Main Cause Of Asthma Is The Environment/ Dental Group Challenged over Mercury

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RESEARCH

* Main Cause Of Asthma Is The Environment, Study Says

* NHS Digital Library Launched, UK

ADVOCACY

* Anti-Mercury Fillings Coalition Heads to ADA's Front Door Protest

EDUCATION

* Waiting for a Chance

* Xingxingyu: Boon for Families With Autistic Children

* Reader’s Posts

Main Cause Of Asthma Is The Environment, Study Says

[The recent increase in asthma prevalence rates is similar to growth

in autism, diabetes and other childhood disorders.]

http://unisci.com/stories/20013/0906015.htm

The prevalence of asthma and allergy continues to increase practically

everywhere, and the main cause is the environment. That's the striking

conclusion of a just-completed worldwide survey.

The survey, which covered some 140,000 persons aged between 20 and 44,

in Europe and beyond, confirms not only that the prevalence of asthma and

allergy is still increasing, but also that the countries in the survey were

very differently affected, with variations in the ratio of up to 1 to 4 or 1

to 8 depending on the pathologies.

Such variations do not occur by chance, however, according to the

authors in the September issue of the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ),

the peer-reviewed publication of the European Respiratory Society (ERS).

The data gathered in 22 countries indicate very clearly that the

environment and lifestyles are chiefly to blame.

This is the first time that the European Community Respiratory Health

Survey (ECRHS) has published a global assessment, after 10 years' work, just

as the second phase, ECRHS II, is beginning.

This international survey is a real epidemiological gold mine that

extends well beyond the frontiers of Europe. Apart from covering practically

all the countries of the European Union, the ECRHS contains information on

Iceland, Estonia, Switzerland, Algeria, India, New Zealand, Australia and

the USA.

(Canada and Poland also contributed to the survey, but at a later

stage, so that the data from those two countries were not taken into account

in the analysis that appears in the September issue of ERJ.)

No less than 48 world centers representing 22 countries took part in

the initial phase of the ECRHS, gathering data on some 140,000 individuals.

Each center processed data on 3,000 to 4,000 subjects, half of whom were men

and half women.

Such exceptionally extensive coverage greatly reduces the risk of

arriving at the wrong conclusions. But there are more features, of which the

lead author of the ERJ article, Christer Janson, of the University of

Uppsala in Sweden, is particularly proud:

" The ECRHS is the first study to assess the geographical variations of

asthma and allergic diseases in a large number of countries, using the same

technique and following two procedures. First, we used identical

standardized protocol for all the different areas, so that we can be quite

sure that the variations we have shown are real. Second, we combined

subjective and objective measurements, and the good thing is that both

approaches indicate the same, quite marked pattern of geographical

variations in asthma and allergic diseases. "

The prevalence of asthma can vary by a factor of 1 to 6 from one

country to another.

To say the pattern is marked is not exaggerated, since the results

published in ERJ show variations of 1 to 6 for asthma (from 2 to 12% of

individuals), of 1 to 4 for allergic rhinitis (from 10 to 40%), and even of

1 to 8 (from 3.5 to 28%) for bronchial hyper-reactivity.

Generally speaking, the prevalence of asthmatic and allergic disorders

is highest in the English-speaking regions, namely Australia, New Zealand,

the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The prevalence is lowest, on the other hand, in the Mediterranean

countries, in Iceland, in Eastern Europe and in India.

For Christer Janson, the message is clear:

" The fact that we can actually show these geographical variations

indicates that for some reasons, asthma has developed more quickly in some

countries than in others. This suggests that the differences are probably

not related to genetic differences and that they are due to some

environmental factors, not only pollution and so on, but also the food

people eat and the way they live, that promote a high prevalence of asthma

in some areas and not in others. "

The ECRHS was the first to highlight these geographical variations, a

trend later confirmed in the ISAAC survey, which concentrated on children.

Many researchers then tried to discover which factors, in childhood,

could explain the geographical variations observed later in life. Suspicions

centered on standards of hygiene, infections (some of which protect against

certain allergies, while others favor the development of an asthmatic

condition), eating habits, or rural and urban environments.

Even the climate was blamed, some claiming that the risk of asthma was

less in sunny regions and others maintaining that the risk was worse by the

sea.

" In actual fact, " Christer Janson points out, " out of many possible

candidates, few stand out for certain. What we do know is that it cannot be

just one environmental factor. There must be several involved and of course

they interact with the genetic factors. "

" All we can say for sure at this stage, " Janson continues, " is that

one of the factors that increases the risk of asthma in adults is

occupational exposure to biological and mineral dust. "

The ECRHS has also looked into the potential role of major allergens

in the development of asthma. What emerged was a link not so much with

seasonal allergens as with those that people live with continually, such as

dust mites and pet hair.

