TV As The Cause of Autism Study

[Guest guest]

http://www.sierratimes.com/06/10/21/75_7_243_88_28135.htm

TV As The Cause of Autism Study

Pringle

Me! ssage For Study Authors at Cornell University Authors

First and foremost this is a perfect example of what happens when

economists that know nothing of a medical condition try to find some

statistical relationship between their beloved data and a condition.

The fact that this study went beyond a water-cooler joke and

actually consumed the time, energy, and money required of such a

study is beyond irresponsible, it is a slap in the face to the

families devastated by this disease and the children who will suffer

from it for their lifetime. The fact it was given any relevance and

actually reported by someone in the media, as well as being

officially announced by the University is reprehensible.

Anyone that seriously looks at the current Autism epidemic must be

mindful and cautious of how they approach such a study. After all,

this is the disorder once associated with cold and

unloving " refrigerator Mothers " . Beyond the accusation, many of

these families had their children ripped from their arms and the

mothers were forced into psychiatric treatment, including electro-

shock therapy. The accusations, speculations, and stabs at families

have not stopped, even after Dr. Bernard Rimland's clarification

that this is a biological illness. Many still believe it results

from `bad parenting'.

We have recently seen other speculative research pointing at 'old

dads' and now the most obnoxious and almost light-hearted approach

to a serious life-altering ailment, watching television as a cause

of autism. This study supports the idiots out there telling us if we

would just play with our children and be a parent our kids wouldn't

have this problem. So, now those of us with Autistic children it is

to be believed, simply stuck our " infants " in front of a TV, again

being cold, uncaring, bad parents. It wasn't said, but the

insinuations are there all the same.

The first question to those conducting this study must be, " what was

their knowledge of Autism before they embarked on this reckless

research " ?

1) It is apparent from reading the study that they had no knowledge

that approximately 25% of those diagnosed with Autism, even in this

epidemic, show signs of a serious developmental problem, before they

are even one year old. Do they believe that children under this age

are actually watching TV or is the supposition that it is the rays

or an electronic field being emitted from the Televisions that are

causing the Autism. It wasn't clear from their paper.

2) Even those now being recognized as suffering from " regressive

Autism " , meaning they showed perfectly normal development and then

somehow regressed into an Autistic state, normally suffer from

regression between the age of 12 and 24 months. Again, really below

the age of television watching or at least watching TV in such an

unusually massive quantity and differing from previous generations

to cause this affect and hence this unexplainable explosion in

autism cases since the 1980s. Perhaps the authors had read somewhere

that diagnosis' are usually made between the ages of three and five.

What they apparently did not know is that it often takes parents

years to get a diagnosis as their concerns are down-played or they

are urged to `wait and see', wasting precious intervention time.

3) Did the authors believe that our little 12 month old babies would

have been outside on the swing set had it not been for that

confounded rain and the tempting new cable TV services being offered

in America ?

4) The authors seemed unaware that the epidemic is also surging in

other First World nations and now even in India , China , and other

nations where TV is not even available to many now suffering their

own Autism epidemics.

5) Had they somewhere heard that there is a connection between TV

watching and Autism? Because by the age of three or four, long after

the onset of autistic symptoms, our Autistic children do become

obsessed with the television, but not cable TV or Satellite TV

programs. Most of our children never watch regular TV, even at the

age typical children do start watching TV. Our children find a

particular video or theme of videos and watch them endlessly over

and over and over again. Some even into adulthood. At 42 years old,

they may still demand that Elmo video they have seen literally

thousands if not millions of times. That is the connection between

TV watching and Autism. But the cause and affect is actually

backwards from what this study suggested. Autism causes obsessive

video watching.

6) The most telling omission was the lack of understanding of Autism

by the authors by not knowing that almost every single individual

diagnosed with Autism also suffers from other serious medical

problems. Many children with Autism have serious immune system

disorders and a huge number of them have severe gastrointestinal

disease that causes debilitating pain and disfunction. There are

serious medical complications associated with Autism. The authors of

this study made no effort to explain how TV watching could trigger

chronic intestinal inflammation, toxic levels of heavy metals,

inability to sleep, hard and bloated abdomens, food allergies or

intolerances, and much more.

The report itself admits that it was a strange statistic that

appeared to show that autism rates were higher where rainfall was

higher that triggered the look at television as a possible culprit

as an environmental trigger. It is beyond anyone with two neurons

left to rub together how far a stretch it took to make that leap

from rainfall, to the availability of cable, to television viewing,

to Autism (a lifelong debilitating disorder affecting the brain,

nervous system, immune system, and gut).

An understanding of the often toxic loads of heavy metals in

Autistic children might have lead a researcher to look at the fact

that areas with heavier rainfall would be exposing children to more

toxins stripped from the air and what is settled on vegetation by

the rain itself. Even questioning the high likelihood of mold

formation would have been more believable as an environmental

trigger than watching television in children really too young to

even watch TV.

