WEB CHAT: Autism radio series
Monday, July 20th, 2009
WHYY's Behavioral Health reporter Maiken Scott takes a look at the latest developments in the field of autism in a two-part radio series. Part I examines the role of the parents' lobby in securing funding and raising awareness, and will air Wednesday July 21st at 6:33 and 8:33 AM on WHYY 91FM. Part II takes a look at the latest research in the field and will air Thursday July 22nd at 6:33 and 8:33 AM. (click here to listen live online, or catch them online after they air at whyy.org/healthscience).
Community services, education, treatment, research – get an update on the latest developments regarding Autism Spectrum Disorders, and interact with some of the region's leading researchers in the field. Maiken hosted a live web chat Wednesday afternoon, July 22nd, 3 – 4 PM which further explored the issues raised in her two part series. Our guests were:
Dr. Michelle Rowe, Executive Director of the Kinney Center for Autism Education and Support at St. Joseph's University, and
Dr. David Mandell, Associate Director of the Center for Autism Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and
Leslie Long, Public Policy Director for Autism New Jersey.
Click here to review the transcript of the chat.
About one in 150 people are diagnosed with an autism each year, and the incidence has increased dramatically in the last decade. Autism today is understood not as one diagnosis, but as a spectrum of disorders, with a wide array of symptoms, and varying degrees of disability. Families, communities, schools are searching for ways to serve people affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders, and researchers are looking at causes and therapies. There is a lot of money and interest around this topic right now both nationally and right in our region. The National Institutes of Health projects that funding for autism research will rise in the coming year by $19 million, more than 13 percent. In addition, advocacy groups like Autism Speaks have committed millions in new research funding. The Delaware Valley is home to several new autism centers that are making promising discoveries.
Barry, I don't know that the premise which states that autism is 'on the rise' is valid. It seems to me that there is a high likelihood that there is a perceived increase in autism because of increased diagnostic criteria and surveillance. In other words, the conditions which would trigger a diagnosis of autism have increased in number AND there are more people reporting these type of conditions.
So if that is the case, then your hypothesis is invalid.
Please follow this hypothesis:
Plastic is the cause of the rapid rise in autism.
The human brain works primarily by electrical energy. Plastic is an excellent insulator. Plastics photo-degrade; they get smaller but remain as plastic. During the time of fetal neural development, at the moment that the nerves should make connection, they are blocked from doing so by a piece of plastic. I believe the autistic mind produces the same amount of electrical energy and that energy has fewer areas of diffusion. This is evidenced by the heightening the various senses experienced by the autistic individual. Note the rapid rise in autism in the last twenty years and consider the time it would take for the plastics to infiltrate our ecosystem or the direct ingestion of photo-degraded liquid by pregnant women.
I am aware of how much is said about the effects of plastic but I have never heard of it in the above context; that the plastic itself is acting as insulating particles in the electrically based environment of a developing fetus’s brain resulting in neural dysfunction…as if there was a small piece of plastic blocking the neurons from connecting.
The easiest way to see this is to take a plastic bottle of drinking water and freeze it. Let it thaw and sit. Turn it upside down, turn it into the light and see the shiny plastic particles descend in the water that you are about to drink.
I believe that this hypothesis bears investigation.
Thank you for your consideration.