lisa, I am the co-founder of putchildrenfirst, the sponsor
of this survey of over 9,000 Americans on mercury in the flu shot.
Here's a quick test for all of you. We all know household paint is a
bit toxic. Would you rather A, spill some paint on your skin? Or, B,
take that same amount of paint, pop it in a syringe, and mainline it?
If you chose A, as our survey revealed, you are like most Americans.
If you chose B, you're like the FDA, who made it a high priority to
get mercury out of topical products we use on our skin in the 1990s,
but continued to allow mercury to be injected into humans at levels
exceeding any available safety standard. In fact, we don't even have
safety standards for injected mercury, because no one considered
someone would be crazy enough to inject a well-known neurotoxin into
their bloodstream. It's actually the preposterous nature of the
situation we find ourselves in today that contributes to the public's
confusion. I find that the first time I tell people mercury is in
their flu shot, they simply don't believe me.

Our health authorities realized mercury in vaccines was a mistake in
1999 and made a public statement to warn Americans and encourage
manufacturers to change their formulations. Seven years later, we're
still talking about mercury. That's part of the problem. Our survey
showed that almost no one realizes mercury is STILL in over 90% of
this year's flu shot supply. When they find out the truth, more than
three-quarters know to stay away from mercury and even more think
children and pregnant women should avoid it.

The CDC provides a number of answers for why mercury is still used in
vaccines, none of which can be supported with any facts or evidence.
They will characterize Thimerosal's toxicity as theoretical when in
fact there is nothing theoretical about mercury's dangers. They will
tell you ethyl-mercury, the kind used in Thimerosal, is less toxic.
There is no data to support this and in fact a recent biological
study disproved this completely. They will tell you that the flu can
kill which should certainly trump any danger posed by mercury. Yet,
they fail to mention their own recent admission in an October 2006
study in the Journal of the American Medical Association where four
CDC authors write: "It is also important to note that there is scant
data on the efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccine in young
children." And a British Medical Journal article the same month,
October 2006, noted "Evidence from systematic reviews shows that
[flu vaccines] have little or no effect on the effects measured." If
a company sold a product that didn't work and left behind a
neurotoxin they would already be bankrupt.

Anytime Thimerosal is mentioned, autism is brought up. We are not
here to talk about autism today. We are here to tell you that
Americans do not want mercury in their shots but few know it's there.
The CDC tries to make an argument that because they believe, through
their research, that Thimerosal is not responsible for the autism
epidemic, that makes Thimerosal safe. That is one high threshold for
safety. Interestingly, CDC never mentions that in the 2003 study they
authored in Pediatrics, they did find a correlation between
Thimerosal and both "tics" and "language delay." So, here's another
test for you. You bring your child in for a flu shot. The Doctor
tells you this shot has mercury, and that CDC found shots with
mercury lead to tics and language delay. What do you do?

The CDC wants you, the journalists, to report on the dire need for
all Americans to get a flu shot. In 2004, at a Vaccine Summit, the
British Medical Journal wrote the following, in criticizing what they
called the CDC's "marketing of fear"
"Glen Nowak, associate director for communications at the NIP, spoke
on using the media to boost demand for the vaccine. One step of
a "Seven-Step `Recipe' for Generating Interest in, and Demand for,
Flu Vaccination" occurs when "medical experts and public health
authorities publicly...state concern and alarm (and predict dire
outcomes) - and urge influenza vaccination"

My four year old son suffered an adverse reaction to a mercury
containing flu shot. That's why I'm here talking to you. His symptoms
included, and I quote, "brain damage, incoordination, seizures,
inability to speak and problems of his nervous and digestive system."
Those were my son's symptoms, but that quote is not from his medical
records. It's from the CDC's own website, discussing the harmful side-
effects of mercury, where they go on to warn all Americans to "keep
all mercury-containing medicines away from children."

Our survey proves that Americans understand this. Why doesn't the CDC?

Documentary of an Aspie

Autism gets a new frame in family film
BY TRACY CONNOR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Lizzie Gottlieb (r.) hugs brother Nicky Gottlieb, who stars in her documentary about Asperger Syndrome.
Most of what the average person knows about autistic adults with special abilities probably comes from the movie "Rain Man."

