zmmiller: June 2008

Since I have an autistic child, I read rather extensively on the subject of autism (over 300 articles per week on average). However, since I also have a sound education - a real one – I tend to focus mainly on the journals and other scholarly sources, rather than on the tripe produced by the mainstream media. Call me an elitist, but real information is more palatable and eminently more useful than spin, hype and hysteria. However, try as I might, it is almost impossible to tune out this steady, high-pitched stream of nonsense and, unfortunately, it seems glaringly obvious that anything even remotely thoughtful or scientific contains too many big/hard words for activists these days (especially the autism crowd). It seems equally obvious that expecting real critical thinking, an exo-cultural perspective or some actual learning, is too much to ask of these same people – people whose idea of insightful political discourse is: “ditto” – people who seem to think (based on their behavior) that the volume and frequency with which something is shouted positively correlate with the veracity of its content.

Take this instance for example: I was recently speaking to the family member of an autistic child who, when I asked the basis for a rather bizarre but militantly held belief, pulled a piece of paper out (of her handbag) and pointed to a quote in an article as proof – she was the one being quoted in the article! I know this is a mind-bender, but stay with me here folks – the logic goes something like this: “I know it is true because I shouted it at somebody, they wrote down what I shouted and gave it back to me, therefore it must be true.” Crazy, huh? If only it was an isolated case (sigh). This is the sum and substance of most of the autism hooey that is being circulated - hooey that gets treated as news. They feed on each other’s bullshit, often passing it off to the timid, the uninitiated (or just plain stupid) as actual facts produced by actual science. There is very little thinking (other than the wishful kind) involved. Dogma, nothing more.

The sad reality is that parents feel bad that they have an autistic child, how could they not? Show me a parent who says they are glad about it and I will show you a case of Munchausen’s by Proxy. So parents feel bad - they often feel disappointed, scared, and desperate. Then they feel guilty for feeling disappointed, scared, etc. and around and around it goes until, along with a dash of self pity, a teaspoon of martyrdom and liberal pinch of good old American finger-pointing, it ferments into a noxious brew of self righteous anger and the fervent need to cast blame and seek attention (and profit if at all possible). This is the essence and truth of autism activism today. I know this, for I was on this merry-go-round myself before coming to my senses and accepting a less black and white reality. The need to do... something - anything - can be overwhelming and can often result in jettisoning good common sense.

But I digress… Of course with all this anger, finger-pointing and blame we need a villain, but we need one that in no way implicates us parents, or at least one we can portray (mostly to ourselves) as having duped us. Big amorphous villains that can be linked to some conspiracy, some camarilla, are always best, and seem to be in vogue of late (witness Al Queda) – enter the pharmaceutical industry and the specter of vaccines.

Let me state for the record that I’m no big fan of Big Pharm., but I see it for what it is: a for profit business whose obligation is to its shareholders first and foremost, and to its customers and the rest of the world a very distant second. This is reality. The goal here is to make as much money as possible and it is not a secret - it has never been a secret, nor is it wrong. As with anything else, buyers beware - it is not the government’s job to protect us from our own self-imposed ignorance. For God's sake, most people do not even bother to read labels, or if they do they just skip over the unknown words like Propyl Gallate, Potassium Bromate, Acesulfame-K, Sodium Nitrite, and BHA - they don't want to know what these things are... until it's time to sue somebody. People will buy toys for their children without checking (for themselves) if the toy is safe - it is insane! Why would someone trust the judgment as to what is safe or appropriate for their child to a Chinese toy maker's minimum wage employee?!?!

Let me also state for the record that I’m not a vaccine advocate. If anything I believe that as a culture we over vaccinate and over medicate, and that we would be better off as a species (long run) if we did very little of either. So back to it… The argument from the “Vaccines Cause Autism” Nazis, goose-stepping to the drum beat of Heir Kirby and Heir Wakefield went something like this: “With out any doubt, it is the methyl mercury containing Thiomersal used as a preservative in childhood vaccines that causes autism.” Notice that I said “went like this?” It has changed because some of us do not only have spinal columns (good for goose-stepping, not so good for thinking) we also have brains, and we began to ask questions.

