Age of Autism Weekly Wrap: An Absolutely Shocking Statistic From England
By Dan Olmsted
I met a friend for lunch this week. He was fresh off the plane from London as part of a multi-country jaunt, and he had the baggy eyes to prove it. The first thing he did was pull out Monday’s Daily Telegraph and point to an article on page 12: “Primary pupils who can swipe but not speak.”
The article began: “Parents’ immersion in smartphones has left thousands of children starting primary school unable to hold conversations, teachers say.
“Around one in three children starting school is not ready for the classroom with many lacking social skills, suffering speech problems or not toilet trained, a survey of senior primary school staff showed.”
The litany included “more and more children entering our early years stage with delayed speech” and “levels of reading, writing and numeracy lower than they should be.”
The rest of the article basically blamed the parents and their failure to keep children from coming into contact with the world we live in, which is deemed self-evidently noxious and destructive – too many smartphones, too little parent-child interaction.
Before tackling that bogus argument, let’s just acknowledge the facts in evidence here. A third of pre-school kids in England today have some version of issues that echo autism – speech problems, lack of social skills and toileting problems. My friend, much more knowledgeable about autistic children than I am, said the latter probably reflected sensory issues and GI problems (as well as general delay, I’d suggest).
I don’t care what this is called – autism-like traits, or school-readiness deficit syndrome in a third of children, not otherwise seen before (SRDSIATOFC-NOSB), or whatever. It’s the kind of thing we’ve been talking about for years, a generation and now more damaged by something new and terrifying, and at least in England, it’s indisputable. I asked my friend what he thought was going on, and he said some combination of vaccines and other medical mayhem, pesticides, and god knows what else (the Environmental Working Group's study of all the evil crap found in mothers' umbilical cords is passing through the back of my brain). Unless you want to argue that the ability of one-third of children to make their way in life from the very start is just good old genes doing their work of making our species less able to thrive in a hostile world, it's definitely environmental. And it is NOT smartphones, dammit!
Of course, we also see this in America, with the same veneer of pop psychology pabulum stapled onto it because facing the truth is too threatening to the people doing the observing for a living. From the New York Times last October: “Boys are falling behind. They graduate from high school and attend college at lower rates than girls and are more likely to get in trouble, which can hurt them when they enter the job market. This gender gap exists across the United States, but it is far bigger for poor people and for black people. As society becomes more unequal, it seems, it hurts boys more.”
Ah, so inequality is at the heart of it. That’s the ticket! We can blame vague malignant capitalist forces, and get on the right side of the social justice movement. Well, I am on the right side of the social justice movement, but I don’t think inequality is what’s really going on here. As if there were no inequality – much worse inequality – before this male-centric problem was ever observed? And please tell me, then, why are four out of five autism cases boys? Were they disadvantaged? Did their parents or teachers disadvantage them? That's a discredited old argument but it is gaining new life.
In April 2014 another column in the Times was titled. "A Link Between Fidgety Boys And a Sputtering Economy." As I wrote then: The Times piece came very close to the core issue -- what's the matter with kids today?, and especially, what's the matter with boys? Things have gotten so dire, and the implications so large, that even a mainstream mouthpiece like The Times has no hesitation linking boys' problems to the overall economic fate of the country.
The Times went on: "If the United States is going to build a better-functioning economy than the one we've had over the last 15 years, we're going to have to solve our boy problems," adding that if only girls are considered, there's no problem at all.
As I pointed out, the solutions on offer in the piece, and in the research paper it was based on, and among the "experts" in general, amount to evidence-free bromides -- better schools, more understanding of the ways boys learn, more support for families because boys suffer more when fathers are absent. (What, no smartphone-blaming? Let's get the story straight here.) To quote the Beatles: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Missing was any sense that environmental factors, and specifically toxins, which have been repeatedly linked to problems like ADHD ("fidgetiness") and other neurodevelopmental disorders, which affect 1 in 6 children, and several times more boys than girls, could be playing a role.
So it’s just about unanimous, isn’t it? Even our most mainstream publications, openly hostile to concerns about vaccines or other environmental factors, acknowledge the rise of so many disabled and dysfunctional children that these kids’ futures – and ours, as the society they will inherit – are at stake.
