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Article of Interest - Autism

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Bridges4Kids LogoThe Age of Autism: Feedback on the Amish Parts 1 & 2
Dan Olmsted, United Press International, June 14 & 16, 2005
Read the series of articles "The Age of Autism" - click here.

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Readers of this column have reacted strongly to our series of reports on autism among the Amish. So far, we have found only a handful of cases of autism and have quoted some experts who think it is nearly non-existent in this group.

Below are comments from readers who dispute the idea there might be proportionately fewer Amish with autism. Others argue that even if there are, it proves nothing.

A number of readers said the series seemed to implicate vaccines unfairly as a cause of autism, because the Amish have a low vaccination rate. Some parents of autistic children, along with a minority of experts, suspect that a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal used in vaccines through the 1990s could have triggered an autism epidemic, though most mainstream researchers reject the premise.

It is worth noting we quoted people who raised the issue of childhood immunizations, as well as the possibility that environmental mercury exposure could be a factor, but we have drawn no conclusions about what might account for a lower autism rate among the Amish -- if in fact that is the case.

A selection of responses:

I have followed your series of articles with interest.

They all sound a similar note, that you have investigated and not found significant numbers of autistic children among the Amish, so you assume that it's because the population generally isn't exposed to childhood vaccinations with the preservative thimerosal.

I'm not a scientist, but this seems like an awfully unscientific approach. There is no way to determine whether you are reaching a representative sample of Amish. More troubling, if you'll forgive me, is that you can't control for any of the other variables. The Amish lifestyle, and for that matter the gene pool of this smaller and somewhat isolated population, is different than ours. There must be scores of differences in environmental exposures including the food they eat, the water they drink, other medications they take or don't take, exposure to industrial toxins, pesticides, physical activity patterns, and the like.

Discovering the cause of autism in our society is an important and pressing task. Unless the true cause is discovered, prevention and treatment cannot be effected. With all due respect, I'm not sure that speculation like this advances the cause.

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I think your approach makes a wonderful case for there being almost no Amish autistics. It's unfortunate that many people don't have critical thinking skills and will look at this all as proof that the government doesn't care about them and that it's all a conspiracy ... and in the end will either not vaccinate their kids, thimerosal or not, or will delay vaccinating them significantly enough to endanger them.

I hope when you are finished you will follow outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. There's a serious rubella (German measles) outbreak in Ontario right now that started in a religious community which, like the Amish, has low rates of immunization. The thing about this is that it's not staying in the religious community, it's spreading and may cause the deaths of unborn babies and severe disabilities in them if they are exposed to rubella (in the womb).

Interestingly, rubella infections like this are a minor cause of autism. Maybe it will become a more common cause of autism.

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I think the factor you're not capturing is that the Amish are a genetically homogeneous population, and virtually everyone acknowledges that autism has a genetic component. If there truly is little to no autism in that community, it would appear that the genes just aren't in their pool.

Also, there are any number of lifestyle and environmental differences that preclude a leap to the conclusion that their low vaccination rate has something to do with the incidence of autism.

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You are misleading the entire autism community. ... To publish findings requires a lot more than asking a community to e-mail you and claiming no occurrences when you don't get a response. Shame on you!

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Note that the Amish are a basically "closed" population. (When was the last time an "English" married into the Amish? I don't know the answer, but I'm guessing it's rare, if not nonexistent.) If they didn't have the autism "gene" (if there is such a thing) 100 years ago, they probably don't have it now.

 

This is the Second of Two Columns Sharing Reader Response to Our Exploration of Autism Among the Amish.

The first part, published Tuesday, was devoted to criticism and caveats about such an approach -- which so far has turned up only a handful of cases of autism in the Amish population of the United States. Several of those cases occurred in the distinct minority of Amish children who have received immunizations. Four others were attributed by their doctor to exposure to environmental mercury.

Some parents and a minority of medical experts think vaccines -- in particular, a mercury-based vaccine preservative called thimerosal -- triggered a huge rise in U.S. autism cases in the 1990s; that theory is rejected by most mainstream medical groups. Thimerosal was phased out of vaccines beginning in 1999.

Today's column hears from readers who think "The Amish Anomaly," as we called it in the first report, is significant.

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I Have to Tell You That I Read Your First Article and I Cried Like a Baby -- Like I Haven\'t Cried in a Very Long Time. Those of Us That Are "English" (Non-Amish) Already Know What This Article Drove Home to Me in the Most Earth-Shaking Way. This Was Done to Our Kids. My Son Didn't Have to Be So Autistic. We Didn't Have to Have Every Moment of Our Lives and Every Cent We Will Ever Make Dedicated to Saving Our Son's Life. It is Just More Than I Can Even Bear at Times, Knowing It Could Be Stopped and Knowing There Are Children out There Right Now That We Are Going to Lose Because of This.

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My son just turned 8 and has made a lot of progress. We have done everything biological possible (but the money keeps running out) and he does a home Applied Behavior Analysis program. Three years ago he couldn't show you even four body parts and now he is doing simple math.

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I am humbled every day by the strength of his conviction to learn and to talk.

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While I Agree with Several of Your Readers Who Protest the "Unscientificness" of Your Series of Articles on the Rate of Autism in the Amish (a Fact That Was Acknowledged at the Outset), at the Same Time, It is Not As if There is Nothing More to Indicate Mercury As a Significant Factor (if Not the Culprit) in the Relatively Recent Explosion of Autistic Diagnoses Than the Say-So of a Handful of Unscientific People.

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We have the recent study completed at the University of Texas that indicates that areas with mercury pollution have a higher incidence of autism. There was the teething powder with calomel that caused Pink's disease (and took them 60 years to figure out the mercury connection). Mercury was eliminated from use in latex paint, in the making of hats, as a fungicide on seed -- and pulled off the shelf as merthiolate. It is too dangerous to allow for topical uses. Why would it be safe for internal use?

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To say that there is no legitimate reason to suspect that thimerosal is a major cause, if not the cause, of autism is incredible to me. True there could be other factors involved and we know that there are other potential causes of autism, but given the knowledge and evidence that we already have to date regarding mercury, directly injecting it into the bloodstream of newborn infants -- especially when it is not even necessary -- is surely something approaching insanity.

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I Hope That Medical Professionals Find Your Investigations Compelling Enough to Research Further.

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I Have Been Asking Myself That Question -- Why Aren't the Amish Afflicted? I Am the Mother of a 7-Year-Old Autistic Son and Live in Pennsylvania. I Have Been Exposed to the Amish My Whole Life.

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It seems at least once a week somewhere I go I see an autistic child or at least someone who has an autistic child. But never have I seen that in the Amish community.

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I'm not one of those parents that are convinced that immunizations are the cause. But it seriously makes me wonder when, from what I heard, they do not get immunized or at least not as much.

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Its not like they don't eat the same food as us -- I see them at Wal-mart buying the same stuff. So beside them having a purer bloodline, there is not that much of a difference between us besides the shots.

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This series begs the question, why the heck isn't Lancaster County crawling with investigators from the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services? If I was Secretary Leavitt, that place would look like a scene out of "Outbreak."

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Can someone get him on the phone and let him know that this is perhaps something the government might look into?

    

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