“Why do so many more boys than girls have autism?” we asked. “Mercury is an element and isn’t the periodic table the same for both sexes?”

“Well it has something to do with – ahem - testosterone or – err, um – estrogen, or something,” came the reply. Never mind that the X chromosome in females encodes vastly more information than the corresponding Y in males – Kirby, the Rachel Carson epigone couldn’t make any money peddling his book(s) if the cause were genetic, and parents might feel “attacked” if their genes (or their ages or lifestyles) were in any way questioned – no, this just wouldn’t be seemly.

“OK,” we said, “we’ll let that slide for now, but how come autism rates are still rising, even though there hasn’t been any Thiomersal in vaccines for almost a decade?”

“Well, there might still be some batches out there,” came the reply, insinuating that doctors were somehow in on “it,” whatever “it” might be. I mean really! Are we to believe that either 1) doctors are knowingly disregarding sound scientific evidence and endangering the health of their young patients because some pharmaceutical salesman takes them out to a nice dinner, or 2) that in spite of all their education and training, these doctors are not as smart as a greedy sales rep., a second-rate journalist, or a B-list actress?

“Well it might be the effect on the immune system of all those vaccines given at the same time…”

“Might?!?!” The shrill, hysterical anti-vaccine crowd has summarily decided that vaccines are the cause, regardless of, or in the absence of, the real scientific facts. The only recent parallel that comes to mind is the campaign waged by the Bush Administration to enable the Iraq War. In both cases (WMD and vaccines causing autism) “truth” was created through sheer repetition. What is most dangerous about this is 1) in the case of the autism Nazis, they have put themselves in a position to influence how funds are spent and what research actually gets done. As Michelle Dawson writes:

“Autism Speaks is the current authority, the major private autism research funding body, a major influence on public spending, the biggest, most powerful autism advocacy organization of them all, representing and deciding the (ideally, according to Autism Speaks, very short) future of all autistic people.”

“But this is what autism advocates do. One of the near universals of autism advocacy is the promotion of the autism "epidemic," and the rejection of the scientific position that there's been a high stable rate of autism.”

“Another universal of autism advocacy is a gross disregard for accuracy and ethics in reporting what is known about autism. Autism Speaks is telling the world--including governments--that when it comes to autism, you don't need to bother with the facts. You don't need to check your basic arithmetic, much less take the trouble to look up primary sources.”

The other danger, 2) is that parents make decisions based on this disinformation. Let me elaborate... I love the internet, but as a trained scientist I am well aware that doing a Google search and reading what comes up is not the same thing as doing real research. A good start? Maybe, maybe not (the scholarly stuff is not always on top - it costs a lot of money to appear at the top of a Google page). How does one check the sources? Who reads the original test results, checks the funding streams, or the CVs of the investigators? Do these parents have the training (or even the vocabulary) to interpret the test results or understand levels of statistical significance? How many parents of autistic kids could even explain simple concepts like LD-50 or half-lives? As the saying goes: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And while we are on the subjects of parents... to do real research and engage in real science the observer must be unbiased, which is the whole reason for double blind protocols. No parent of an autistic child can claim to be unbiased - period. When I was conducting my laboratory research years ago, I was amazed at how my expectations shaped the results I obtained - results that I would have thought would have been dependent solely on the materials in the test tubes. Parents are untrained observers, are unreliable observers, and work with no objective measurement metrics. Yet they will claim, "nobody knows my child better than I do." Really? Then why don't you perform your own surgery on your child? Why do you not drill your child's teeth and fill the cavities? Why do you not teach your child differential calculus yourself - after all, knowing your child best should put you in the position of being best able to match his/her learning style and needs? The reason they don't is lack of expertise. There are no amateur nuclear physicists - thank God - and for the same reasons, amateurs should not dabble in the behavioral sciences. 'Nuff said.

But parents who are not suffering from abulia do make decisions based on the regurgitated crap spewing from the autism Nazis, their media hacks and their medical minions (DAN! anyone?) - and kids have been harmed, even killed as a result. I personally sat in a consultation with a DAN! doctor who recommended using one product of a pharmaceutical company to cure the harm he said was done by another product of the very same pharmaceutical company (I checked) - this is the brilliant thinking behind chealation. This doctor was not a pediatrician (he was a garden variety internist), had no formal training in autism, had attended 3rd and 4th tier universities, did no examination of my child and assumed that he was speaking to idiots. "We need to methylate your son," he said. As a former chemist, my bullshit detector went off the chart. Oh yeah, this doctor was (and is) making a f#@king fortune peddling snake oil to desperate parents.