Yet the experts fall back on video games and lack of good parenting and the devastation of being disadvantaged to explain it all. Fifty years ago it would have been the predations of rock and roll, and how refrigerator parents made their kids autistic. Faced once more with an inexplicable problem in children, parent blaming is, once again, the last refuge of those who cannot or will not see.
More on that next week.
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.
For what it's worth, I am aware of two trans gender youths, one on spectrum, other has some other special needs.
Posted by: Reader | May 21, 2016 at 12:41 PM
Thanks for the comments which i read after being gone for a week. i absolutely agree with concerns about radiation from phones etc. ... it's the idea being put forward that kids aren't getting socialized as a result of these devices, and lazy parents who resort to them, that i don't like. i think i recall a study that showed cellphones could interfere with metabolism in such a way that it could increase metals in the body or their activation.
on transgender, also interesting. i wrote briefly recently that in two cases of young people who consider themselves transgender -- the only ones i'm personally familiar with -- one has a very clear tic disorder, and the other severe adhd. no conclusions to draw from a sample of two, but it caught my attention. as always the bottom line is people need to be how they are and supported in that, but it's certainly appropriate to see if there is real increase, and if so, what's causing it.
Posted by: Dan Olmsted | May 21, 2016 at 11:25 AM
From the World Health Organization (April 2016):
"Microcephaly and other fetal malformations potentially associated with Zika virus infection or suggestive of congenital infection have been reported in Brazil (1046 cases), Cabo Verde (two cases), Colombia (seven cases), French Polynesia (eight cases), Martinique (three cases) and Panama (one case). Two additional cases, each linked to a stay in Brazil, were detected in the United States of America and Slovenia."
Since there are at least a few cases of microencephaly even in very small countries every year, having nothing to do with Zika, this means that outside of Brazil, there is NO evidence of an increase in microencephaly, let alone a link to Zika.
Furthermore (from the WHO):
"From 1 January 2007 to 6 April 2016, Zika virus transmission was documented in a total of 62 countries and territories."
If Zika is causing microencephaly, where is it in all these other countries???
Thus, to date, it remains highly unlikely that Zika by itself is causing newborn brain damage in Brazil. Some other agent is responsible -- most likely new vaccines given to pregnant women there and/or some particularly nasty pesticides in use there.
Posted by: lisa | May 18, 2016 at 09:50 AM
Tim Lundeen,
Thanks for that. I'd like to read more at Vaccine Papers but I've had trouble connecting, with lots of "timed out" messages and only managed to get through once yesterday.
Posted by: ATSC | May 17, 2016 at 02:07 AM
Let's not jump to conclusions about who is able-bodied and who should get a job. There are people who look perfectly able-bodied but are in fact not able to put a day's work together. People who are depressed often are in such a position. Just looking and guessing is not likely to tell you if a person is handicapped. Autistic adults may look able-bodied, and that is a huge problem because it matters when they have to go on SSI.
The kids described in the article above may have all kinds of reasons why they are not ready for school. The fact is there is something wrong. The children have never been as unready as they are now. The children I remember from my youth were extremely capable. I know some who went shopping at the corner grocery by themselves when they were five. I was one of them. I was given money and bought milk at the milk store. It was the exact amount. So I didn't need to get change back. I took the streetcar once to go to my Kindergarten in Germany. Some children knew how to knit and sew when they were six.
There is something wrong with many children today. Not all of them are autistic. But the huge question is: Where does that unreadiness come from? Quite a bit of it is autism.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | May 16, 2016 at 12:51 PM
Oh, Eindecker, you are so much fun!
Of course, IgM is an antibody. An antibody that is produced by the body in response to exposure to an antigen. So, they found antibodies in these babies? Does the presence of antibodies prove that the fetus was harmed by this entity?
NO. They give vaccines to make people produce antibodies which also can be measured. Does that mean that there was damage from the vaccine? NO.
All that means is that the person has been exposed.
LOL.
Posted by: Linda1 | May 16, 2016 at 12:43 PM
Microcephaly in not a new birth defect. I just recently read a book from 1908 that had pictures and a description of microcephaly. Microcephaly as a medical entity has been around for a long time, hundreds or thousands of years.
Also, it is entirely possible that Zika causes microcephaly, and because of the slew of cases in an area where Zika seems to be endemic one reason for microcephaly could very well be Zika. However, there have been cases of microcephaly without the offending mosquito or for that matter Zika. There was a concentration of cases not long ago in Oregon. Those cases may well have been caused by pesticides.
