Article A: Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh Scientists Discover Biological Basis for Autism

PITTSBURGH, July 29 (AScribe Newswire) -- A team of brain scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have made a groundbreaking discovery into the biological basis for autism, a mysterious brain disorder that impairs verbal and non-verbal communications and social interactions.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, the researchers have found numerous abnormalities in the activity of brains of people with normal IQs who have autism. The new findings indicate a deficiency in the coordination among brain areas. The results converge with previous findings of white matter abnormalities in autism. (White matter consists of the "cables" that connect the various parts of the brain to each other). The new findings led the researchers to propose a new theory of the basis of autism, called underconnectivity theory, which holds that autism is a system-wide brain disorder that limits the coordination and integration among brain areas. This theory helps explain a paradox of autism: Some people with autism have normal or even superior skills in some areas, while many other types of thinking are disordered. The team's study will be published in the August edition of the British journal Brain and is available online at www.brain.oupjournals.org.

In explaining the theory, Marcel Just, one of the study's lead authors and director of Carnegie Mellon's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, compared the brain of a normal person to a sports team in which the members cooperate and coordinate their efforts. In an autistic person, though some "players" may be highly skilled, they do not work effectively as a team, thus impairing an autistic's ability to complete broad intellectual tasks. Because this type of coordination is critical to complex thinking and social interaction, a wide range of behaviors are affected in autism.

The research team believes these are the first findings in autism of differences in the brain activation patterns in a cognitive (non-social) task. The study produced two important new findings that help make sense of previous mysteries: The autistic participants had an opposite distribution of activation (compared to the control group) in the brain's two main language areas, known as Broca's and Wernicke's areas. There was also less synchronization of activation among key brain areas in the autistic participants compared to the control group.

To obtain technically acceptable fMRI data from high-functioning autistic participants, the researchers flew in people with autism from all over the eastern United States. High-functioning participants with autism (with IQ scores in the normal range) are rare, accounting for about 10 percent of all people with autism.

Using non-invasive fMRIs, the team looked at the brains of 17 people with autism and 17 control subjects as they read and indicated their comprehension of English sentences. In both the healthy brains and in the brains with autism, language functions were carried out by a similar network of brain areas, but in the autism brains the network was less synchronized, and an integrating center in the network, Broca's area, was much less active. However, another center, Wernicke's area, which does the processing of individual words, was more active in the autism brains.

The brain likely adapts to the diminished inter-area communication in autism by developing more independent, free-standing abilities in each brain center. That is, abnormalities in the brain's white matter communication cables could lead to adaptations in the gray matter computing centers. This sometimes translates into enhanced free-standing abilities or superior ability in a localized skill.

These findings provide a new way for scientists and medical researchers to think about the neurological basis of autism, treating it as a distributed system-wide disorder rather than trying to find a localized region or particular place in the brain where autism lives. The theory suggests new research to determine the causes of the underconnectivity and ways to treat it. If underconnectivity is the problem, then a cognitive behavioral therapy might be developed to stimulate the development of connections in these higher order systems, focusing on the emergence of conceptual connections, interpretive language and so on. Eventually, pharmacological or genetic interventions will be developed to stimulate the growth of this circuitry once the developmental neurobiology and genetics of these brain connections are clearly defined by research studies such as these.

The research team is jointly headed by Just, the D.O. Hebb Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon, and Dr. Nancy Minshew, professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of its Center for Autism Research. Individuals with High Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome between 10 and 55 years of age who are interested in participating in similar studies can send email to autismrecruiter@upmc.edu or call Nikole Jones at 412-246-5481.

CONTACT: Jonathan Potts, CMU Media Relations,
412-268-6094, jpotts@andrew.cmu.edu

Article A: Is Thimerosal the Missing Link to Autism and Developmental Problems?