I’m going to take a few deep breaths, but while I’m doing that let’s conduct a little gedankenexperiment (thought experiment), and just to make it fun we’ll do it redneck style. We will imagine two 1990 sedans sitting (up on blocks of course) in the front yard of our trailer near the ceramic deer, the lawn ball and other lawn ornaments. They stay there for some years. One (the Chevy) rusts badly over the years, but the other (a Buick) does not rust at all. Why would one rust and not the other? The same rain fell on both for the same amount of time – the same exposure - hmmmn. Should we vilify the rain, even knowing the good it does for the nearby garden? Or should we seek to understand what it was about the Buick that did not allow it to rust? If 1 in 150 kids get autism, why do the other 149 not get it, even though they received the same vaccines?

The view that vaccines cause autism is not only simplistic it is lazy, and it is propagated by those who wish enjoy some schadenfreude, or to cast blame rather than really examine what might be going on (or not). First, let us consider that prior to 1980 there were no real diagnostic criteria for autism in the DSM, and it was not until 1987 (the DSM-III-R) that the concept of pervasive developmental disorders was formally established and became diagnosable. In other words, most autism spectrum disorders could not be diagnosed or, more importantly, billed to medical insurance (money talks folks) and recorded/counted - so autism (especially PDD-NOS) as an official diagnosis has only really existed for 20 years! Second, and far more salient, what about all the other things (for most of which there is “evidence of harm”) that could be factors in autism? Let’s take a look at just a few items that are somewhat less than salubrious:

Pressure treated wood

Over 90% of all outdoor wooden structures in this country are made with arsenic-treated lumber. In the pressure-treating process, lumber is sealed in a tank; air is extracted, creating a vacuum. Then a solution containing chromium, copper and arsenic ("CCA") is added. Exposure to pressure treated wood can cause: Lung cancer, Bladder cancer, Skin cancer, Kidney cancer, Prostate cancer, Cancer in the nasal passages and neurological damage (this is only what’s been proven so far).

Electromagnetic Radiation (EMF)

In November 1989, the Department of Energy reported that "It has now become generally accepted that there are, indeed, biological effects due to field exposure." In March 1990, the EPA recommended that EMFs be classified as a Class B carcinogen -- -a "probable human carcinogen and joined the ranks of formaldehyde, DDT, dioxins and PCBs. Sources of EMF: power lines, substations, transformers, home wiring, computers, electric appliances, microwave ovens, cell phones, cellular repeater stations (on many apartment buildings).

Glycol Ethers such as bisphenol A (BPA)

Government tests have revealed BPA contamination in infant formula. The FDA found BPA contamination in 12 of 14 samples of canned infant formula, from BPA leaching out of the metal can linings (Biles 1997). At the levels found, between 1 and 13 parts per billion (ppb), many formula-fed infants will be exposed to BPA in excess of amounts found to harm development (prostate, breast, early puberty, behavior). In May 1999, BPA was found to leach from baby bottles. Consumer Reports found BPA leaching from baby bottles when heated, prompting renewed debate over the safety of babies' exposures (Consumers Union 1999). In May 1999 the FDA publicly asserts the safety of BPA for bottle-fed infants, ignoring emerging evidence of low-dose BPA toxicity. In 2002 a study finds brain and behavioral effects from BPA exposure. The harmful dose, at 200 ug/kg/d, is 40 times lower than the study EPA used to set its 1993 safety standard.

Pesticides (aka chemicals used to kill stuff)

America uses about 30% of the world’s total of pesticides, even though it makes up just over 6% of the land mass. One major environmental science text book asserts that the average US homeowner uses 2 - 6 times more pesticides per acre than do farmers. An emergence in pesticide use began after World War II with the introduction of DDT, BHC, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin and 2,4-D and has since skyrocketed. Most pesticides are neurotoxins.