The description of microcephaly cases came from a German book that hypothesized that an environmental toxin might cause the defect. Either way. The last word has not been written about microcephaly. It's very likely that Zika could be one of the causes. But it's not the only cause.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | May 16, 2016 at 11:37 AM
I have to wonder who is going to defend America in the future if half of our population is already disabled? Who is going to earn the money to pay the taxes to support Social Security for older citizens, schools for our children and not to mention all the other benefits that - even some able bodied, lazy people who should get a job, take advantage of?
Special needs education is bankrupting our school systems.
Teenaged children are fighting depression. Drug overdoses are rampant!!!!
But the most tragic part of all of this is: Children and their families lives are being destroyed by factors they have no control over. What is going on here?
There is a positive note: People are waking up BIG TIME.
Posted by: Autism Mom | May 16, 2016 at 11:28 AM
Eindeker
This is what happens when you lie even a little to the public - and we have been lied to big time.
Hang on to the saddle horn -for a very rough ride for When trust is gone - from the public, so is control of the public. The CDC and NIH has had a lot of trust from the public , almost worship. They have brought it on themselves.
1.6 billion dollars to fight the Zika virus -- I know, I know -- that was probably money going to pay your salary for having to come in and twist where you could.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 16, 2016 at 11:23 AM
Eindeker;
So even with this very small sample size,(only 31; and how were they selected?) one of the children who had microencepahlopathy in your study had never been exposed to the Zika virus. Interesting.
If the cause of microencepahalopathy is Zika virus + in utero vaccination, or even just a bad reaction to in utero vaccination, then would you still feel sorry for these babies, or like other vaccine injured children, would microencephalopathy be a "rare" enough side effect to be suddenly unimportant? Are we ever going to be allowed to feel sorry for vaccine injured children?
By the way, you are aware of the recent push to vaccinate pregnant women in Brazil, aren't you?
Posted by: Hera | May 16, 2016 at 09:39 AM
Eindeker,
We are told that the Zika outbreak was widespread in Brazil. And since most people with Zika are without symptoms, there is no way of knowing for certain how widespread it was. Merely telling us that there was Zika in the CSF of newborns with microencephaly does not in any way, shape or form confirm that Zika caused their brain damage. How many newborns born without microencephaly also had Zika in their CSF? I'm guessing there were many. So, why did some suffer brain damage while others did not? That is the question that remains to be answered. We cannot know whether Zika is responsible for brain damage without first knowing the answer to that question.
So cool your jets, Eindeker, and learn to read these studies more critically. There is so much propaganda masquerading as science today. You have to be a lot smarter than you are currently showing yourself capable of being.
Posted by: Lisa | May 16, 2016 at 07:52 AM
Tim
Don't start more nonsense on Zika such as "Forget that these federal health agencies have provided no solid scientific evidence of a causal relationship" There is recent excellent evidence confirming the presence of Zika in children born with micro-encephalopathy, and not from the CDC or NIH: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30253-7/fulltext?rss=yes
> Zika-specific IgM was detected in 30 (97%) of 31 CSF samples and in 28 (90%) of 31 serum samples. One CSF sample tested negative. Monotypic response to Zika virus in the CSF was confirmed by plaque reduction neutralisation test. Since IgM does not cross either the placenta barrier or the blood–brain barrier, the presence of IgM in the CSF indicates that the neonate had the infection in the CNS.
The finding of Zika-specific IgM in the CSF of those 30 of 31 neonates with brain abnormalities indicates that they had a congenital infection with Zika virus. We believe that this is very strong evidence that the microcephaly was a consequence of Zika virus infection.
Put away your stupid conspiracy magic wand Tim & spare some thought for the 1000s & 1000s of children born with micro-encephalopathy.
Posted by: Eindeker | May 16, 2016 at 03:48 AM
go Trump: Interesting that the Harvard School of Public Health has issued a press release urging the Olympic games be moved away from Brazil because of Zika. In the first paragraph they link an increase in Guillain Barre syndrome and acute disseminated encephomyelitis to it. VAERS lists 180 reports of ADEM, meaning between 1,800 and 18,000 actual cases, since 1990, and, as we well know, Guillain Barre is the leading injury compensated today in the vaccine court. Those of us deeply interested in the nutrition field already know to be skeptical of this outfit, which is famous for massaging unreliable statistics into meaningless associations, so I guess this press release is par for the course.
