TV Implicated in Autism Rise

[Guest guest]

How ridiculous is this! I wonder how long it took them to think this

one up, to cover up some of the real causes or possibilities? I

don't believe anything that comes off of WebMD and for those that

are not aware, WebMD, CDC and Emory University are interchangable

and connected at the hip.

I can't remember if they are board members or individuals that I

have spoken to in the past, but I know that there have been 2 or 3

cases at least that children have been diagnosed with Autism after

mycotoxin exposure. They wonder why the general public have lost

faith in our medical community.

KC

" Our view is there is no obvious thing correlated with both rain and

cable TV access except television viewing, " Waldman says.

TV Implicated in Autism Rise

Business Professors' Study Links Too Much Toddler TV Time to Autism

By DeNoon

WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD

on Thursday, October 19, 2006

Oct. 18, 2006 -- Too much TV time for toddlers may trigger autism,

according to a study by Cornell business professors.

Over the past few decades, there's been an amazing increase in the

number of children diagnosed with autism. Some experts think this is

due to broader diagnostic criteria for autism. Some point to vastly

increased services for autistic children. Others think that

something in the environment is triggering an autism epidemic.

It occurred to Cornell University management professor

Waldman, PhD, that the increase in autism cases came at the same

time as increased opportunities for very young children to watch TV.

Could it be, he wondered, that the explosion in children's TV

programming, DVDs, VCRs, and video/computer games is behind the

explosion in autism diagnoses?

Waldman asked his colleagues in the medical world to look at the

issue. Nobody would. So he assembled a research team and did the

study himself -- using tools more often seen in economic studies

than in medical studies. The results bolstered his suspicions.

" We are not claiming that we have definitive evidence. But we have

evidence that is awfully suggestive of a link between TV watching

and autism, " Waldman tells WebMD. " Someone should nail this down one

way or the other. "

Waldman will present the study at this week's National Bureau of

Economic Research health economics conference.

Rain, Cable TV, and Autism

Autism is usually diagnosed when a child is about 3 years old. Any

effect of TV watching would have to happen before that age. But few

studies, Waldman found, have compiled statistics on the TV habits of

U.S. toddlers.

But there are statistics, compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics, on when families watch TV, and on how much TV they

watch. These statistics show that toddlers watch more television

when it's raining outside than when it isn't raining.

Waldman and colleagues then looked at county-by-county autism rates

in California, Oregon, and Washington. All three states have huge

regional variations in annual rainfall. Sure enough, Waldman found

that autism rates tended to be higher in the rainiest counties.

" We ran the tests a number of different ways, and basically every

way we run it, we get the same thing. If it rains more, autism goes

up. If it rains less, autism goes down, " Waldman says. " That is a

fine theory by itself, but still one can't be sure it is TV and not

some other indoor toxin that is to blame. "

So the researchers did a second test: They looked at the percentage

of houses that subscribed to cable television in California and

Pennsylvania. Cable television, Waldman reasoned, was linked not

only to more TV watching, but also to the availability of more

programming for very young children.

Sure enough, they found that areas with the most cable TV

subscribers had the most autistic children.

" Our view is there is no obvious thing correlated with both rain and

cable TV access except television viewing, " Waldman says.

Until more direct studies confirm or disprove this conclusion,

Waldman and colleagues recommend that parents follow the American

Academy of Pediatrician's recommendation of no TV before age 2, and

no more than an hour or two of TV a day for older children.

Expert: TV-Autism Link Plausible

Expert: TV-Autism Link Plausible

Child development expert Rubin, MD, finds Waldman's study

interesting. But he does not think it proves a link between autism

and television viewing. Rubin is director of developmental

pediatrics at Emory University and director of the center for

developmental medicine at the Marcus Institute, Atlanta.

" They are looking at trends in the diagnosis of autism more than the

actual prevalence of autism itself, " Rubin tells WebMD. " They

correlate these diagnostic trends with rain and county, and at

another level with the proliferation of cable TV and stuff like VCRs

and DVDs and computer games. They all happened at the same time, but

I can't see that one is the cause of the other. "

This doesn't mean that Rubin rejects Waldman's idea that TV can

trigger autism.

" TV viewing might be associated with autism if a child has that

tendency and is not forced or coaxed or encouraged to engage in

social interactions but instead is allowed to sit in front of a

television, " he says. " The whole goal of autism treatment is to

encourage social interactions. We know that makes the single biggest

difference in children's outcomes -- how they relate to others. So

if they watch TV instead of interacting, they are going to get more

withdrawn. "

Like Waldman, Rubin says Americans -- including medical researchers -

- don't pay enough attention to what television does to kids.

" We use TV for babysitting, as a substitute for social interactions,

as the sole form of entertainment for children and families, " he

says. " Instead of kids going out to socialize, they stay home and

watch TV. So if they have tendencies toward autism, these would be

accentuated by the absorption of TV instead of being challenged by

social interactions. "

Obviously, Rubin isn't just talking about kids with autism. He's

talking about all of our kids -- and all of us.

" Social experiences are important for kids as they grow up. Social

experiences shape a person's life, " he says. " If children watch TV

for most of their lives, I think there will be some sort of negative

impact. This may well be associated with some diagnostic condition. "

SOURCES: Waldman, M. " Does Television Cause Autism? " School

at Cornell University web site, downloaded Oct. 17, 2006.

Waldman, Graduate School of Management, Cornell University,

Ithaca, N.Y. Rubin, MD, director of developmental pediatrics,

Emory University; director, Center for Developmental Medicine,

Marcus Institute, Atlanta.