Organophosphate pesticides

These compounds include sarin and VX nerve gasses in their family. Organophosphates are also widely used as solvents, plasticizers, and EP additives. They include parathion, malathion, methyl parathion, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dichlorvos, phosmet, tetrachlorvinphos, and azinphos methyl.

Carbamate Pesticides

Aldicarb, Carbaryl, Carbofuran, Fenoxycarb, Methiocarb, Methomyl, Oxamyl, Thiodicarb to name but a few. These are not only neurotoxins, but are endocrine disruptors. These can be found in your refrigerator.

Organochlorine Insecticides

DDT, DDD, TDE, Methoxychlor, Rhothane, Methlochlor, Perthane, Dicofol (Kelthane),Aldrin, Dieldrin, Endrin, Heptachlor, Chlordane, Endosulfan, Lindane, Toxaphene, Mirex, HCB, HCH, Chlordecone (Kepone). Some of these have been banned, however, they continue to persist in the environment and are still being magnified through the food chain. DDT is still being actively used in many countries that the US imports food from.

Synthetic Pyrethroid Pesticides

Allethrin, Bifenthrin, Cyfluthrin, Cyhalothrin, Cypermethrin, Deltamethrin, Esfenvalerate, Fenpropathrin, Fluvalinate, Permethrin, Resmethrin, Tefluthrin, Tetramethrin, Tralomethrin. Look them up!

Genetically Modified Food

About 25% of Americans have adverse reactions to foods. 8% of children and 2% of adults have food allergies as tested by blood immunoglobins. The risks are not hypothetical. Any unbiased scientist familiar with the technology will admit that genetic engineering can give rise to unanticipated allergens and toxins. Already we have seen this scenario in action. In 1989, a dietary supplement, L-tryptophan, caused 37 U.S. deaths and 1,511 nonfatal cases of a disease called eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS). The Centers for Disease Control linked these cases to tryptophan manufactured using genetically engineered bacteria. A study published in Science in 1990 confirmed that the tryptophan was contaminated with a toxic "novel amino acid" not present in tryptophan produced by other methods. A settlement of $2 billion dollars was paid by Showa Denko, Japan’s third largest chemical company. (Mayeno and Gleich, 1994).

In 1996, Brazil nut genes were spliced into soybeans by a company called Pioneer Hi-Bred. Some individuals, however, are so allergic to this nut, they go into anaphylactic shock (similar to a severe bee sting reaction) which can cause death. Genes from genectically modified foods have also been detected in human brains. Four soy based infant formulas: Carnation, Similac, Isomil, and Enfamil (my kids drank Similac) have all been tested and found to contain the genetically manipulated soybeans that have been engineered to survive being sprayed with the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate). Genetically engineered corn has been detected in Doritos, Tostitos and Fritos. As reported by the New York Times, foods altered through genetic engineering often contain proteins and other components that have never before been part of the human diet: proteins from bacteria and viruses and, in the future, proteins from insects, scorpions and people. Genetically modified foods that have been approved, are awaiting approval or are under development in the USA:

Apples, Rice, Barley, Soybeans, Beans, Squash, Chestnuts, Stawberries, Corn, Sugar cane, Cucumbers, Sunflowers, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Melons, Tobacco, Peppers, Walnuts, Papayas, Watermelons, Potatoes, Wheat.

Flame retardants

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE's), also known as brominated flame retardants, have been added to many common products found in the home. Plastics and textiles are usually treated with PBDE's before being made into carpeting, furniture, casings for electronic equipment, circuit boards and clothing. PBDE retardants have been in use since the 1970's when their counterpart, PCB's, were BANNED from production due to their undeniable negative effects on human health. PBDE's are very similar to PCB's in many ways, particularly in the damage they do to our thyroid function, immune system, brain development and in our growing cancer rates.

Toxic metals:

Aluminum

Aluminum can be found in drinking water, antiperspirants, baking powders, feminine hygiene products, cow and soymilk, baby formula, antacids, aluminum foil, and old cast aluminum pots and pans

Barium

Barium compounds are found in soaps, ceramics, paper, glass, plastics, textiles, dyes, fuel additives, rubber, paint and pesticides.

Nickel

Nickel is found in stainless steel cutlery, pots and pans, coins, dental fillings and batteries.