Posted by: Gary Ogden | May 15, 2016 at 05:08 PM
@go Trump
Here's Marco Cáceres on "Birth of the Zika Industry": http://www.thevaccinereaction.org/2016/05/birth-of-the-zika-industry/
Posted by: Tim Lundeen | May 15, 2016 at 03:23 PM
@ATSC
Yes, aluminum damage is sex-linked and more strongly injures males. "These results show that injected Al adjuvant caused neurological damage, especially in the males." See http://vaccinepapers.org/critical-review-smith-2010-pediatrics-journal/ for more details.
Posted by: Tim Lundeen | May 15, 2016 at 02:54 PM
Whenever the solution to a problem is to STOP doing something, no one is interested. Blaming smart phones etc. sounds like a plea to need more money to study the problem or more money to help families with these boys, or more money to throw at the schools. Not vaccinating anymore would go a long way to turning this problem around, of course. But our collective "no" to vaccines doesn't raise anyone any money anywhere.
Just like our collective conscience accepts "walk for the cure" for a myriad of ailments. Have you ever seen "walk for stopping the damn thing that caused the damn thing in the first place?"
Posted by: Cynthia Cournoyer | May 15, 2016 at 02:25 PM
Lisa
That is very disturbing - and of course the wrong information is headlined. Typical of Mr Stobbe and the shill scientists. From the Scottish figures I was quoting below it would be easy to extrapolate to the rate being now about 7% of boys but this would even be an advance on that. It seems not so long ago (last occasion I recall was December 2013) that Tom Insel was trying to persuade us 1% was normal. I guess we have to get used to this like the rations perpetually changing downwards in Orwell's 1984 (always announced as a triumph for Big Brother). It's like the Seattle Children's Hospital (doorstep of Bill and Melinda) quietly dropping the information that epilepsy now ran at 5% in the under fives.
http://www.seattlechildrens.org/medical-conditions/brain-nervous-system-mental-conditions/epilepsy/
All totally normal and what you would expect, eh? Better recognition for epilepsy!!!!!
PS The world has gone completely mad.
Posted by: John Stone | May 15, 2016 at 11:27 AM
I'm sure many of you saw the study that came out last week suggesting a link between autism and too much folic acid during pregnancy. The one thing from this study, which took place in Boston, that caught my eye was the staggering rate of autism -- 7 percent -- in the group that was sampled. Since I've never seen estimates higher than 2 percent in the U.S., I was left scratching my head as to why the rate was so much higher in this sample, and why no one seem to be concerned about it. Here is the link to the study as reported in the news media:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/study-asks-folic-acid-autism-39034552
In terms of the rest of the study's content, of course most of us who are studying autism already know that autistic children and their mothers are generally undermethylators, which is genetically determined by reduced ability to metabolize folate, and potentially no ability at all to metabolize folic acid.
But of course, it is it not the folate or folic acid that results in autism; it is the reduced ability to produce glutathione, as a consequence of undermethylation, that leads to accumulation of toxic metals. And it is the metals that cause autism.
But I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for any of these researchers to connect the dots. They didn't even seem to notice that the autism rate in their sample was SEVEN PERCENT!!!
Posted by: lisa | May 15, 2016 at 09:50 AM
So many reasons are offered by respondents here for problems beginning in childhood. But these must be examined in terms of what are most likely to cause neurologic disability.
Benedetta, thank you for bringing up the hypothalamus, etc. The brain must be the focus of research not only on autism, but premature puberty, gender confusion, ADHD,
schizophrenia, and yes gut disorders. Otherwise the neurodiversity lobby will likely pull the wool over the eyes of medically trained experts. Graduates of medical schools should know better.
In 1881 (135 years ago) Wernicke described brainstem damage in two cases of chronic alcohol abuse, and one case of attempted suicide by drinking sulfuric acid. The damage involved symmetric bilateral hemorrhages in the brainstem. In 1959 Windle described the same pattern of damage in monkeys subjected to asphyxia at birth, but the damage was ischemic not hemorrhagic.
