alternative: Looking into the past for a deeper understanding of autism - LAT

[Guest guest]

Today's LATimes article " Looking into the past for a deeper

understanding of autism " can be compared to the investigative reporting

of Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill, as presented in their book, " The Age of

Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-Made Epidemic " . I purchased and

read the book soon after it was published and recommend it highly. ~

Here's the book description from Amazon:

/

A groundbreaking book, THE AGE OF AUTISM explores how mankind has

unwittingly poisoned itself for half a millennium.

For centuries, medicine has made reckless use of one of earth's most

toxic substances: mercury---and the consequences, often invisible or

ignored, continue to be tragic. Today, background pollution levels,

including global emissions of mercury as well as other toxicants, make

us all more vulnerable to its effects. From the worst cases of syphilis

to Sigmund Freud's first cases of hysteria, from baffling new disorders

in 19th century Britain to the modern scourge of autism, THE AGE OF

AUTISM traces the long overlooked history of mercury poisoning.

Now, for the first time, authors Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill uncover

that history. Within this context, they present startling findings:

investigating the first cases of autism diagnosed in the 1940s revealed

an unsuspected link to a new form of mercury in seed disinfectants,

lumber fungicides and vaccines. In the tradition of Silent Spring and An

Inconvenient Truth, Olmsted and Blaxill demonstrate with clarity how

chemical and environmental clues may have been missed as medical

" experts, " many of them blinded by decades of systemic bias, instead

placed blamed on parental behavior or children's biology. By exposing

the roots and rise of The Age of Autism, this book attempts to point the

way out -- to a safer future for our children and the planet./

here

<http://www.amazon.com/Age-Autism-Medicine-Man-Made-Epidemic/dp/B0055X6B9G/>

> Looking into the past for a deeper understanding of autism.

>

<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/autism/la-me-autism-day-four-html,0,6403471.h\

tmlstory>

>

>

> Scientists are just beginning to find cases of autism that were

> overlooked or called something else in an earlier era. If their

> research shows that autism has always been present at roughly the same

> rate as today, it could ease worries that an epidemic is on the loose.

> Part 4 of 4.

>

> Reporter: alan.zarembo@...

PS: This post may be forwarded hither and yon.