But New York filmmaker Lizzie Gottlieb hopes to change that with a documentary about her brother, Nicky Gottlieb, who has an autism-related disorder known as Asperger Syndrome.

The 28-year-old is the star of "Today's Man," a one-hour feature which will be shown Friday at the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History. It's a loving yet unflinching look at the paradox of Asperger: Nicky can memorize whole calendars but can't hold a 9-to-5 job; he's a whiz at foreign languages but struggles to communicate with his peers.

It also follows his parents - former New Yorker magazine editor Robert Gottlieb and actress Maria Tucci - as they encourage their son, with mixed results, to lead a more independent life.

"Physically, I'm a man," Nicky says as the movie opens with his 21st birthday party. "But mentally and emotionally I'm a boy."

Though it was obvious from infancy that Nicky was different than other children, he wasn't diagnosed with Asperger until after Lizzie started filming the documentary.

"Nicky had been this sort of strange and mysterious child," she said. "He was the most interesting, unique, odd person I knew."

He exhibits many of the hallmarks of Asperger: peculiar speech, social awkwardness - and obsessive interests. He's fixated on television, compelled to watch certain soap operas. He can recite the date of every Easter Sunday since 1900 and pinpoint the day of the week for anyone's birth date. He blithely blurts out inappropriate comments.

He gets fired from a theater company for telling subscribers one of the shows is a dud. He gets his own apartment, but soon moves back in with his parents because he enjoys the "perks," including a big television.

"Today's Man" premiered at the Nantucket Film Festival, where celebrity-loving Nicky relished the applause and his moment in the spotlight. "As he said to the audience in Nantucket, he enjoys being a star," Lizzie said. "He went up to Heather Graham at the film festival and said, 'I'm the star of a movie here, too.'"

Nicky is looking forward to the documentary, which is being pitched to TV companies, debuting in New York. "I imagine a lot of people feel like Asperger's is a real disability," he said. "But at the same time you have some extraordinary abilities - math, foreign languages, dates. I don't mean to flatter myself, but that seems like real genius."

Cali Slides Back Into Mercury Vaccines for Children

Parents now assume their kids are getting Hg free shots. It is not the case. ALWAYS check the label.

California Suspends Ban on Mercury in Vaccines
By Estee Lee
The California Aggie

(U-WIRE) DAVIS, Calif. — In light of a possible shortage of mercury-free vaccines in California, Secretary of California Health and Human Services Kimberly Belshe decided on Nov. 2 to suspend the law requiring the manufacturing of vaccines without mercury for the next six weeks.

“The health threat that seasonal influenza presents is severe and all too often deadly,” Belshe stated in a press release. “Given the real constraints on availability of mercury-free seasonal flu vaccine, we feel it is important to offer this short-term alternative ... to ensure young children are protected from the potentially severe effects of the flu.”

The law, which was ratified by Gov. Schwarzenegger in September 2004, took effect in July of this year, prohibiting the administration of vaccines containing mercury to women who know they are pregnant and to children younger than three years of age.

The law was prompted by the suspicion of the connection between mercury and autism. Although studies conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not find conclusive evidence linking the mercury-based preservative thimerosal to autism in children, several public health organizations still recommended reducing unnecessary exposure to mercury.

According to Rick Rollens, co-founder of the UC Davis Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Ddisorders Institute, thimerosal is an antibacterial agent used to prevent the contamination of vaccine vials used for more than one needle. The compound is about 50 percent mercury.

As the father of an autistic child and an active leader in the battle against autism, Rollens feels that mercury should be avoided for the neurotoxin that it is. He explained that the substance, once injected into the body, bypasses the immune system; he further stated that it could be a contributing factor to autism and other neurological disorders.

At this time, only one manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, makes vaccines that comply with California's new regulations. It was reported that the company was experiencing shipment delays and therefore causing the shortage in California.

In a letter to chairman, president and CEO of Sanofi Pasteur, Dave Williams, Gov. Schwarzenegger stated, “Due to production and/or shipment delays by your company, California is experiencing a shortfall ... Given the severe health threat that seasonal influenza presents, this delay could have deadly consequences.”

