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FEDERAL GOVERNMENT READY FOR CLOSER LOOK AT POSSIBLE LINK BETWEEN AUTISM AND ENVIRONMENT

November 13, 2001

The U.S. government appeared to formally recognize this week a question many parents and researchers of autistic children have been asking for years: "Is it something in the water?" Under a new program announced this week, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Environmental Protection Agency will fund four new children's environmental health research centers charged with exploring the environmental contributors to the dramatic increase in autism cases in the United States in the last decade. The centers will also examine the origins of behavioral problems such as attention deficit disorder.

By looking specifically at environmental factors, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson says, the government may be able to fine tune its public health programs. "Ultimately the research conducted at these centers will allow us to better target our health and prevention efforts in order to do the most to improve the lives of America's children," he said.

The four centers, which will join eight that were established in 1998 to begin work on how the environment impacts other aspects of children's health, will receive $5 million apiece to operate from August 2002 through August 2007. Each has specific responsibilities within the new environmental research effort. Centers to be established at the University of California at Davis and at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey will study environmental factors that may be related to autism.

At UC-Davis, molecular biosciences scholar Isaac Pessah at the School of Veterinary Medicine will work with the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute to conduct a large epidemiological study of the exposure of unborn and newborn infants to various metals, chemicals and vaccines. Though the announcement for the new research project did not discuss specifics, the inclusion of vaccines in the project's possible scope could shed more light on the Measles-Mumps-Rubella vaccine, which has become highly controversial in autism circles.

At the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, principal investigator George Lambert will direct the Center for Childhood Neurotoxicology and Assessment to determine the possible influence of mercury, lead and valproic acid, a drug commonly used to control seizures, on autism, learning disabilities and regression, according to the NIEHS. The scope will include "critical windows for brain development in the forebrain and hindbrain" and will search for links between exposures to mercury or other substances to behavior development.

Two others project will examine pollutants and their impacts on children. Friend's Children's Environmental Health Center Chief Susan Schantz at the University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana will look at how exposure to mercury and PCBs, through fish caught in the Great Lakes, has impacted Hmong and Laotian communities in Wisconsin. The center will study the impact the contaminants have on children's motor, sensory and mental development.

Meanwhile, a center at Children's Hospital of Cincinnati will explore how reducing pollutants in the home and neighborhood impacts children's hearing, behavior and test scores. Bruce Lanphear will head a program that helps community participants lower lead levels in their homes. The center will also test the possible link between children's developmental problems and exposure to pesticides, environmental tobacco smoke and lead as unborn or newborn babies.

The plan for new environmental research centers comes on the heels of a round of grants from the National Institutes of Health to put 13 other universities on the trail of autism's causes. The National Institute of Mental Health, one of five government agencies overseeing the distribution of federal funds for autism research, announced last month grants totaling $3.9 million to fund new autism research projects. According to National Institute of Mental Health Director Steven Hyman, the grants "are focused on innovative treatments and on supporting an initiative to create a nationwide network of major autism research centers."

Seven research centers -- The University of Pittsburgh, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Colorado Springs, Vanderbilt University, Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and Rutgers State University in New Jersey -- will focus on one or more aspects of treating autism spectrum disorders. Some will examine methods for teaching speech to nonverbal children, teaching imitation skills and teaching joint attention skills using parents as therapists. Others will focus on the use of anti-seizure medication to treat difficult behavior, cognition-enhancing medication to treat learning difficulties and mood disturbances and mood-stabilizing medication. In addition, at least one program will test a new strategy to increase understanding and treatment of self-injurious behavior by observing mice.

Six other schools -- University of California-Davis's M.I.N.D. Institute, Emory University in Atlanta, the University of Florida, the University of Utah, the University of Missouri and Washington University in St. Louis -- will use the new funds to develop applications for autism research centers.8