Tuesday, August 03, 2004 By Annette Fuentes, for E/The Environmental Magazine

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-08-03/s_25228.asp

No one could accuse Lyn Redwood of being anti-vaccination or suspicious of the medical establishment. After all, the Atlanta, Georgia resident was a nurse practitioner and member of her county's board of health, which promoted childhood vaccination. But in 1999, when her happy, healthy toddler, Will, began to regress developmentally at 15 months-he lost speech, he avoided eye contact and seemed miserable-Redwood set out to learn why. And her quest led to thimerosal, a preservative used in some vaccines that is 49.6 percent ethylmercury, a known neurotoxin.

Redwood had received two thimerosal-containing injections of RhoGam while pregnant because her blood was Rh negative. Will got all the recommended vaccines for infants, including multiple shots of Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae B (HiB) and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTaP)-all containing thimerosal. By her calculations, Redwood's son has been exposed to mercury in quantities far exceeding safe levels. To Redwood, the cause of Will's illness was clear: mercury poisoning. "If someone had told me prior to 1999 that vaccines were responsible for my son's disabilities, I would have thought they were crazy," she says.

Thousands of parents like Lyn Redwood have watched their normal children suddenly become ill, exhibiting symptoms called autism spectrum disorders. From Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Asperger's Syndrome on one end of the spectrum, to severe forms of autism on the other, these illnesses have seemingly exploded into what many consider an epidemic in just the last decade.

Autism was rare, diagnosed in one in 10,000 children, before 1980. But in 2002, the National Institutes of Health estimated that one in 250 U.S. children were affected. The Autism Society of America projects that autism disorders are increasing by 10 percent every year. Boys are four times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, a disparity some scientists attribute to hormonal differences. Genetics may also play a role in susceptibility. Some critics counter that rises in autism rates may be better attributed to increasing awareness among parents and doctors of autism than to any environmental toxin. But for Redwood and a growing number of activists and scientific researchers, the key to autism disorders is thimerosal. Can it be mere coincidence, they ask, that the rise in autism began during the same period when the number of vaccines was tripled? In the early 1990s, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for use Hepatitis B and HiB vaccines for infants and children, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added them to its list of recommended childhood vaccines.

The total number of vaccines containing mercury increased to 11, containing a cumulative total 237.5 micrograms of ethylmercury injected into children during the first year and a half of their lives. There are no standards on acceptable exposure to ethylmercury, unlike its chemical (and more toxic) cousin methylmercury, which is found in fish in polluted oceans.

Lax Safety Tests

Although thimerosal, invented by the Eli Lilly company, has been used to preserve vaccines since the 1930s (and was used in over-the-counter products, such as eye drops, nasal sprays and topical antiseptics) the FDA has never required testing of its safety or of safe levels of exposure in newborns and children. And the CDC never considered the consequences of increasing infants' exposure to mercury as it multiplied the number of suggested vaccines. CDC immunization expert Roger Bernier explains, "Vaccines tend to be evaluated on an individual basis, and a holistic view of safety was not part of the review."

Through her research, Redwood found allies in a group of parents of autistic children who were also seeking answers. They founded Safe Minds, an advocacy group that has also conducted studies, including "Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning," published in 2001 in the journal Medical Hypotheses. The study shows the symptoms of mercury poisoning were virtually the same as those in autism disorders. Safe Minds took their findings to government agencies. Redwood says, "We petitioned the FDA unsuccessfully on three occasions to take thimerosal off the market."

Congress had requested the FDA in 1997 to review mercury in products, and in 1998, the agency had banned all over-the-counter products containing thimerosal. A year later, the FDA, CDC and National Institutes of Health issued a joint statement with the American Academy of Pediatrics that urged vaccine manufacturers to stop using thimerosal because of a "theoretical potential for neurotoxicity."

In February 2000, scientist Thomas Verstraeten presented the first of several analyses of the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink, a patient record database that includes information on children vaccinated who developed neurological disorders. Verstraeten's earliest findings showed a risk of autism 2.48 times greater for infants who received the highest amounts of mercury in vaccines. A June 2000 analysis showed a connection between thimerosal exposure and language, speech and developmental delays for infants up to six months old.