The ECRHS has already started phase 2, in which subjects who took part

in phase 1 will be re-examined 10 years further on.

The aim of this new survey will be to examine all the factors that

explain not only the cause of asthma but also the means of securing

protection against the disease.

The result should be better strategies, both for prevention and for

treatment.

* * *

NHS Digital Library Launched, UK

http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol358/iss9284/full/llan.358.9284.dissectin

g_room.17576.1 <-- address ends here.

The UK's National Health Service has launched a pilot version of the

National electronic Library for Health (NeLH), which aims " to become one of

the greatest libraries of the world " . For now, the site is geared mainly to

NHS staff and other health professionals, although it will be expanded later

to include information for patients, carers, and the public.

The site has an easy-to-use interface and provides access to a wide

range of information resources (some accessible only by NHS staff, but most

are freely available) arranged by disease category, profession, and

" reference section " . An especially interesting feature is " Hitting the

Headlines, " which gives clinicians a look at the evidence (or lack thereof)

behind selected stories that appear in the popular press. www.nelh.nhs.uk

* * *

Anti-Mercury Fillings Coalition Heads to ADA's Front Door Protest

ADA Taking Money from Mercury Amalgam Manufacturers And Then Saying Fillings

Are Safe

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104 & STORY=/www/story/09-07

-2001/0001568341 & EDATE= <-- address ends here.

PRNewswire - Calling on the American Dental Association to stop

supporting the use of Mercury in dental fillings, the controversy over

dental amalgam literally reached the ADA's front door today.

A coalition of scientists, consumer groups, and a national dental

society, opposed to dental Mercury use, held a news conference in the

Chicago suburb of Oak Brook, IL followed by a peaceful picketing

demonstration at the ADA's downtown Chicago headquarters.

Mercury, an acute neuro-toxin, composes about 50% of the most common

dental filling, amalgam. Although Mercury has been, or is being, removed

from all other health care uses, its use as dental filling material remains.

Amalgam is a hazardous waste material when removed from the mouth and

constantly emits Mercury vapors while in teeth. Some amalgam manufacturers

even issue contraindication ( " DO NOT USE " ) warnings for pregnant women and

children.

The ADA, alone among health organizations, continues to support the

use of Mercury-based dental fillings, deceptively calling them " silver " in

its literature. Such promotional material resulted in a California lawsuit

against the ADA by Consumers for Dental Choice, an umbrella coalition

opposing ADA policies.

The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, a national

dental and scientific organization opposed to dental Mercury fillings, is

having its annual meeting in Oak Brook this weekend. The group's president,

Chicago-area dentist Marcia Basciano, stated that the Academy has sponsored

numerous studies of Mercury " that demonstrate the acute risks of amalgam

which are most caustic for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers.”

G. Brown, national counsel to Consumers for Dental Choice and

a former West Virginia state Attorney General, issued a three-part challenge

to the ADA:

• Use the 'M' word. Tell the public that amalgam is mainly composed

of Mercury, and stop pretending it is " silver " .

• Show us the money. The ADA admitted in a court filing two weeks ago

that it receives money from Mercury amalgam manufacturers. Brown asked the

ADA to disclose the amount of money it receives each year from

manufacturers, and why it continues taking money for endorsing products,

after the American MEDICAL Association declared the practice unethical.

• Stop hiding the truth about the risk of amalgam to children.

Professor Boyd Haley, University of Kentucky Department of Chemistry

chair, has done extensive research on the health risks of Mercury amalgam.

" The amount of Mercury in each filling is colossal by medical

standards, " said Haley. " There is as much Mercury in one filling as there

is in a Mercury thermometer.”

A 1999 Journal of the American College of Cardiology study raises

serious questions whether unexplained heart attack deaths in young people,

including young athletes, may be due to Mercury fillings. The study shows

that individuals who die from Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy (IDCM) or a

sudden heart attack have 22,000 times more Mercury in their heart tissues

than patients with other types of heart diseases. " The link between Mercury

and young people dying from sudden heart attacks is chilling, " said

Professor Haley. " When the quantity is different at a scale of 22,000, the

issue must be squarely addressed. Large quantities of Mercury accumulate in

the heart, and unless someone ate nothing but fish, that Mercury is coming

from dental fillings.”