The study mentions Oregon though only in the early part of the

study. A little research may have brought out that Oregon 's Autism

rate is the highest in the nation. Four times the national average,

the latest statistics in 2006 showed that at a minimum one in every

98 children in Oregon have a diagnosis on the Autism Spectrum.

Oregon receives more than its share of rainfall as most people know,

but it also has more than its share of abandoned mercury mines as

well as other heavy metal mines closed or still operating today.

Oregon is one of the worst three states in the U.S. for industrial

mercury emissions and it is also a pacific coast state, receiving

more than its fair share of mercury and other metals emissions from

China 's huge industrial revolution.

Between the rain and natural forest fires, Oregonians are barraged

with the constantly recycling heavy metals in our environment. Most

lakes and rivers are now marked with the ever-present signs

stating, " Do not eat the Fish " . This certainly deserves more

research and makes far more sense than Tom and Jerry or the

Roadrunner as possible environmental causes of Autism in infants and

toddlers.

The worst offense of all in this study is once again the total and

utter disregard for the voice of the parents and families directly

affected by this speeding train called Autism. Parents that watched

their children plummet into their own world immediately following

multiple vaccines are painted as fringe whackos looking for an

excuse for their child's disability. Their concerns and first-hand

stories are brushed aside as anectdotal, uninformed, and uneducated.

Even families whose children reacted within minutes of vaccination

and were autistic from that point forward are disregarded and swept

under the proverbial rug of pharmaceutical company and federal

agency denials.

The IOM disregarded parents, scientists, doctors, and scientific

studies showing a link to the mercury in vaccines and autism and

instead relied 100% on easily flawed epidemiological studies that

had been admittedly altered through five generations to downplay the

link with neurodevelopmental disorders. The IOM would say no further

research into this seems warranted. But this study, this TV causes

Autism study, you would request demands further research and study.

While the Combating Autism Act with its millions of research dollars

lies locked in a congressional ego pissing match, you seriously

suggest that someone should waste more time, money, and effort on

what it took many of us days to realize was not some cruel and evil

joke on the part of a few bored economic researchers.

This devastating epidemic has gone beyond the level of such

thoughtless, immature games of throwing out simplified and idiotic

theories that pop into someone's brain. No defense you can throw out

can justify this level of pseudo-scientific crap. No apologies can

make up for the glib nature of this attempt at your 15 minutes of

fame. We can only hope you have all enjoyed yourselves at the

expense of devastated families and children that will needlessly

suffer for a lifetime from a very serious ailment. The media that

gave this any serious time or space while they easily dismiss the

fact that the second most toxic element on earth is being injected

into infants has their own share of culpability in this.

If even one federally funded penny goes to this ridiculous theory,

you will hear the loudest uproar from 300,000 angry families being

accompanied by their estimated 5 million friends and family members.

We will not be silenced, and we will not be patronized by anything

as obnoxiously condescending and brainless as this study.

This is a serious disease, a serious issue, and it deserves some

serious study and attention. It is causing a devastating loss to our

nation of an entire generation of children, and leading to the death

of 100s of these children through drownings, traffic accidents, as

well as being murdered by family members. This is not a non-fatal

disease. The numbers are 1000x worse than the polio epidemic of the

1950s but receives 1/100th of the attention, resources, research,

and even media and federal government attention. You have made your

contribution to the trivialization of the misery and struggles of

these families and their children, and there is just no other way to

put this than; please just shut up and go away.

As the 1 in 166 start filling the Social Security rolls, receiving

Medicaire and Medicaid the crisis will reach a whole new level, and

maybe then, just maybe someone will actually do some real and

credible research into the real causes of the Autism epidemic. Until

then, we parents can only pray and hope that you are the last to so

carelessly throw out such a thoughtless mockery of real science.

I did a simple search on the ask Jeeves website. I typed

in " inventions " in the 1980s and below is what appeared from that

search (just wondering if you had ruled out Cabbage Patch Dolls or

disposable contact lenses before you jumped on the TV bandwagon?)

1980 The hepatitis-B vaccine invented.

1981 The first IBM-PC invented.

1982 Human growth hormone genetically engineered.

1983 First Cabbage Patch Kids sold.

1984 The CD-ROM invented.

1984 The Apple Macintosh invented.

1986 A high-temperature super-conductor invented by J. Georg Bednorz

and Karl A. Muller.

1986 Synthetic skin invented by G. Gallico, III.

1986 Fuji introduced the disposable camera

1987 The first 3-D video game invented.

1987 Disposable contact lenses invented.

1988 Digital cellular phones invented.

1988 The RU-486 (abortion pill) invented.

1988 Doppler radar invented by Christian s Doppler.

1988 Prozac® invented at the Eli Lilly Company by inventor Ray

Fuller.

1988 The first patent for a genetically engineered animal is issued

to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and .

1988 Ralph Alessio and Fredrik Olsen received a patent for the

Indiglo ® nightlight. The bluish green light is used to illuminate

the entire face of a watch.

1989 High-definition television invented.

Kendra Pettengill Roseburg, Oregon Parent of an Autistic Child