A Blizzard of Suits

In the years since, the thimerosal-autism connection has become a hotly contested issue, and one with tremendous political and economic implications. Hundreds of parents have filed lawsuits against Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies that used thimerosal. In November 2002, Congress sought to protect the drug giants from such legal action by inserting a liability waiver in the Homeland Security Act. Three months later, public outcry forced its repeal. Although the FDA and CDC requested that thimerosal be removed from vaccines, no direct ban was ever issued, and the agencies' scientists have steadfastly defended thimerosal.

In November 2003 a study published in Pediatrics, and co-authored by Verstraeten, presented the final analysis of the CDC's database. All of the positive findings of neurological delays and autism have disappeared. Safe Minds and other critics argue this is a product of questionable methodology and selective data use. Verstraeten's current status as an employee of GlaxoSmithKline was excluded from the article.

WebMD reports that the federally funded study published in The Lancet the same month by lead researcher Michael E. Pichichero "offers reassurance to those who are concerned about the health risks of vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal." WebMD concludes, "Researchers found that blood mercury levels in vaccinated infants were well below those considered safe and that mercury was eliminated from the body much faster than expected." [1]

But Boyd Haley, a toxicology researcher at the University of Kentucky and expert on mercury issues, says he questions the validity of the study. In February of this year, the California Environmental Protection Agency issued a report in response to a petition made by the Bayer Corporation, which was asking the state not to classify thimerosal as a reproductive and developmental toxin under clean water rules. The California agency reviewed the scientific literature and concluded that thimerosal should be considered toxic. Says vaccine researcher Mark Geier, "This is another powerful piece of evidence showing that thimerosal has no place in vaccines."

Today, thimerosal is still used in some vaccines given to children, including Fluzone by Aventis Pasteur, which is provided in multi-dose vials. Thimerosal is also present in what are called "trace" amounts, defined as less than half a microgram of mercury per dose, in several pediatric vaccines, including a Hepatitis B shot from GlaxoSmithKline.

Infants and children, with their less-developed immune systems and still-growing neurological systems, are more vulnerable to mercury's toxicity, but everyone may want to read vaccine labels before being stuck with a needle. FluMist from MedImmune is an example of a thimerosal-free vaccine.

Annette Fuentes lives in upstate New York and writes frequently on health topics.

[Comment and abstract: The Pichichero et al study reported thimerosal levels in infants and concluded, not enough ethylmercury to do harm. Subsequently, Waly et al found that at the ethylmercury levels described by Pichichero et al, ethylmercury inhibited enzymes important for neuronal development.]

1: Mol Psychiatry. 2004 Apr;9(4):358-70.

Activation of methionine synthase by insulin-like growth factor-1 and dopamine: a target for neurodevelopmental toxins and thimerosal.

Waly M, Olteanu H, Banerjee R, Choi SW, Mason JB, Parker BS, Sukumar S, Shim S, Sharma A, Benzecry JM, Power-Charnitsky VA, Deth RC.

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Methylation events play a critical role in the ability of growth factors to promote normal development. Neurodevelopmental toxins, such as ethanol and heavy metals, interrupt growth factor signaling, raising the possibility that they might exert adverse effects on methylation. We found that insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1)- and dopamine-stimulated methionine synthase (MS) activity and folate-dependent methylation of phospholipids in SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells, via a PI3-kinase- and MAP-kinase-dependent mechanism. The stimulation of this pathway increased DNA methylation, while its inhibition increased methylation-sensitive gene expression. Ethanol potently interfered with IGF-1 activation of MS and blocked its effect on DNA methylation, whereas it did not inhibit the effects of dopamine. Metal ions potently affected IGF-1 and dopamine-stimulated MS activity, as well as folate-dependent phospholipids methylation: Cu(2+) promoted enzyme activity and methylation, while Cu(+), Pb(2+), Hg(2+) and Al(3+) were inhibitory. The ethylmercury-containing preservative thimerosal inhibited both IGF-1- and dopamine-stimulated methylation with an IC(50) of 1 nM and eliminated MS activity. Our findings outline a novel growth factor signaling pathway that regulates MS activity and thereby modulates methylation reactions, including DNA methylation. The potent inhibition of this pathway by ethanol, lead, mercury, aluminum and thimerosal suggests that it may be an important target of neurodevelopmental toxins.