According to the California Health and Human Services Agency, approximately 36,000 people in the United States die from influenza and its complications each year. During the 2004 flu season, more than 150 children in the U.S. died from the disease.

“No other vaccine-preventable disease kills more people in this country,” Belshe stated.

Despite the temporary suspension of the ban, Belshe said the state is still committed to the full implementation of this law and urges the building of new production plants to process mercury-free vaccines.

Barton Can't Hold Up Autism Research Any More

This week has brought something that I never thought I would experience in all my days. Happiness that the Republicans lost the House.

God said, "what you do to the least of these, you do unto Me". Apparently He didn't like what Joe Barton was doing to Him.

Research bill expected to pass under probable new head of committee

12:00 AM CST on Thursday, November 9, 2006

By RANDY LEE LOFTIS / The Dallas Morning News

Democratic control of the House changes the nation's environmental agenda and affects a related topic that has stirred strong feelings: research on autism.

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, won his race, but with his party out of power, he will lose the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

That has raised hopes for those advocating House approval of a bill that Mr. Barton blocked this fall. His decision to prevent a vote on the nearly $1 billion autism package, which includes $45 million for research on possible environmental causes, infuriated parents of autistic children nationwide.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who will probably be the new committee chairman when the Democrats take control of the House next year, wants a House vote on the autism legislation. But Mike Bernoski of Arlington, father of a 3-year-old with autism, said advocates want action during the lame-duck congressional session before the year's end.

"We feel very positive that next year we can get this done," Mr. Bernoski said. "But this legislation's not going to be any different 12 months from now. The difference is by then we'll have another 36,000 kids with autism who won't have the benefit of the bill."

The old and new chairmen have nearly opposite environmental voting records.

In 2005, the League of Conservation Voters, the environmental movement's political arm, gave Mr. Barton a zero rating and Mr. Dingell 89 out of a possible 100.

The American Land Rights Association, which opposes restrictions on mining and other commercial activities on federal land, gave Mr. Barton a 100 in 2005 and Mr. Dingell a zero.

Mr. Barton's record includes:

• Pressing the Environmental Protection Agency in 2003 and 2004 to leave Ellis County out of a regional smog plan that required pollution cuts from North Texas' biggest industries. Mike Leavitt, then head of the EPA, rebuffed Mr. Barton and put Ellis County in the plan.

• Holding hearings this year challenging the scientific basis of global warming.

• Seeking exemptions from environmental rules for refineries, limits on pollution lawsuits involving the gasoline additive MTBE, and extensions of federal deadlines for fighting urban smog. Each attempt failed.

Mr. Dingell's record includes:

• Pushing tougher clean-water laws and protection for endangered species and their habitats.

• Calling for an investigation of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force – the kind of probe that, as chairman, he could order.

E-mail rloftis@dallasnews.com

Boy on the Moon

The Daylights

Watch for Falling Children

I have a herniated disk in my neck that is pinching off the nerves in my right arm.

Here is why:


My boy enjoys launching his body 45 lb. at people, but just assumees they know that he is coming and will catch him. Even if you are looking the other way. Or have your hands full of stuff, like a camera.

Has anyone done a study of ASD parents to see just how many serious physical assults they have suffered or to see if wearing some sort of protective hockey gear or body armor might help?

NAA Cites Serious Shortcoming in CDC Flu Shot Safety Study

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
October 31, 2006

Contact:
Wendy Fournier, NAA (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523
Lori McIlwain (Cary, NC) 919-468-6455


National Autism Association Cites Serious Shortcoming in CDC Flu Shot Safety Study
Six-week follow-up called “ridiculously inadequate” by autism advocacy group

Nixa, MO – A study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating that the influenza vaccine is safe for infants and toddlers is being criticized for the brief six-week follow-up of subjects involved in the study. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nine of the 19 authors admit ties with vaccine makers including Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, and others.