Ischemic damage occurs when blood flow is obstructed. Hemorrhagic damage results from increased blood flow in response to poisoning (by alcohol, mercury, lead, valproic acid, rubella or measles infection).
Wernicke's encephalopathy progresses to Korsakoff dementia if not treated. Brainstem impairments in early childhood prevent normal maturation of the cerebral cortex.
Lookup:
[1] Thomson AD et al. Wernicke's encephalopathy revisited. Alcohol & Alcoholism 2008 Mar-Apr;43(2):174-9.
[2] Faro MD, Windle WF. Transneuronal degeneration in brains of monkeys asphyxiated at birth. Exp Neurol. 1969 May;24(1):38-53.
Posted by: Patience (Eileen Nicole) Simon | May 15, 2016 at 08:36 AM
Benedetta agree a panoply of deception designed by a few fruit-loops.
MMR RI
Posted by: Angus Files | May 15, 2016 at 05:05 AM
Angus - that is exactly right.
So much a few in this country - I do believe it is really a few - have to answer for.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 14, 2016 at 10:47 PM
The last few days the local news is telling me - it is too much folic acid - that causes autism.
Sooooo we had to little in the 70s and early 80s and had spinal bifida and now we have too muck folic and we get autism.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 14, 2016 at 10:41 PM
Barry,
"Dr. Boyd Hayley has been telling us for years, that sex hormones play a major role in susceptibility to the neurotoxic effects of mercury. "
I wonder if it equally applies to aluminum.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/12/we-cant-keep-ignoring-the-issue-of-boys-who-fail-to-achieve/
We can’t keep ignoring the issue of boys who fail to achieve Jemima Lewis
"This year, 94,000 fewer men than women have applied for a university place. If current trends continue, girls born in 2016 will be 75 per cent more likely than their male peers to go to university. "
Posted by: ATSC | May 14, 2016 at 09:44 PM
Hi Gary,
Not sure. So you have a wireless router to control your solar system? I think your best bet would be to contact a Building Biologist who could evaluate your home's environment and tell you if you need to make any changes.
Hope all goes well and you get the answers and help you need.
Posted by: Linda1 | May 14, 2016 at 09:44 PM
A bit off topic, but a year ago, no one had ever heard of the Zika virus. However, in only a few months, they now find it causes nearly everything and might disrupt the Olympics. Brazil also seems to have major waste treatment problems but of course Zika is the problem...
If you read this article, it looks to support the 1.8 billion dollars needed for a new Zika vaccine.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/05/11/studies-pregnant-mice-with-zika-cement-microcephaly-link.html
...However, if just a few words were changed, and the word “coincidence substituted for the word link” one could have a sort of Autism article...
Posted by: go Trump | May 14, 2016 at 09:31 PM
@ Gary Ogden
Think you are referring to a 'Power Router' rather than a WiFi router. It may be able to connect to the internet but via your telephone line. If it is about 2 feet square it will probably emit no more than one's domestic household mains as it contains just the inverter and control system. Beg or borrow a EMF/RFR meter anyhow just to check for peace of mind. This link may be helpful:
http://www.electricsense.com/1263/how-to-measure-electromagnetic-radiation-in-your-home/
Posted by: Paul Champion | May 14, 2016 at 08:19 PM
No wonder they run shy world wide of a study comparing vaccinated kids V`s non vaccinated kids. Lets see-lets compare in the study the gender issues, the reading issues, the speech issues, the behaviour issues, the food issues, the allergy issues, the development issues, the social issues..I could go on...
MMR RIP
Posted by: Angus Files | May 14, 2016 at 06:35 PM
The rapid rise in transgender definitely speaks to environmental damage. Three and four year olds or even 10 year olds are also likely to be almost encouraged to explore this psychologically and then physically. It's too soon for any child to be doing this unless the physiology is already ambiguous (which as well may point to environmental damage). North American children could not be doing much worse in every way.
Posted by: Reader | May 14, 2016 at 05:55 PM
Linda 1: Is it possible to shield a router? I had to buy one when I had solar installed.
Posted by: Gary Ogden | May 14, 2016 at 05:54 PM
Why do we avoid putting "silverware" in the microwave?
Now we're injecting metals into the tissues of babies who are not ready to produce antibodies, mostly to "train" parents while they are particularly afraid for the well-being of their fragile infants, I guess--though maybe it's really to train (and trap) the medical professional (if you do something that dubious to a newborn, it must be important, all the rest must be adamantly all that more important?).