PMID: 14745455 [PubMed - in process]

Article B: Taking It to Vaccine Court

Parents say mercury in shots caused their children's autism, and they want drug firms to pay. The industry calls its defense rock-solid.

By Myron Levin LA Times Staff Writer August 7, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-vaccine7aug07,1,2478873.story

As parents of two severely autistic boys, Kevin and Cheryl Dass of Kansas City, Mo., face a world of heartache and worry.

Last year Kevin, a FedEx driver, and Cheryl, a part-time hairdresser, spent $27,000 on therapy for their sons. Financially exhausted, they are gnawed by these questions:

How will they continue the special help that Dillon and Kyle, their 4 1/2 -year-old twins, so desperately need? Will the boys — who barely speak, are not toilet-trained and go bonkers when taken out in public — ever be able to live on their own? If not, what will become of them when Kevin and Cheryl are gone?

"It's torn our life apart, it really has," Kevin Dass says.

And, he insists, it didn't have to happen. The boys were born prematurely and alarmingly small. Yet at 3½ months, Dass says, they were given four shots in a single day, including three containing small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin.

"They were still in the hospital on oxygen, staying alive, and they put this poison in them," Dass says. "They were fried. They were totally fried."

Like many anguished parents of autistic kids, the Dasses blame the condition on thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that until recently was added to many routine children's shots.

Thimerosal was used to keep bacteria out of vaccines sold in multi-dose vials. But there were no studies beforehand of its possible effects on the developing brains of infants. And health officials, who aggressively expanded immunizations during the 1990s, did not consider that mercury exposure for millions of children would exceed federal guidelines.

Now, in a dispute overflowing with bitterness and rancor, more than 4,200 families, including the Dasses, are demanding compensation to help pay for their kids' special needs. Their claims have inundated an obscure branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, sometimes called the "vaccine court."

The parents are pushing a disturbing theory: that their children were casualties of the war on disease, suffering brain damage from thimerosal by itself or in combination with measles virus in the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. They blame mercury from vaccines and other sources for an epidemic rise in autism and related neurological disorders.

They theorize that their children were devastated because they were less able than most kids to clear mercury from their bodies.

Vaccine makers and health officials strenuously dispute the claims. While voicing compassion for the children and their families, they say there is no proof that tiny exposures — typically 1 part mercury per 10,000 parts of vaccine — can cause brain damage.

"There's simply no reliable scientific evidence" that thimerosal causes autism, said Loren Cooper, assistant general counsel for GlaxoSmithKline, the global pharmaceutical giant.

Dr. Stephen Cochi, head of the national immunization program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, argues that only "junk scientists and charlatans" support the thimerosal-autism link.

In May, a committee of the national Institute of Medicine declared that evidence "favors rejection" of the thimerosal-autism link. Opposing studies, the panel said, were riddled with "serious methodological flaws."

In response, parent activists point out that some studies have indicated a link. They also charge that data were manipulated in one key study cited by the Institute of Medicine, and that authors of other studies had ties to vaccine makers.

At stake are not only vast sums of money but reputations and careers. Vaccine makers face a potential litigation nightmare. And the allegations confront two agencies: the Food and Drug Administration, which licenses vaccines, and the CDC, which is in charge of seeing that children are immunized against everything from polio to whooping cough.

The immunization program has been hailed as a spectacular success, responsible for saving countless children from illness and death. But if the parents are right, thousands of their children have become collateral damage.

For now, the main battleground is a tiny tribunal most people have never heard of.

The vaccine court was created in 1986 as Congress' response to a liability crisis. In rare cases, vaccines were being blamed for catastrophic injuries and even death. Makers were threatening to quit the business, which in turn threatened the vaccine supply.

The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Act shielded the industry from civil litigation by instituting a system of no-fault compensation. Under the law, aggrieved families file petitions, which are heard by special masters in the vaccine court. Successful claims are paid from a trust fund fed by a 75-cent surcharge per vaccine dose. The Department of Health and Human Services oversees the fund, with the Justice Department acting as its lawyer.