Arsenic

Arsenic is found in cigarette smoke, laundry detergents, beer, seafood and drinking water.

Lead

Lead is found in cosmetics, plastics, batteries, gasoline, insecticides, pottery glaze, soldered pipes and paint.

Cadmium

Cadmium is found in soft drinks, cigarette smoke, water softeners, seafood, rubber, motor oil, pesticides, fungicides, and poly-vinyl plastics.

Uranium

There have been over 2,000 nuclear detonations on our planet since Hiroshima casting uranium into our atmosphere, not counting events like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and accidents involving nuclear submarines. From 1945 to 1963 the U.S.A. conducted an extensive campaign of 228 above ground nuclear tests. A total of 1,011 (1,030) tests were conducted ending in 1992. This makes the US the most nuked country on the planet. Japan is still seeing profound genetic effects from the two relatively tiny atomic detonations inflicted on it. The other byproducts of atomic tests, including Strontium-90, Plutonium-239, Cesium-137 and countless others, have very long half-lives. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of over 20,000 years, and poses a danger to life for over 200,000 years.

Mercury

Now let’s not forget mercury, as it has been vilified more any other insult. Of course no amount of mercury is safe, but to place all the blame on vaccines is absurd, juvenile and speaks to a witch-hunt mentality. In fact, vaccines are/were a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to all the other means of exposure. Was there mercury in our vaccines? Yes, but let us put that into the context of all the other sources of mercury that we were and still are being exposed to:

Common Sources of Mercury:

* Adhesives

* Agricultural chemicals

* Air conditioner filters

* Alloys

* Amalgam

* Anatomical preservative

* Antifouling paints

* Anti-mildew paints

* Antiparasitic powder

* Antiseptic

* Atomic shields

* Auto exhaust

* Barometers

* Batteries

* Bilge pumps

* Bleached flour

* Blood Bank Saline

* Bronzing

* B5 Fixative

* Cardiac catheterization syringes

* Catalysts

* Cathode tubes

* Caustic soda

* Centrifuges

* Chemical reagents

* China

* Circuitry

* Cleaning Solvents

o Ajax Powder

o Comet Cleaner

o Lysol Direct

o Soft Scrub

o Alconox Soap

o Derma Scrub

o Dove Soap

o Ivory Dishwashing

o Liquid Joy Dishwashing

o Liquid Murphy's Oil Soap

o Soft Dish soap

* Coal

* Coal fired power plants

* Commercial cleaning bleach

* Commercial cleaning detergent

* Commercial cleaning scouring powder

* Commercial cleaning soap

* Cosmetics

* Dental amalgam capsules

* Dental amalgam sewage

* Depolarizer (batteries)

* Developers

* Dip-a-way (merbromin) aquarium systems

* Disinfectant

* Displacement/plunger relays

* Drinking water (tap/well)

* DC watt hour meters

* Dyes

* Electric relays

* Electric switches

* Electronics

* Electroplating aluminum

* Embalming Fluid

* Engraving

* Etch-a-sketch toys

* Exhaust fumes

* Explosives

* Eye area cosmetics (up to 65 ppm)

* Fabric softeners

* Felt

* Fertilizers

* Finger print powder

* Fish

* Fixatives

* Flame sensors

* Flooring - Gymnasium Flooring installed during the early 1970's contained a mercury catalyst and other rubber tracks and sports surfaces (3M Tartan Track).

* Floor waxes

* Flow meters

* Fluorescent lights

* Fuel cells

* Fume exhaust ventilation hoods

* Fungicides

o Mildewcide
o Latex paint
o Outdoor fabric treatment
o Marine anti-fouling paint pre 1970

* Furs

* Gas meter pressure devices

* General purpose lamps

* Gilding

* Glue

* Gold mining

* Gun powder

* Gyroscopes

* Hair tonics

* Headlights xenon-mercury-halide

* High intensity discharge lamps

* High output lamps

* High pressure sodium lamps

* Homeopathics (17 compounds)

* Hot cathode lamps

* Industrial Boilers

* Iodine stain

* Insecticides

* Inverters

* Jewelry (reported from Mexico)

* Lamps (mercury arc)

