In February, 2007, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced the results of two surveys of autism spectrum disorders covering 22 states. Using the newly funded Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM), CDC researchers found an average rate of 1 in 150 children with an autism spectrum disorder, with New Jersey at the top, with a rate of approximately 1 in 100. On the surface, these figures suggest an epidemic.

When scientists respond that there has been no true rise in autism, that we are diagnosing autism more, and counting it better, believers in an autism epidemic - mostly parent advocates, philanthropists, and politicians - argue triumphantly that if there is no epidemic, then 1 of every 150 adults in the United States must, in fact, have autism. Along with journalists, they repeatedly ask, “Show me where the one in 150 autistic adults are. We can’t find them.”

Just where might those 1 in 150 adults with autism be?

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A new study was just published on the damaging effects of methylmercury on unborn children. It warns that mercury pollution and other environmental toxins may have caused neurological harm — including ADHD and autism — in up to 1-in-10 kids in the world, according to the website Science Daily.The study, published in the International Journal of Environment and Health, says that the methyl form of organic mercury (found in fish) can harm fetuses at levels that, until now, have been considered to be completely safe.

The finding “suggests that we should take a precautionary approach to this and similar compounds to protect unborn children from irreversible brain damage,” Science Daily writes. (more…)

There has been much discussion over the years about the famous Investigation by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his article about the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal which appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine.

Deadly Immunity - ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session — only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly “embargoed.” There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left. (more…)

The U.S. Court of Claims is hearing a series of arguments from parents who charge that vaccines gave their children autism.

The claims court is considering arguments from 4,900 parents who say that the vaccines produced autism or neurological problems in their previously normal, healthy children. While the disorder normally develops before the age of three, many of the parents claim that their older children only developed the condition after being vaccinated.

In order to deal with the large number of claims, the court’s Office of Special Masters ordered lawyers for the families to select three test cases for each of the three vaccine-autism arguments that have been put forward. (more…)

A review of: Austin, D., Shandley, K. (2008). An Investigation of Porphyrinuria in Australian Children with Autism. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 71(20), 1349-1351. DOI: 10.1080/15287390802271723

The journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health just published a study conducted in Australia examining the possible link between mercury and autism. The study examined urinary porphyrins as a measure of mercury exposure in children with autism. Porphyrinuria, or the excess urinary excretion of porphyrin, is purported to reflect heavy metal exposure and in particularly mercury. Two previous studies (Nataf et al., 2006, and Geier & Geier, 2007) used this urinary measure and reported increased levels of porphyrins in children with autism when compared to typically developing children. In the current study the authors examined urinary samples of 41 patients with ASD (detailed diagnostic procedure information was not provided). The age of the sample ranged from 1 to 16 (average 6). There were 30 boys and 11 girls. The authors did not include a control group. That is, no local comparison group of typically developing children was used. Instead, the authors compared the levels of porphyrins of the Australian sample with the control samples (typically developing kids) used by the two previous studies as well as to ‘normative’ laboratory ranges obtained from a French laboratory and the normative ranges published in a 1996 European study (Minder and Schneider-Yin, 1996). (more…)

On Media: The CDC Medicine Show - from Age Of Autism

Medicine_show By Anne Dachel

Members of the press love the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They love citing the CDC as if their pronouncements come down off Mount Sinai. And they love quoting Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC.

Who could argue with the CDC’s claims? After all, this is the agency that gets billions to run health care in the U.S. If they don’t know what’s going on, no one does.

And the CDC always has studies, although no reporter ever asks about the nature of any study. They never want to know who paid for it or if there were any conflicts of interest involved. The CDC’s latest decree is the MMR study. Sept. 3, ABC News anchor Charles Gibson (HERE) couldn’t wait to say, “A study out this evening offers the most powerful evidence yet that there is no link between autism and the MMR vaccine.”

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By LAURAN NEERGAARD - 5 days ago

WASHINGTON (AP) - New research further debunks any link between measles vaccine and autism, work that comes as the nation is experiencing a surge in measles cases fueled by children left unvaccinated.

Years of research with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, better known as MMR, have concluded that it doesn’t cause autism. Still, some parents’ fears persist, in part because of one 1998 British study that linked the vaccine with a subgroup of autistic children who also have serious gastrointestinal problems. That study reported that measles virus was lingering in the children’s bowels. (more…)

At a town hall meeting, he expresses his desire to fund Autism and Special Education Research.

Lawsuit claims mercury preservative in shot responsible for child’s autism
The Associated Press

ATLANTA - The Georgia Supreme Court allowed an Atlanta couple’s lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer to go forward, upholding a first-of-a-kind ruling by an appellate court that had drawn fierce opposition from the vaccine industry.

The court’s unanimous decision on Monday concluded that a 1986 federal law that has been used to block other lawsuits against vaccine companies does not bar the lawsuit from Marcelo and Carolyn Ferrari from going to trial. (more…)