The autism case is approaching a crucial stage: a hearing within the next few months in which experts will joust over whether mercury causes autism.

If the verdict is no, the case ends there. If the special master finds for the parents, individual claims will be heard. A flood of successful claims could exhaust the $2-billion fund.

Big vaccine makers such as Merck, Wyeth and Aventis-Pasteur, along with Glaxo, are watching with trepidation. Though safe from liability in the vaccine court, they are anxious because claims have begun to leak into the civil courts.

Under the law, petitioners who have gone more than 240 days without a ruling in the vaccine court can opt out and file a civil suit. More than three dozen families who've waited long enough have opted out, and more are sure to follow. A handful of suits are set for trials next year in Texas, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Georgia.

A legal Catch-22 could doom many claims in both the vaccine court and civil courts. The compensation law requires that petitions be filed within three years of the first sign of injury. In many cases, by the time children were diagnosed with autism and parents learned of their mercury exposure, the deadline had passed. This technicality could cause as many as 60% of the petitions to be discarded in the vaccine court, lawyers for the parents say. And some civil courts have decreed that people who did not file on time in the vaccine court can't pursue civil litigation.

"The parents are going through hell. The children are going through hell," said Richard Saville, a lawyer for some of the parents. "What we're trying to avoid … is a situation in which no court ever hears their complaint."

Even so, families who reach the civil courts may gain some advantages there. They will have access to internal industry documents that are not available in the vaccine court. Moreover, whereas the vaccine court pays medical and living costs and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering, civil juries can award punitive damages as well.

Vaccine makers insist that their defense is rock-solid.

The evidence "is so overwhelmingly one-sided that we are confident that juries will overcome their natural sympathy for plaintiffs and decide these cases as science dictates," said Daniel J. Thomasch, lead outside counsel for Wyeth.

Privately, however, some industry figures conceded that when it comes to sick children and brokenhearted parents, science doesn't always win the day.

The companies "are terrified" of huge jury awards because "the injuries are so grave," said Kevin Conway, a lawyer for parents. "It's not just the kids, it's the parents, it's the siblings. These people just live emotionally exhausted and financially devastated lives."

Even if the companies are exonerated, victory will not come cheap. An industry representative, who predicted vaccine makers will win every case, said it could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars to do so.
Autism is the most severe of a range of neurological conditions called autism spectrum disorders. It limits the ability to communicate, form relationships and respond appropriately to the environment. Symptoms can include loss of language and eye contact, extreme withdrawal, violent or repetitive behavior, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound.

One in every 166 U.S. children suffers from an autism spectrum disorder, according to an estimate by the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics. In California, the number of cases rose 273% from 1987 to 1998, according to the state Department of Developmental Services.

It's been suggested that broader definitions and better reporting are behind the apparent spike. But a study in 2002 by the MIND Institute at UC Davis found that these are at most minor factors, and that the increase is real.

In the search for a cause, thimerosal only recently became a suspect.

The compound is 49.6% ethyl mercury, not the methyl mercury found in fish and power plant emissions. Both forms are toxic, though some research suggests ethyl mercury is more quickly purged from the body.

Developed 75 years ago by Eli Lilly & Co., thimerosal has been used in vaccines since the 1930s and was the main ingredient in Merthiolate, an antiseptic daubed on millions of skinned knees before it was taken off the market 20 years ago.

Medical literature includes reports of thimerosal poisoning at a sufficient dose — along with advice to curb its use. Perhaps most alarming was a 1977 report on the thimerosal-linked deaths of 10 babies in Canada.

According to the article in Archives of Disease in Childhood, the antiseptic had been used to treat exomphalos, a type of umbilical hernia. Tissue and blood tests revealed high mercury levels in the dead infants. Moreover, the authors said, it "is extremely unlikely" that babies who survive the treatment "escape neurological damage, which may be subtle."

Mercurial antiseptics should be tightly restricted or banned from hospitals, they wrote, "as the fact that mercury readily penetrates intact membranes and is highly toxic seems to have been forgotten."

