AGE OF AUTISM

THE IP BLIP AND BATTLE OVER MERCURY AND AUTISM

By Mary Webster

During the last several weeks, Mark Blaxill has shared with us his commentaries on the reanalysis of a study originally published by Ip et al in 2004 in the Journal of Child Neurology.  (HERE and HERE)  You may recall that a pair of researchers from the University of Northern Iowa, Catherine DeSoto and Robert Hitlan, discovered serious flaws in the study and took their concerns to Dr. Roger Brumback, Editor-in-Chief of the journal.

To his credit, Dr. Brumback not only asked DeSoto and Hitlan to re-evaluate the data from the original study, he published their analysis along with a candid explanation of the errors Ip and his colleagues made.  In the spirit of full disclosure, Dr. Brumback also included in his note the raw data from that study. 

As Mark pointed out, the original researchers made errors that were not simply typographical in nature, they also committed grievous mistakes in analyzing the data and in the conclusions they drew from the studies' results.  DeSoto and Hitlan found that the study demonstrated quite convincingly that the children with autism were excreting less of the mercury to which they were exposed and children with autism had more mercury in their blood than the controls. These findings stand in stark contrast to those of the study's original authors who claimed, "…the results from our cohort study … indicate that there is no causal relationship between mercury as an environmental neurotoxin and autism." 
 

INTERVIEW WITH THOMAS POWERS: AUTISM PROCEEDING

Interview with Attorney Thomas Powers of the Petitioners’ Steering Committee of the Autism Omnibus Proceeding

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

How’s the autism trial going?  That’s what everybody really wants to know after I post my daily summaries.  Sure, they can read them, and that’s great and all, but what’s really happening?

I spent some time the other day talking with Thomas Powers, one of the attorneys representing the nearly 5,000 claims of parents that vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in their children.  Here are some of the highlights of our conversation.

AUTISM SPEAKS' TAIWAN PROBLEM

By J.B. Handley

As a child living in Tokyo, I remember my fascination in seeing a copy of a black market World Book Encyclopedia my Dad bought in Beijing, with the pages where Taiwan should have been left completely blank. Just white paper in the middle of the book, as if the country did not even exist.

Go to the website of Autism Speaks, and you encounter a similar phenomenon.

FDA ALLOWS BISPHENOL A IN BABY FORMULA

By Kim Stagliano

This article ties in with Dan Olmsted's piece today that the FDA is putting your childrens' lives at risk.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online reports: "A study released Wednesday found that all liquid baby formula tested by a consumer health group contained bisphenol A, a hormone-mimicking chemical that has been found to cause hyperactivity, sexual development abnormalities and pediatric brain cancer in laboratory animals."

Until the FDA bans these plastics from infant formula, Mead Johnson and other formula manufacturers will turn a blind eye to the potential hazards because by LAW they are not toying with the health of your child.  The chemical is in the packaging and leaks into the powder. How hard would it be to change the packaging? Might it cost a few pennies per can and affect the bottom line? Perhaps. But then Mead Johnson would just raise the price to the consumer.

OLMSTED ON AUTISM: THE FDA RISKS YOUR KID'S LIFE EVERY DAY

By Dan Olmsted

Now there's a sensational headline! Only a blogger would get away with printing something so palpably unfair to one of the premier federal agencies, an agency with a long tradition of protecting the public's health. Right?

Well, here's the recent headline from The New York Times: "Advisers Say F.D.A.'s Flaws Put Lives At Risk." I just took out the attribution -- because in effect the FDA is saying that about itself through the expert panel it created -- and made it personal: not "lives" in the abstract but YOUR KID's life.

The advisers' report, The Times says, "concluded that the F.D.A. is poorly equipped to protect the public health." Other than that, things are just fine.

Now, mind you, this is not fundamentally the FDA's fault, according to these reports. Congress has happily underfunded and hamstrung the agency for years in partial payment for the largesse of their pharma friends, leading to such debacles as Vioxx.

Then there's the other V -- vaccines. The FDA blew it bigtime on mercury in vaccines, as the famous quote from an FDA official lamented: Health authorities could be accused of "being 'asleep at the switch' for decades by allowing a potentially hazardous compound to remain in many childhood vaccines, and not forcing manufacturers to exclude it from new products." (It's hard to see how that is a funding issue, given that one person could do the calculations in a few minutes.)

To review: The FDA cannot be counted on to protect us or identify even a blatant threat to public health like organic mercury in childhood vaccines, according to the FDA itself. Yet it approves vaccines and, along with the CDC, monitors reports of adverse events. The CDC cannot be counted on either, because it is the same agency that recommends the vaccine schedule -- a conflict so blatant that Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., keeps introducing legislation to take safety review away from the agency. But what does he know -- he's just a medical doctor whose constituents all of a sudden started talking about all their children with autism.