* Latex Paint

* Laxatives

* L A Gear "My Lil Lights" pre 1994 shoes

* Manometers

* Mascara

* Medical analytical instruments

* Medical waste incinerators

* Merbromin used in plastic surgery

* Mercurochrome

* Metal halide lamps

* Mucolex

* Municipal Waste Combustors

* Nasal Spray

* Neon lamps (except red, orange, pink)

* Nuclear coolants

* Ophthalmic products (preservative)

* Optic sensors

* Oscillators

* Paint indoors before 1990

* Paint outdoors before 1991

* Pastes

* Pesticides (food use pre 1995)

* Photoprocessing solutions

* Pigments

o Reds
o Oranges
o Cadmium
o Automobile
o Auto parts
o Vinyl
o ABS
o Polycarbonate
o Cadmium sulfide based pigments
o Catalysts, urethane and vinyl
o Polymer curing
o Acetylene Production
o Production of vinyl from acetylene
o Anthraquinone production

* Pipes

* Plastics

* Plumbing-piping

* Polishes

* Porcelain

* Pregnancy kit preservatives

* Printing

* Processed foods

* Progesterone

* Pulp

* Pyrometers

* Quicksilver Maze (toy)

* Radar

* Radio

* Rectifiers

* Rubber flooring with mercury compounds

* Seed dressings

* Semiconductors

* Shooting galleries

* Silvering mirrors

* Skin bleaching creams

* Sodium hydroxide

* Solvents

* Sphygmomanometers

* Sulfuric acid (commercial)

* Switches, relays, sensors

* Talcom Powder

* Tanning Leather

* Tattoo pigments

* Telescope mirror

* Thermometers

* Thermoregulators

* Thermostats

* Thimerosal in US Licensed Vaccines

* Tissue stains

* Turbo alternators

* Vapor lamps

* Vermicides

* Waste water treatment plants

* Water pollution

* Water treatment chemicals

* Weight/counterweigh in grandfather clocks

* Welding

* Wood Preservatives

* Wound Control (merbromin)

All of the above, from pressure treated wood through toxic metals, have been proven to be harmful to the neurological, endocrine and immune systems of people – especially small developing people. They are just as likely (if not more so) to be the cause of autism as vaccinations, yet no one seems to care. Nowhere on the Autism Speaks website or in any of their literature will you find mention of flame retardants, pesticides, or any of these known neurotoxins. No one is questioning the effects that radiation, genetically modified food or other mutagens are having on ourselves and our children. No one has bothered to ask whether the roots of any autism epidemic (which our redneck experiment shows is at least in part genetic) lie in our children, ourselves or our parents’ generation - roots that are just now becoming magnified enough to be expressed. We have created a mess, however, it is the sort of mess that none of us wish to see as such. It is a mess that we are comfortable with – we think we like it this way.

But, like it or not, we (all of us) have constructed a system in the US (and in much of the rest of the world) that makes it OK to use a process, employ a procedure, market a product, etc., unless it can be proven to cause harm. In fact, what would make much more sense would be to have a system that makes if OK to use a process, employ a procedure, market a product, etc. only if it can be proven not to cause harm. We have chosen to worry about the effects after the fact, after the cause (in many cases) is long since over and very difficult to uncover. If we do not like the way things are, we should change them rather than punishing companies, regulatory bodies, and our children for playing by the rules that we have set up for them. It does not even require regulation, just a change in mindset: don't buy, use or eat anything unless you know what it really is, what is in it, how it was produced, what its effects are (short and long term), where it came from, etc. If this were the case the only regulation needed would be that necessary to ensure timely access to information.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for this to happen, not shopping for eternity, not expecting any real change and I'm certainly not angry with society - that would be ridiculous. I will instead continue to advocate for my wonderful son, but I will advocate for those proven therapies, interventions and education that will help him come as close to his potential as possible. I will do anything necessary to ensure that his life (and his sister's) is as filled with joy as it can be. I will not delude myself into thinking he wasn't dealt a bad hand, but I will not lose sleep over it either. Hopefully this post will cast some perspective on some of the autism bullshit that is out there. Maybe it will help some parent somewhere who is struggling with these issues - writing it helped me, and that in turn helps my children - that is enough.