However, thimerosal remained the most popular of several preservatives used by vaccine makers to avoid the risk of bacteria from repeated needle insertions into multi-dose vials. Vaccines also come in single-dose vials or disposable syringes that do not require preservative. But doctors and clinics traditionally preferred multi-dose vials because they were cheaper and easier to store.

No one would have cared but for this confluence of trends: autism rates were rising, while more mercury was being injected into kids.

The CDC sets the country's immunization schedule, which, in effect, has the force of law, since in many places children can't enter day care or school or qualify for public assistance unless their shots are up to date.

Mercury exposure increased markedly in 1991, when the CDC added hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type b, or Hib, vaccines to the schedule.

Because these were mostly sold in multi-dose vials, children whose dutiful parents stayed current with their shots received as many as nine injections with as much as 187.5 micrograms of mercury in their first six months of life — exposures well above Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

This was disclosed in 1999 in a federal review, which showed that health authorities had ignored the rising exposures as they added shots.

In e-mails to colleagues at the time, Dr. Peter Patriarca, a senior FDA official, acknowledged that the agencies were open to attack. The FDA could be charged with "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," he said in a June 29, 1999, e-mail later disclosed at a congressional hearing.

It didn't take "rocket science" to track the rising exposures, Patriarca wrote. Critics may wonder "what took the FDA so long to do the calculations? Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when they rapidly expanded" childhood immunizations?

In July 1999, the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics called on vaccine makers to remove thimerosal as a precaution. Manufacturers began switching to single-dose containers. By 2002, thimerosal was present only in trace amounts in routine vaccines.

Now it is making something of a comeback. This year, the CDC added flu shots to the vaccine schedule for children 6 months and older. Aventis, the only producer of flu vaccine for infants and toddlers, makes it both in single-dose and mercury-containing multi-dose vials. The CDC has spurned appeals to recommend thimerosal-free shots for all children and pregnant women — fearing parents might refuse a shot for their kids if they couldn't get it mercury-free.

Exasperated by the agency's stance, lawmakers have filed bills in Congress and several states, including California, to ban thimerosal from pediatric vaccines.

Cochi of the CDC says such bills are ill conceived. He says children die of the flu, including more than 140 last year, while the risks of thimerosal are at most theoretical. He blames the uproar on those eager "to capitalize on the tragedy of parents with children who have autism, because they see a huge pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

"That's the other side of this story," Cochi said, "that it has the potential to be a gigantic scam on the American taxpayer."

Of all the resentments of the parents, the idea that they are out for a buck seems to gall them the most.

And when they talk about their lives — the social isolation, financial distress and bleak prospects of their children — many can't help but weep. At such times, it's easy to see why vaccine makers would rather not face them in court.

Kyle and Dillon Dass arrived three months early in January 2000 — weighing 1 pound, 7 ounces and 2 pounds, 15 ounces, respectively. That was six months after the appeal to remove thimerosal from vaccines.

Kevin, their father, keeps a copy of an advisory sent to doctors by the Academy of Pediatrics shortly before his sons were born. "If there are limited supplies of thimerosal-free products available, priority should be given to use in premature infants," it says.

At 3 1/2 months, the boys got four shots in one day. Three contained thimerosal, according to medical records the Dasses later obtained.

At the time, the couple had never heard of thimerosal, but Cheryl Dass said she questioned giving several shots to her tiny babies. She did not put up a fight, however, deciding, "Oh well, you know what you're doing because you save lives everyday."

Lyn Redwood, who lives near Atlanta, says her son Will began receiving doses while still in the womb.

Redwood, a former nurse, had amniocentesis during pregnancy. Because her blood was Rh negative, after the procedure she was given shots of gamma globulin to protect her fetus from an illness called Rh incompatibility disease.

Years later, Redwood said, she was amazed to learn that the two gamma globulin shots during pregnancy, and a third when she was breast-feeding, contained thimerosal.

Will, who has pervasive development disorder, a milder form of autism, had received an additional 237.5 micrograms of mercury in vaccines by the time he was 1 1/2 , Redwood said.

