Chemical Link to Autism?

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Subject: Chemical Link to Autism?

Interesting article re links between chemical exposure and autism. Research

also suggests a strong connection between chemical exposure and learning

disabilities.

United Press International

The Age of Autism: Something Wicked -- 1

By Dan Olmsted

UPI Senior Editor

The Combating Autism Act passed by the U.S. Senate earlier this month

includes millions of dollars for research into possible environmental causes

of autism.

It's about time.

Specifically, the bill authorizes $45 million to the National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences to spend over five years in clinical research

on possible environmental factors.

While that may sound like a good chunk of change, it's minuscule compared

with spending on (so far) fruitless searches for an " autism gene. "

In previous installments of this column, I've sketched the natural history

of the disorder beginning with child psychiatrist Leo Kanner's landmark 1943

paper, " Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact. "

And I've suggested that from the very beginning, an environmental trigger --

something harmful coming from the outside in -- was alarmingly evident. As

Macbeth put it, there's reason to worry that " Something wicked this way

comes. "

Kanner identified 11 children with what he called the " markedly and

uniquely " different disorder of autism. The first child in his case series

was born in 1931, the last in 1938. While Kanner focused on the parents'

high educational attainment, we proposed a different way of connecting the

dots:

-- Case 1, T., grew up in Forest, Miss., which is smack in the middle

of national forest land that was being replanted by the Civilian

Conservation Corps during the early 1930s.

-- Case 2, Frederick W., was the son of a plant pathologist.

-- Case 3, M., was the son of a forestry professor at a southern

university.

What might unite those cases? Mark Blaxill of the advocacy group SafeMinds

suggested agricultural chemicals, in particular ethyl-mercury-based

fungicides that came on the market about 1930. They were patented by

Kharasch, the " father of organic chemistry, " who also invented thimerosal,

the ethyl-mercury-based vaccine preservative some blame for the huge rise in

autism diagnoses.

Whether you subscribe to the thimerosal theory or not, any environmental

link is a worrisome prospect. And evidence for such a link has expanded over

the years.

Recently I had a fascinating conversation with Felicetti of Beechwood

Rehabilitation Services of Langhorne, Pa. I came across work he had done

more than a quarter-century ago that strongly suggested a " chemical

connection " in autism.

He summarized that work in the journal Milieu Therapy in 1981, and it is

riveting to read in light of everything that has come after -- namely,

hundreds of thousands more cases of autism. Felicetti set up a study at the

Avalon School in Massachusetts where he was teaching at the time.

" The experimental design was rather simple and straightforward, " he

recounted in the paper -- comparing the occupations of 20 parents of

autistic children, 20 parents of retarded children and 20 parents of

" normal " children who were friends and neighbors of those attending the

school.

" The results did, in fact, suggest a chemical connection, " he wrote. " Eight

of the 37 known parents of the autistic children had sustained occupational

exposure to chemicals prior to conception. Five were chemists and three

worked in related fields. The exposed parents represent 21 percent of the

autistic group. This compared to 2.7 percent of the retardation controls and

10 percent of the normal controls. The data, subjected to statistical

analysis, demonstrated a chemical connection.

" The results of this study point in the direction of chemical exposure as an

etiological factor in the birth of autistic children. "

Felicetti is quick to acknowledge that such a small study was not

definitive. " This particular study was occupations, and it was all different

occupations, " he told me. " There were chemists, there were chemical

assistants who would suck chemicals through pipettes in those days. There

were roof tarrers who were exposed to chemicals through the roof tar. A

variety of occupations.

" But again that's as far as I went with it. It was a pretty good study but

suggestive -- because we couldn't find any particular chemical and because

we only looked at occupations. "

But it's worth coming to a full stop at his simple and straightforward

conclusion that a " chemical connection " was evident in the etiology of

autism. Plus, he was building on earlier work that already suggested such a

connection (more on that in an upcoming column). And further disturbing

studies have followed.

It's also significant that the study tried to roughly control for

" occupational status " -- " It did try to have the control groups of equal

occupation and social class, " Felicetti said. Contrary to all the

speculation that brainpower and education correlate with autistic offspring,

job status had nothing to do with it -- roof tarrers are not perched atop

the economic ladder, so to speak.

The key was the job itself and its exposure to chemicals. Felicetti told me

the plant pathologist and forestry professor from Leo Kanner's 1943 case

studies also would have met his test for occupations with chemical exposure.

So yes, maybe Kanner's kids had especially bright parents -- but maybe they

were up to their elbows in mercury fungicides, and Lord knows what else,

before anyone knew how dangerous that was. (Perhaps fittingly, Kanner said

the forestry professor was " very much immersed in his work. " )

One of Felicetti's observations in the 1981 article is haunting: " It is

especially ironic that many of the parents of the autistic youngsters in our

study could not specify the nature of the chemical agents. One can only

speculate that they had blind faith in the safety precautions of the plants

and in the reassurances of their employers. ...

" We seem to be coming out of an era when individuals routinely assume that

occupational exposure to a wide variety of chemicals is a safe pastime.

However, ... research indicates this awakening may be too late for

substantial numbers of people and for many future generations. "

--

Next: A " startling " connection.

Kathleen P. Lawson, Director

Healthy Children Project

Healthy Planet - Healthy Minds - Healthy Future

The Learning Disabilities Association of America

4156 Library Road, Suite 1

Pittsburgh, PA 15234

412.341.1515 X208

LDA's Mission is to create opportunities for success for all individuals

affected by learning disabilities and to reduce the incidence of learning

disabilities in future generations.