“Following-up with these children for a mere six weeks is ridiculously inadequate,” according to National Autism Association (NAA) executive director Rita Shreffler. “The neurological injuries that result in diagnoses such as autism do not typically occur immediately after getting shots. Exposures to vaccine toxins such as mercury are cumulative and symptoms of injury may not be apparent for months or even years. Apparently, this is yet another CDC-drug company collaboration to whitewash thimerosal and ensure that flu shots are as profitable as possible, regardless of their long term adverse effects.”

Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative used in most flu shots, including those often received by pregnant women and young children. While some mercury-free flu shots are manufactured each year, the majority contain 25 micrograms of mercury, an amount considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency for an adult weighing 550 pounds. A growing number of scientific studies link mercury exposure in susceptible individuals to the development of neurological injuries such as autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The CDC now recommends the flu vaccine for pregnant women, and annually for children six months through five years of age.

At a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) last week, thimerosal was not placed on the agenda despite a request from 15 national organizations that the ACIP follow the 2001 Institute of Medicine recommendations that pregnant women, infants, and children receive thimerosal-free vaccines. CDC officials also refused to vote on stating a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines for pregnant women and children.

“Pregnant women and young children shouldn’t be exposed to mercury in any form because of the potential for serious neurological injury,” commented Laura Bono, NAA board member and mother of a vaccine-injured son. “In my opinion, failure to follow-up appropriately with the kids in this study, then based on the incomplete data, promote flu vaccines as ‘safe,’ is irresponsible, giving parents a false sense of security. Predictably, this latest from the CDC does nothing to address the long-term dangers of injecting children with mercury.”

For more information on autism, visit www.nationalautism.org

Rep. Weldon's Vaccine Safety Statement from July

Statement of Rep. Dave Weldon, M.D. (Fl-15)
July 26, 2006

Federal agencies charged with overseeing vaccine safety research have failed. They have failed to provide sufficient resources for vaccine safety research. They have failed to fund extramural research. And, they have failed to free themselves from conflicts of interest that serve to undermine public confidence in the safety of vaccines.

The American public deserves better and increasingly parents and the public at large are demanding better.

I'm a physician. I understand the importance of immunizations in protection children and the public at large from infectious disease. As a society we benefit from vaccines and as such it is important that we guard carefully vaccine safety research to ensure its objectivity.

When I first began working on this issue about seven years ago, I was shocked at the dearth of resources dedicated to vaccine safety research. The federal government dedicates far more resources to promoting the immunizations than in safety evaluations. Most vaccine safety resources are dedicated to considering short-term, or acute adverse reactions, while very few resources are dedicated to considering potential longer-term or chronic adverse reactions.

When I first tasked my staff with investigating this issue we got a lot of confused responses from federal agencies. The FDA told us to check in with the CDC, saying CDC did most of the vaccine safety research. The CDC referred us over to the NIH. Then, the NIH referred us back to the CDC. It was apparent to me that there is little coordination and very few resources dedicated to vaccine safety research.

Ironically, 20 years ago Congress established The National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) and charged NVPO with coordinating vaccine safety research. Along with safety, however, NVPO was charged with coordinating vaccine development, vaccine promotion and vaccine supply - the very conflicts that plague the CDC, and to some extent the NIH. It is no wonder that vaccine safety has been on the back burner at
NVPO for all of these years - NVPO has conflicting missions and higher priorities. NVPO is now swamped with Avian Flu preparedness and is not an appropriate place for this.

I agree with the prestigious journal Nature when in January of this year stated: "there is a strong case for a well-resourced independent agency that commends the trust of both the government and the public." That is why we are here today.

Several issues relating to vaccine safety have persisted for years. The response from public health agencies has been largely defensive from the outset and the studies plagued by conflicts of interest. Legitimate questions persist regarding the possible association between the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, and the childhood epidemic of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), including autism. There are unresolved questions about the MMR vaccine that arose in 1998 that should be fully investigated. Gardasil, the HPV vaccine was just recommended by the CDC. Vaccine manufactures have dozens of new vaccines in the pipeline. The failure of public health officials to make this a priority and to free this research from conflicts of interest will only serve to further erode public confidence at a time
when we should be working to build public confidence. It is incumbent upon us to fully investigate these issues in an independent manner.