These are non-nutritive metals. They only interfere with healthy cellular function, it seems to me, and add an extra burden to a system trying to detox a true infection.
"Health professionals" try to avoid injecting those metals directly into the blood (don't want everyone to know what anaphylaxis is by experience maybe), so do those metals end up in the lymphatic system first?
This is about as deep a biologic treatise as I can handle:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-organs-are-part-of-the-lymphatic-system.html
Lots of organs involved in the immune system here it seems to me, though.
And there's the appendix at the bottom of part of the large intestine and maybe the appendix is supposed to shelter the microbiome:
http://corporate.dukemedicine.org/news_and_publications/news_office/news/10151
What about newly discovered lymph vessels that reach into the brain? What about lymph in the thyroid, etc?
And what if we inject metals into infants, and then raise them (try to anyway) in a low level microwave-like environment?
Posted by: Jeannette Bishop | May 14, 2016 at 01:43 PM
Dan, the 5:1 ratio of boys afflicted with autism, versus girls, has been recognized for decades.
**********
Dr. Boyd Hayley has been telling us for years, that sex hormones play a major role in susceptibility to the neurotoxic effects of mercury. With male hormones increasing susceptibility, and female hormones providing a level of protection.
My guess is that if a 5:1 ratio is being reported, the actual ratio is a whole lot higher than that.
Posted by: Barry | May 14, 2016 at 12:53 PM
I have another example. A few years back, I mentioned to a friend that my son was in occupational therapy. We were discussing the sort of things OT's do with kids and she told me her son had trouble learning to tie his shoes. She told me that her pediatrician explained that "they all do because they all use that velcro for their shoes...lazy parents buy these shoes"!!
Posted by: angie | May 14, 2016 at 11:47 AM
Yesterday I was talking to my young neighbor who has recently been diagnosed with right eye cancer. I asked him if he is right or left handed. "Right", he said. "And how do you use your cell phone?", I asked. He showed me that he puts it right up to the right side of his head to talk. I told him that he needs to stop doing that, now. He listened, but I could tell he was being polite - didn't really believe me. I explained that radiation from the phone is absorbed more in soft tissue. The eye is soft tissue. I further told him to turn off the wi-fi in his house. He looked surprised. "Wi-fi"? I explained that wi-fi also gives off radiation and he needs to turn it off and if he isn't willing to turn it off all the time, he should at least turn it off, unplug the router, at night while he sleeps. THEN he tells me, oh, well, the router wakes me up with its blue light. "It's on my bedside table." Now, I laid into him. I gently but firmly told him that he must not have a router so close to him, that that is most likely the cause of his cancer. He must at least move it far away from anyone in the house.
I lent him my EMF/RFR meter which can measure the radiation emissions. I showed him that where we were standing outside my house was reading low, about 0.3 microwatts per meter squared. Then he pulls his stupidphone out of his pocket (where it doesn't belong) as he receives a text. He notices that the meter jumps up to between 300 and 400 as the text comes in. His eyes widen. I'm still holding the meter, on, standing next to him a few feet away, and he notices that as he sends a text the meter jumps to between 700-800. I told him to take the meter back to his house and he'll see that by that router the reading will be around 10,000. That's where he sleeps. His family will receive less exposure than he, but still will be highly exposed around the clock, including his two young children.
I handed him the meter and while we finished talking he put it down on an outside table, saying he'll do it later. He went back home and forgot the meter, so seeing that he was still outside at his house, I brought it over to him, together with the film "Mobilize" that I had on the shelf. He told me that he told his wife what I said and she didn't believe any of it. Her opinion is that cancer runs in his family. Period. Hopefully, they will use the meter and watch the movie.
So, Dan. Re your statement that it is not the damn smartphones. We have pregnant women carrying them 24/7. Many carry them in their pockets on their pregnant abdomens. We have pregnant women with routers in their homes and workplaces. How many pregnant women sleep with routers on their bedside table? How many infants sleep in their parent's room, in their bed, near that router? How many infants sleep with routers on the other side of their nursery wall? Even anywhere in the house or apartment building where there is a router is a very high radiation exposure. Having a wi-fi router in one's home is like having a cell phone tower in the home.