" Because dentistry's expertise is mostly limited to the mouth, this

profession has missed the connection of Mercury to human health hazards, "

Haley continued. " I urge physicians to step forward and stop dentists from

continuing to use Mercury fillings because of the huge risk to the entire

body, about which physicians have expertise and dentists do not.”

Leo Cashman, president of Dental Amalgam Mercury Syndrome, Inc.

(DAMS), a Minneapolis-based organization of Mercury amalgam poisoning

victims, explained why the anti-Mercury activists were picketing the ADA.

" It is time we consumers go to the ADA's front door and tell them to say the

'M' word to the American people. If people only knew the risks, no child in

America would be given Mercury amalgam fillings.”

Brocato and Truskowski, Illinois co-coordinators for DAMS,

spoke about the acute damage that Mercury amalgam fillings had done to their

health, because toxic Mercury vapors had spread to the rest of their bodies.

Still confined to a wheelchair, Brocato's health dramatically improved

after dentists carefully removed her fillings and she had treatments to

remove some of the Mercury from her body.

For further information on this issue and links to recent press

coverage of the controversy with the ADA and the dangers of Mercury in

dentistry, please read the August 22 Page 1 article in the Chicago Tribune:

http://chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-

0108220248aug22.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed and visit:

http://www.toxicteeth.net

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Waiting for a Chance

Many special ed students facing shortage of school seats due to a lack of

state funding

[by Alice Dembner, Boston Globe.]

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/250/metro/Waiting_for_a_chance+.shtml

As the school year begins, hundreds of mentally ill children across

Massachusetts are missing class or getting lessons that fall short of their

needs because of a severe shortage of private special education schools,

according to a survey conducted by children's advocates and school

officials.

The average wait for a seat in the state's 110 special therapeutic

schools is 14 weeks, but some children with complicated illnesses can wait

up to a year for an appropriate program, the survey found.

The schools are designed to serve students whose mental and behavioral

problems are so serious that they can't attend public schools, and the state

or local school districts pay the tuition. But the schools, which enroll

about 6,400 children in day and residential programs, get about 13

candidates for every vacancy.

Fourteen-year-old missed eight months of class last year

as officials at school after school said they didn't have room for a

teenager with autism.

“ does not deserve to be hurt like that,” said his mother,

Melinda, who stayed home in Roxbury with him month after month while he

waited to return to school. “State law requires that every child be

educated. It's not right.”

State Education Commissioner Driscoll yesterday acknowledged the

shortage of placements. “It's definitely a huge problem that we need to deal

with,” he said.

While children such as wait at home, others are in inappropriate

school settings, and still others with more severe illnesses are stuck in

hospital wards, getting minimal tutoring at best, said Tim Sindelar, senior

lawyer at the Disability Law Center, which conducted the survey. The

Parent/Professional Advocacy League and the Massachusetts Association of 766

Approved Private Schools also took part.

“In many situations when the students are waiting, nothing is provided

until there's intervention from an attorney or advocate,” he said.

The school problem is part of the gridlock in mental health care for

children, as growth in the number and severity of illnesses overwhelms

available services. Although the state has added hospital beds and is

working to expand community services, children well enough to leave

hospitals are stuck because residential schools are full. And children in

those schools can't head back to public schools because support services

aren't available.

Mental health advocates and officials at the private schools say the

classroom shortage results largely from state reimbursement that doesn't

cover the cost of teachers and child care staff.

“The state could give away buildings to expand our facilities and we

could fill those buildings with kids, but we couldn't hire enough teachers

and clinicians because of the wages we're able to pay,” said Jim Majors,

executive director of the school association.

State education and finance officials set tuition at the schools,

which ranges from about $30,000 a year for day programs to more than

$100,000 for some residential programs. Majors said the salary allowance for

teachers is $25,000 annually, far less than the $36,000 average pay at

private schools for children without special needs and the $45,000 average

at public schools.

“Between the regulatory requirements and fiscal constraints put on the

programs, you'd have to have your head examined to open a new facility,”

said Small, director of the Italian Home for Children in Jamaica

Plain, which enrolls 90 children in its day and residential schools. “We

lose money on every single child we treat. We survive by fund-raising.”

While agreeing that teachers' salaries are low, Driscoll said the

state has a limited amount of money to spend on the schools. He said state

agencies are working together to figure out how to serve the children who

“are getting caught in no-man's land.”

In the meantime, Small said his school turned away about 80 children

last year who were eligible for the residential program. “We're full all the

time,” he said.