So, who exactly is it in the United States government that can be trusted with the job of figuring out whether vaccines are safe and effective -- SAFE and effective, the criteria for approving drugs and allowing them to stay on the market?

Exactly no one.
 

AUTISM'S "RACE FOR A CURE"

By Kim Stagliano

This article from FOX 11 makes me want to sip a mint julep, don a large, over-embellished hat and eat a "Kentucky Hot Brown" sandwich for lunch today.  As soon as I figure out what's on one.

It appears that a mother convinced a large children's hospital to look into using Glutathione to treat autism and the docs were shocked by the results. So shocked that they are admitting autism is treatable and pursuing a study.  Sure, they're years behind the DAN! doctors - but I have a saying, "Don't punish progress."

"Kosair Children's Hospital and the University of Louisville are planning a study of that therapy. It comes after a local mom reached out to Kosair for help.

This is not a cure for autism but it is a rare glimmer of hope for parents of autistic kids. The medical director of Kosair Children's Hospital tells me this treatment could be life changing."

Here's the link to FOX.  Thank you. Dr. Wright for your open mind.

THE ATLANTA MANIFESTO, PART 4

By Mark Blaxill and Barbara Loe Fisher

Editor's Note: This is the fourth of eight parts in our series outlining a new vision for transforming children's health policy in the United States. Written by Mark Blaxill, Age of Autism's Editor at Large, and Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center, it is titled From Hyping The Risk Of Infectious Disease To Facing The Reality Of Chronic Disease Epidemics. Blaxill and Fisher were part of a Blue-Ribbon Panel assessing vaccine safety convened by the CDC in 2004. Dissatisfied with the outcome, they wrote their own White Paper in response, which Age of Autism is proud to publish for the first time.

From Hyping The Risk Of Infectious Disease, To Facing The Reality Of Chronic Disease Epidemics

As the vaccine program expands and the complex assessment of marginal cost and benefits becomes more critical, the integrity of the analyses surrounding these assessments matters even more. A prior commitment to a strategy of program expansion casts suspicion on the CDC's internal analysis when the institutional proponents of the expansion strategy control the interpretation and dissemination of information and analysis. The obvious concern is that benefits may be overstated and that risks will be suppressed.

We see pervasive evidence of bias among CDC's analysts that lends credence to such concerns. Hepatitis B vaccine policy serves as useful first case in point.

WHEN MAKING SCIENTIFIC MISTAKES IS A GOOD CAREER MOVE

By Mark Blaxill

A couple of weeks ago, I commented on the good work of Catherine DeSoto and Robert Hitlan who recently exposed a statistical error in a study conducted by researchers at the University of Hong Kong (click here to see the post.)

DeSoto and Hitlan examined a Chinese study that compared mercury in the blood and hair of autistic children with blood and hair mercury levels in typically developing children. And although the first published account reported no significant association between mercury exposure markers in autistic children, DeSoto and Hitlan showed that original authors’ calculations were simply wrong and that their data not only showed evidence of increased mercury exposures in the autistic children, it also showed evidence of impaired mercury excretion, a key element in the theory linking mercury exposure with autism risk.

DAY FOURTEEN: AUTISM OMNIBUS PROCEEDING

Young Dr. Wonderful on the Stand – Day Fourteen of the Autism Omnibus Proceeding – Hazlehurst v. the Secretary of Health and Human Services

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

It’s been said that to speak a language as well as a native you need to learn it by a certain age.  My wife’s grandmother came to this country as a teenager shortly before the Second World War and spent her working life as a French teacher in the New York City public schools, but still spoke with a relatively thick Hungarian accent until she died at the age of eighty-five.

The parents of children with autism never expected to spend their parenting years learning the language of chelation, oxidative stress, and genetic susceptibility.  As a result we often make mistakes when we try to explain these concepts to others.  We fumble with the words, how people respond to us, and realize how crazy we often appear.  We know what we should be saying, but often lack the fluency to fully express what we want to say. 

IMUS IS BACK

Imus returns to the radio today on WABC New York. You can listen online, just click HERE. As Tony Soprano would say about a "made man" in the mob, "Imus is friend of ours." And so he is.

Don's wife Deirdre is a board member of the National Autism Association and a tireless advocate for children.

Best wishes, Don and Deirdre.

DAN OLMSTED WINS AWARDS

Congratulations to our Editor Dan Olmsted, winner of the 2008 PAVE "Truth in Journalism" award and the 2007 National Autism Association "Believe" award for his continued commitment to reporting on autism.

We're proud to work with you, Dan.