Which brings up cell phone towers. They're everywhere now. Not twenty years ago. And it is the poor who are disproportionately exposed to cell phone tower radiation when young, because wealthy neighborhoods generally don't have these eyesores next to their homes. But, of course, the wealthy are wireless to the max.
I see babies all the time playing with stupidphones. Every time I go to the market, this is what I see. They have digital wi-fi toys made just for babies and they're big sellers. There is also a very real thing called digital dementia. It's what happens to the brain from too much screen time. I believe it is very real. Our brains are wired according to our experiences. As infants, toddlers and young children spend more time in screen land and less time experiencing and interacting with the real world, we can expect that their brains will be wired very differently from anything we have ever seen before in human history. Go to any restaurant and you'll see families sitting around tables, each gazing intently into their devices, none talking to their babies and young children.
Then there is the BioInitiative Report. Martha Herbert's section on EMF/RFR and autism. I don't remember if she is the one who says that cell phone radiation (and I think high EMF exposure in general) opens up the blood brain barrier.
I think there's a very good chance that my neighbor will not believe that his cell phone or wireless router or other wireless exposures have anything to do with his cancer. I have a feeling he will not change any behaviors no matter what happens to his or his family's health. (Focused on the radiation, I didn't mention to him that blue (and other) lights suppress melatonin that research suggests can also cause cancer.)
The human mind is very dangerous in its ability to create its own reality, and to defend that reality against any outcome, even death. There is no doubt that vaccines are a major cause of brain and other serious damage. But, please, let's not exonerate any other deadly pervasive toxin in order to prosecute vaccines.
Posted by: Linda1 | May 14, 2016 at 11:10 AM
Great article!! I remember when autism was a rich person's syndrome. Now the predatory health agencies of the government are targeting the poor with health department personal patrolling the school halls with syringe in hand ready to vaccinate anyone who needs it. (I'm exaggerating here but I hear it's almost that bad) One of the things that has come out after SB277 are the horror stories of poorer families who get threatened by agencies who want to take their children if they don't get vaccinated. When it comes to refusing vaccination in California, class differences are being erased and we are banding together against a common enemy. No doubt about it: it's the vaccine that delay speech, toilet training, and school readiness.
Posted by: kapoore | May 14, 2016 at 10:41 AM
We mothers aren't toilet training our kids because we've become so dependent on that diaper-changing app.
Posted by: Carol | May 14, 2016 at 10:31 AM
Rebecca Lee You are being political correct; when you said you don't give a hoot that a girl is not a girl and boy is not a boy. I think we should be upset and sorrowful as we would be for any brain or lower brain (hypothalamus) injury.
By the way many do have other co morbid mental problems that goes along with mixed up sex hormones; that are being ignored just like gut problems are ignored in kids with autism.
Yeap, hypothalamus of kids are being damaged every day, and Dr. Thompson now has his own or will have his own autism foundation, and a good retirement plan.
Then again maybe not cause taxpayers are being done away with. So, who is going to pay his retirement? Does he think that his retirement will be the first on the list to be paid when there are few tax payers left - that are lucky to find a 10 dollar an hour job - really they are making more - if you count the health insurance that job provide.
Think Eastern Kentucky - Dr. Thompson, with no President Kennedy pouring lots of money into the region that is siphoned off by Clinton type charity foundations.
I found out that a lot of doctors are so indoctrinated from their education; most are wild life biology students in the beginning- and they have had too much evolution and genetics -- as a recent now medical doctor - college friend said to me recently that something about over populations of frogs in a pond makes them all turn male - as in perhaps human populations are turning homosexual - transgender cause she is seeing a lot of it in her practice.
Lots of mental illness too, she noticed - but that is because she is close to a college - how that fits, and depression that many suffer has always been around. She recently read a book that Abraham Lincoln fought bouts of depression.
In which I said and that author thought he might have been gay too. Sigh.
Posted by: Benedetta | May 14, 2016 at 09:01 AM
Dan
It is not surprising that many children would know how to use smartphones - they are of course the most wonderful toys. That at least is a sign of competence: more worrying might be all the additional radiation from these products. As to the actual basis of the story I have not forgotten Angus Files telling the Scottish parliament last December that 1 in 3 children in Argyll now needs classroom assistance. Meanwhile, the autism data from Scottish schools shows an incidence of 1 in 58 for 2015, but it could easily be double that for younger children: perhaps the rate for boys could already be in the region of 1 in 15, and that is before we get on to any other neural deficits.