The Senate is turning its attention to FDA reform. Unfortunately, the legislation moving through the Senate HELP Committee is deafeningly silent when it comes to improving vaccine safety research. This is particularly ironic given that federal and state governments do not mandate drugs in order to enter schools or obtain employment, yet, as a society we do impose such mandates with regard to vaccination. This is all the more reason to be particularly mindful of issues related to vaccine safety.

In his book on the subject of immunizations, Dr. Graham Wilson, the former Director of the Public Health and Laboratory Service for England and Wales, warned the public health community of the need to remain ever vigilant when it comes to vaccine safety. In 1967 he warned:

"Over confidence must at all costs be avoided… It is for us, and for those who come after us, to see that the sword which vaccines and antisera have put into our hands is never allowed to tarnish through over-confidence, negligence, carelessness, or want of foresight on our part."

Federal agencies in the U.S. charged with carrying out vaccine safety have failed to adequately heed this warning. If we continue down the current path, confidence in vaccines will continue to erode and this "sword" against disease will be tarnished.

Today, we rarely come face to face with vaccine preventable disease, but we are at risk of seeing vaccine preventable diseases rear their ugly head. Why? Because, we are confronted with the side effects of vaccines, adverse reactions and perceived adverse reactions - many of them mild, but some of them severe. This is the new and increasing challenge that we face in fighting disease.

There are two approaches we can take in the face of this new challenge.

First we can downplay the existence of adverse reactions or otherwise pretend they do not exist all-the-while such questions persists unanswered and continue to fester. Such approaches have failed to work in the past and over the long-run they can do irreparable harm to public confidence in vaccines, breaking the trust with the public and leading to the rise of infectious disease.

Conversely, we can take such hypotheses and evaluate them in an independent and objective manner. That is what we are proposing here today. Our bill corrects past mistakes. Presently, vaccine safety research is an in-house function conducted predominantly by the CDC - the very agency that makes vaccine recommendations and promotes their uptake. This should not be.

We have seen fit to eliminate such conflicts across federal agencies.

o At the National Institutes of Health we recognized the inherent conflicts of interest and created the Office of Human Subjects Protection as a separate office within HHS.

o When we established the Superfund program, Congress established the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) - Superfund's science evaluation office - as a separate agency in another department. Safety evaluation is independent of all other decisions.

o After the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, the Gehman Commission recommended that decisions about shuttle safety and launching the shuttle should be completely separate - we adopted this recommendation.

What does our bill do? It:
o Creates a new agency of vaccine safety that reports directly to the Secretary of HHS.
o Vaccine safety research is conducted in a manner that is
completely independent of any and all other vaccine-related decisions.
o Establishes a scientific review panel, similar to NIH's study sections, to evaluate the scientific merits of investigator-initiated research as the Institute of Medicine has recommended.
o Establishes a balanced 18 Member Advisory Committee to formulate a safety research agenda and to prioritize research approve by the scientific study group. Committee Includes:
o 2 vaccine industry reps
o A pediatrician
o An immunologist
o A toxicologist
o An infectious disease expert
o A geneticist
o Not less than 1/3rd of the members of the Committee have a vaccine-related injury or injured child.

Finally, as you may know the CDC has acknowledged this internal conflict. Last year, Dr. Gerberding moved the CDC's Immunization Safety Office out from under the National Immunization Program (NIP), however vaccines safety remains within the CDC. While I appreciate this initiative, and I understand her limitations in not being able to move vaccine safety outside of her agency, vaccine safety research remains woefully short of the degree of independence and funding commitment that is needed to garner wide public support and acceptance.

If government-funded vaccine safety research is to be broadly accepted, we must eliminate all real and perceived conflicts of interest. Otherwise, we will fail to achieve the level of acceptance that is necessary to restore, build, and secure public confidence over the long-run. A vaccine safety program housed anywhere within the CDC fails to achieve this independence.

We will create a separate and wholly independent office for vaccine safety research. The question that we face at present is:

'Will we create this office now in a proactive manner before public confidence further erodes, or will we do it later in reaction to growing loss of public confidence in the hope of restoring lost trust.