Autism rate about 1 in 150, higher than previous estimates

CNN ^ | 2/8/2007 | AP

[bluebeak]

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- About one in 150 American children has autism, an urgent public health concern, said U.S. health officials Thursday who reported on the largest study done so far on the troubling disorder. The new numbers, based on 2002 data from 14 states, are higher than previously reported. Advocates said the study provides a sad new understanding of how common autism is, and should fuel efforts to get the government to spend hundreds of millions of additional dollars for autism research and services.

[MamaTexan]

I liked the entry for formaldehyde. It's a common ingredient in air fresheners because it dulls the sense of smell.

You think that's bad, check out the ingredients in your personal care products like soaps, shampoos, and deodorants. Formaldehyde is just one of the preservatives found in everyday products. Then you have the other 'aromatic hydrocarbons' like diphenyl ether (Triclosan) found in antibacterial hand soaps. Then there's indoctrine disruptors (parabens, i.e. esters of benzoic acid), dyes, etc.

This is a good place to start for a search by product or ingredient:
Skin Deep.com

If you're not a fan of the Environmental Working Group, Here's the extensive database of the National Institute of Health's National Library of Medicine for search by chemical:
Toxicology Data Network

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The cosmetics industry is not regulated by the FDA, it's regulated by.........the cosmetics industry.

[MamaTexan]

PING to post #61

[blam]

The Neanderthal Theory

Abstract

"In the past there have been numerous theories for the cause(s) of autism, Asperger's syndrome, ADHD and Tourette syndrome. Most of these theories can at best explain small parts of these diverse syndromes. Many of them extend their findings in spectacular ways to be able to claim to explain larger parts of the autism spectrum with little success."

"This theory approaches the problem from a new radical viewpoint. Instead of approaching autism as a disorder, brain defect or the result of poor socialization or parenting, it claims that autistics are fully functional."

[DBrow]

While what's in cosmetics and household goods is alarming, my point was that if you postulate that it's formaldehyde or some other chemical in vaccines that may cause autism, you must look at all sources of that agent before you can assign causality.

I had a statistics prof who went though this whole analysis correlating some human condition to dentists using stannous chloride in some goop they put on your teeth.

He asked me to read his paper and when I pointed out that stannous chloride was used in grape juice and a bunch of other products, he was initially crestfallen then went ahead and published anyway. He didn't make it through peer review, the reviewers apparently read supermarket labels too.

[LadyDoc]

Ummm...dpt (the old one that caused high fevers) goes back fifty years.
MMR goes back to the 1960's.

But when I worked with the retarded in the 1970's, many had autistic behavior, but were not diagnosed as "autistic". They were diagnosed as "retarded" and institutionalized.

I still say that most of it is change of diagnosis.

[Born Conservative]

If you are going to say the increased incidence of autism is due strictly to the increase in mercury-containing vaccines, then your presumption is flawed. Vaccines used to be one of MANY sources of mercury, yet this theory excludes that.

Of course, with the exception of some adult flu vaccine, all of the other vaccines no long contain Thimerosal. How is it then that autism diagnoses continue to rise?

[Coleus]

given in triple cocktails and made mandatory to get into school? >>>

this is what I said, nothing about mercury. if you see the chart it corresponds to the years vaccines started to get pushed on infants. Then the triple cocktails came out, like the MMR. 3 vaccines in one. First came the DPT, then the MMR, etc....

[Born Conservative]

What's so bad about "triple cocktails"?

[Coleus]

What's so bad about "triple cocktails"? >>

nothing if they are martinis however if they are immunizations they may be a cause for autism.

[Born Conservative]

Our bodies are exposed to THOUSANDS of antigens on a daily basis. How is it that a triple combination vaccine can cause autism?

[Coleus]

How is it that a triple combination vaccine can cause autism? >>>

How does it not, why are the rates sky high. You don't know.

Gee, the triple combo is so great that no child ever died, had a seizure or became a vegetable after the dpt shots. Yep, those antigens don't do a thing.

[TomB]

The fact is that the newer vaccines have much fewer antigens in them than previous ones:

The infant immune system can respond to about 10,000 vaccines

A much-quoted paper by infectious disease specialist Paul Offit has investigated this issue, comparing today's immunisation programmes to those of the past (1). The authors point out that though we give infants more vaccines today than in the past, the higher quality of the vaccines means that the number of antigens they receive has declined. For example, the old smallpox vaccine that was used until smallpox was eradicated in the 1970s, contained 200 proteins. Now the 11 vaccines routinely administered in the USA contain fewer than 130 proteins (and more than half of these are in the chickenpox vaccine that has yet to be introduced in Britain).

Offit and his colleagues also calculate that the infant immune system has the theoretical capacity to respond to 'about 10 000 vaccines at any one time'. Putting this point in another way, they reckon that if all 11 vaccines were given at the same time, 'then about 0.1 percent of the immune system would be "used up"'. They insist that 'young infants have an enormous capacity to respond to multiple vaccines, as well as to the many other challenges present in the environment'.

(1) 'Addressing Parents' Concerns: Do Multiple Vaccines Overwhelm or Weaken the Infant's Immune System?', Paul Offit et al, Pediatrics; 109;124-129, January 2002

[TomB]

Sorry, I meant to ping you to my response. It essentially confims what you say.

[TomB]

Late to the party, but my post should be of interest to you too.

[Born Conservative]

Thanks for posting that, as well as for pinging me to the response.