ABC News to Spotlight Cal. Autism Explosion, Sacramento Cluster

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FEAT DAILY ONLINE NEWSLETTER Families for Early Autism Treatment

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" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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ABC News to Spotlight Cal. Autism Explosion, Sacramento Cluster

Saturday, July 31, 1999

The ABC News team descended on plush suburban Sacramento Granite Bay to

look into an inexplicable cluster of autism families, and the growing autism

population in California overall. The segment will air on ABC World News

Tonight, Jennings, Tues. Check your local listings for time.

(Coincidentally, this is the same evening of the House Government Reform

Committee hearings looking into the recent vaccine controversies -- see

previous report in today's newsletter.)

Like the recent Brick Township, New Jersey cluster examined last year

by the CDC, Granite Bay has an unusual concentration of families with

autism. But that's where the comparison ends. Brick Township is an older

industrialized working class community with a variety of possible

environmental factors which may contribute to a clustering. Granite Bay by

contrast is only a ten-year-old community, upscale with fresh new landscapes

and not a factory for miles, and with residents who for the most part work

in white collar office environments.

The national news team interviewed a half a dozen Granite Bay families,

took a look at the new enlarged facility in Sacramento County which with

house ABC school's growing number of autism students by the end of the year.

They also took their cameras into the cramped quarters of the current ABC

school off Howe Avenue where some 53 autistic toddlers compete for table

drill space for their behavioral programs.

Also interviewed was Joe Morrow Ph.D., the Director of ABC, Rick

Rollens parent advocate and Granite Bay resident, and Ron Huff Ph.D.

consultant with the California Department of Developmental services who is

tracking the numbers of new autism cases coming into the state Regional

Center system.

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editor: Lenny Schafer east coast editor: , Ph.D.

schafer@... CIJOHN@...

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