About half the state's special schools responded to the survey and

most said they couldn't meet demand. The 22 schools that kept waiting lists

reported about 400 children on the lists, which may include some

duplication.

“It makes me sick,” said Melinda . “These children are supposed

to be educated.”

said the Boston public schools had referred her son to a

private day school at the end of sixth grade. But that school dismissed him

in July 2000 after just a few months, saying they were afraid he'd hurt

himself because of his tendency to run away when upset.

“They referred him to different schools, but every one I called had no

room,” said. “He didn't have any school from July 19 until April. We

were concerned about that. He wasn't learning any speech.”

After the Disability Law Center intervened in February, Boston school

officials arranged for to get a few hours of speech and physical

therapy each week. And in late April, they found him a place at a private

school in Stoneham.

“It was frustrating and by the end, there was a deep sadness in him,”

said . “We have to find programs for these kids.”

© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

* * *

Xingxingyu: Boon for Families With Autistic Children

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200109/07/eng20010907_79611.html

Xingxingyu (Star Rain) Education Institute for Autistic Children, or

Xingxingyu for short, is playing an increasingly important role in helping

families with autistic children.

Nearly 500 families with autistic children across China have benefited

by Xingxingyu, which lies on the outskirts of Beijing, since it was founded

in 1993 by Tian Huiping, whose 15-year-old son was diagnosed as profoundly

autistic 11 years ago.

Up to now, 10 children who have gone through the school's short- term

training programs have been accepted by normal schools and special schools,

including Tian's son, who stayed at Xingxingyu for two years.

There are 600,000 Chinese diagnosed with autism, 500,000 of them are

children. But other than Xingxingyu, there is no hospital on the Chinese

mainland or other facility specializing in care of autistic children.

Tian said that her center does not attempt to cure children with

autism. " The most we can hope for is to draw these special- needs pre-school

children out of their own world into a normal reality, " says Tian.

The facility enrolls special-needs children, aged between three and

six, who work with their parents in 10-week training programs that cost

3,000 yuan (about US$361.5). It does not board students, so parents and

children have to live outside the school, mostly renting housing from

farmers nearby.

As a NGO, Xingxingyu is largely dependent on international donations,

said Tian Huiping.

According to Tian, the waiting list is so long that some parents will

have to wait until 2003 to get help for their children. " Some of them want

to come back for a second training program, " said Tian.

Other parents who cannot wait have invited teachers from Xingxingyu to

their homes to give lectures on the special therapy advocated by the school.

Encouraged by the success of Xingxingyu, Tian is considering opening a

training program for teenage children with autism and their parents.

* * *

Aid Against Autism: University Awards Center $40,000 Grant

[by Hillary Whitcomb.]

http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/090601/loc_0906010013.shtml

The autistic education program at the Ottawa Area Center soon will have

money to share its expertise, as Grand Valley State University will award

the center a $40,000 grant this morning.

" The Ottawa Area Center is doing some really good things with

preschoolers, " said Amy s, an assistant psychology professor at Grand

Valley who helped choose the grant winners.

s said the grants, to be awarded to seven districts statewide,

ome from a $1.25-million grant to the university from the Michigan

Department of Education. The grant recognizes the need for well-designed

autism education programs.

" There's been a huge increase in the identification of autism, not

just in Michigan but across the country, " s said.

* * *

Reader’s Posts

I live in the Houston Texas area and need a speech therapist that is trained

in helping autistic children. Does anyone have any suggestions where to

start looking? Ginger Astolfo gastolfo@...

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I am looking for a supportive area with good programs for my 10 y.o. son

w/autism. We moved here to Northern IN last year, from Central FL, and I am

very disappointed in the lack of services and support. He is on a FIVE YEAR

waiting list for med-waiver. All they do in his

school is have him color, and trace lines. I am thinking of SC, NC, VA.

Lindy readjoshua19@...

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I have a four year old autistic daughter. I would appreciate if any parent

could tell me about the improvements they noticed after mercury

detoxification in their child. I want to do it for my daughter but I have to

travel a long distance for that. That's why I wanted to know whether it's

beneficial. Deena Hasnie shasnie@...

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My name is Jeanne Glaser and I am the mother of three girls, one of which is

Autistic. The girls' favorite babysitter/respite provider is leaving for

college next week and will be looking for part time employment. She will be

attending UC Santa Cruz and is 18 years old (age required for Regional

Center if you chose to pay her for respite with " parent as vendor " program).

If you're interested in speaking with le, please contact me at

mglaser1@... or .

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I run an autism website and a free email newsletter about autism.

http://www.scrapbooklady.org/autisminfo.html

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