Which comes back to why we only get a report of these peripheral concerns when some people in government must know we are hitting the rocks. Fergal Roche, CEO of 'The Key', the lobby organisation which placed this story ought to take a closer look.
Posted by: John Stone | May 14, 2016 at 08:10 AM
Excellent article.
I disagree with one point: it is NOT a bogus argument to say that smartphone immersion (for both child and parent) is a huge factor in poor speech and social skills.
This does not in any way minimize the damage done by vaccines, but it does add to it.
We are stuck with this fact. We need to add "issues caused by electronics immersion" (including electromagnetic radiation) to our list of serious problems that must be addressed.
Vaccines, of course, should be at the top of the list.
To my knowledge, smart phone immersion is not mandated by law, and parents still have the choice not to get one at all, not to use it every minute of the day if they have one, and not to give one to their toddler as pacifier.
Of course, you'd never guess this by the number of toddlers in stroller playing with a touch screen while their parents tap away on their own touch screen, neither the least bit aware of the other.
If that's not a recipe for speech and neurodevelopmental delay, I don't know what is.
Posted by: Researcher | May 14, 2016 at 08:04 AM
Dan: It is indeed shocking. At the same time we're trying to shove more and more academic work into them at a younger and younger age when they should be exploring their surroundings and engaging with one another in unsupervised social exploration. Meanwhile the politicians fiddle to the tune of ready cash. We've gone mad.
Posted by: Gary Ogden | May 14, 2016 at 07:45 AM
I have also been thinking quite a bit about all those transgender kids we are seeing now. Of course right off people say it is because society is more open so they are feeling more secure and can "come out." But screwing up sexual identity it just the sort of weird thing that mercury does and theirs is the generation that got really hammered with mercury in the vaccines.
I personally don't give a hoot what gender a person identifies as. I do worry about kids with anxiety and depression and all the myriad other mercury symptoms.
Posted by: Rebecca Lee | May 14, 2016 at 07:30 AM
Dan, thank you, I loved this , especially your new diagnosis! Another possible contributory factor might be that the parents are on their smart-phones rather than talking to their kids because THEY are slightly autistic (but undiagnosed). As one British mum complained when criticized for her toddler parenting skills, "I don't talk to 'im because 'e don't talk to me".
We also had a report on the BBC this week about far fewer boys going to university than girls. And yes, it was the fault of the schools, or the parents, or the teachers, or the lazy boys. When will they get it ?
Posted by: Grace Green | May 14, 2016 at 07:11 AM
Dan, the 5:1 ratio of boys afflicted with autism, versus girls, has been recognized for decades.
Males have higher aerobic metabolism than females. This is why marathons, track and swimming races, tennis, gymnastics, diving, and more all have separate male and female events. Males also are more likely to suffer from a brief period of oxygen insufficiency at birth.
I will continue to point out the serious, serious, serious medical error of clamping the umbilical cord immediately after birth. Placental circulation does not cease instantly after birth. Textbooks before the mid 1980s all taught that pulsations of the umbilical cord must cease before the cord is tied or clamped.
Pulsations of the cord??? Pulsations are evidence of ongoing placental circulation, for many minutes to as long as half an hour, after birth. Pulsations cease when the fetal valves of the heart close (the ductus arteriosus and foramen ovale). Clamping the cord does not force closure. How dopey are these obstetricians??? Patent ductus arteriosus and patent foramen ovale may have serious consequences. Lookup Tedy Bruschi's book about how a patent foramen ovale led to his having a stroke.
Posted by: Patience (Eileen Nicole) Simon | May 14, 2016 at 06:45 AM
Another related, and very worrisome, thing that is happening, Transgender KIDS?
Apparently there are now so many transgender adults, and apparently more and younger "persons" all the time -- there are so many that it has become necessary to have laws regarding which bathroom can be used?
Were there hordes of transgender children, and adults, out there all the time in years gone by? They were just "in the closet" and society didn't know about them? Seems unlikely.
All of these things are related: obesity and metabolic syndrome and the huge rise in Type II diabetes. And autism and Asperger's. And transgender. And more . . .
Posted by: Nonnymouse | May 14, 2016 at 06:34 AM