Even so, he seemed to progress nicely until his first birthday. Redwood recalled that he started to walk, talk and generally do things on time — before suddenly regressing and slipping away. "He stopped looking at us. He stopped playing…. It was like 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers,' " she said. "Somebody had taken away my baby's soul and just left a shell of him in there."

The bizarre and disruptive behavior of many autistic children can make their families virtual prisoners in their homes.

Going out in public "is a train wreck," said Cheryl Dass. It's impossible to do the family things others take for granted, like going to a movie or church or "even to pick out a pumpkin."

Kelly Kerns of Lenexa, Kan., who has an autistic daughter and twin sons, said, "We're not the families that are doing baseball and birthday parties.

"I'm a mother that lives in a tunnel," she said. "I haven't been to a family reunion in four years. My family doesn't understand. They wouldn't understand.

"I used to be a decent person, and I just have acid rolling from my lips every time I open my mouth," Kerns said. "I ask God every day what did I do to deserve this. What did these kids do to deserve what they got?"

Some parents are hopeful, though not holding their breath, for help from the vaccine court. Others say they'd just as soon get a chance to bloody the industry in a civil trial.

Said Georgia Mueller of Kansas City, who has an autistic son: "I want it to hurt" the manufacturers, because they "never did the research to make sure this was safe."

Article C - WORDS OF SUPPORT FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

In October of 2003, Unlocking Autism began a dialogue with both the Republican National Committee and the Democrat National Committee to bring the issues of autism to the forefront of the 2004 Presidential Election.

At the UA Power of 1.5 conference in April 2004, the Disability Grass Roots Outreach Coordinators from both the RNC and DNC were invited to explain to conference attendees where autism fit into each of the party platforms. During the conference, we told both parties that we would shortly be issuing a questionnaire to both Presidential Candidates with questions on how they would handle the issues of the autism community if elected.

In May 2004, Unlocking Autism sent a copy of the questionnaire to the Chairman of each party, the Disability Grassroots Outreach Coordinator of each party, the Chairman of each campaign and the Disability Policy Advisor for each campaign. A final deadline of 90 days post administration of the questionnaire was established giving each party and campaign a full opportunity to respond.

One candidate met the deadline and one did not.

Unlocking Autism communicated with both parties on a completely equitable basis. When we spoke with the RNC or Bush-Cheney campaign about an issue, we called and followed up on it with the DNC or Kerry-Edwards campaign, and vice versa. All communications were controlled through one contact so that there was no opportunity for any political misappropriation.

Our goal is not to influence political action or endorse either candidate but to provide the autism community with responses from the candidates on seven consistent concerns that we talk to parents about on a daily basis through the Unlocking Autism Call Center.

With a potential of 10,000,000 people of voting age in this country that have someone they love in their life with autism, our community has more influence than we might think possible if we would just put it to use. This is the time that the candidates should really be paying attention to issues that are near and dear to the heart of all Americans.

Our Community cannot remain silent and let our issues pass on by for another four years.
Choose your candidate. Volunteer on a campaign. Get involved.
Make a Difference.

To find out more about the questions Unlocking Autism asked and the answers we received, visit our website at www.unlockingautism.org.

1. Introductions & review of the agenda
2. What’s in a diagnosis?
3. Surviving the first year
4. Who pays for WHAT?!!
5. Biomedical (necessary tests and protocols)
6. Therapies (including: behavioral, academic, play therapies, social skills, speech & more!)
7. Dietary Interventions
8. Legal issues
9. Organization & Planning 101
10. Questions and Answers
    

Coffee Talk is going to be your hour (or so) once the kids are away at school or busy working in therapy to chat with other families affected by Autism. This is an unstructured, casual meeting environment to chat and talk about what you want to talk about.

Date: Tuesday, September 14th
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Location: Diedrich Coffee – Costa Mesa
1170 Baker Street (off the 405 freeway and Fairview Street)

NO need to RSVP, just join us for a little coffee, a little talk, no big whoop!