Ped Med: Counting on autism counts

http://www.upi.com/ConsumerHealthDai...9-023841-3973r

Ped Med: Counting on autism counts

Excerpts:

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Many are counting on the numbers keepers to
provide critical clues to some fundamental questions about the rising rates
of autism diagnoses in America's children.

In particular, those who hold the mercury-based vaccine preservative
thimerosal responsible for the increase have been eagerly awaiting a verdict
on their prediction that as children's exposure to the compound decreases,
so, too, will their autism rates.

Phased out of most childhood shots around the turn of the century,
thimerosal remains in some booster and flu vaccines recommended for pregnant
women and babies.

With the release of California's special-education statistics in the summer
of 2005, the thimerosal skeptics gleaned a glimmer of substantiation of
their suspicions.

The data were compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services.
They showed the sum total of autistic children in the system continues to
grow -- by now topping 28,000.

There were 1,451 new cases in 2001-2002; 1,981 in 2002-2003; 3,707 in
2003-2004; and 3,178 in 2004-2005.

Even if the waning caseload numbers in the earlier California report
represented a true downward trend in actual autism rates, there remain other
uncertainties that could stand in the way of connecting the dots directly to
vaccines.

Take a March 2006 study showing newborns may be 65 to 130 times more
sensitive than adults -- and even 26 to 50 times more vulnerable than fellow
infants -- to certain pesticides. This variability is far greater than
anyone had predicted.

What makes the findings potentially relevant to the autism debate is that
the chemicals under study, so-called organophosphate compounds like diazinon
and chlorpyrifos, have been shown, in high doses, to have profound effects
on the central nervous system.

Growing evidence from animal and human studies also suggests chronic
low-level exposure may affect neurodevelopment.

Next: Looking for safety standards in all the wrong places.