The Elephant in the Room

The CDC has concluded a study on the neuropsychological effects of thimerosal in childhood vaccinations; thimerosal is a mercury based preservative used to prevent bacterial contamination of vaccines.  Forty-two neurological disorders were studied, with no connection to thimerosal found.  Next year they will conclude an additional study to see if there is a link to thimerosal and autism.  Since the Nineties autism has increased by 172%.  There may be as many as 1.5 million cases of autism in America.

So how do we explain this dramatic increase in autism?  I believe the answer may be found in the chemical body load of children with autism and their parents.  There are literally thousands of industrial chemical compounds in use today.  These chemicals are everywhere in our environment; they are in our homes, offices, and vehicles.  These chemicals leach out into the air we breathe, and the food we eat.  There are tons of particulate pollution belching from smokestacks.  Europe requires all chemicals to be tested for hazards to humans; while the majority of chemicals in the U.S. aren’t tested until civil damage suits are brought.  We breathe it in, and when it rains these chemicals fall to earth and are absorbed by plants, eaten by grazing livestock, then people.

Since the Thirties, the proliferation of the industrial chemicals we breathe and ingest, has been exponential; in 1935, DuPont coined the ad ditty, “Better Things For  Better Living…Through Chemicals.”  The slogan changed to, “Better Things For Better Living”, in 1982.  While in 1999, it morphed into, “Better Things For Better Living…The Miracles Of Science.”  (Chart is in millions of tons).  Successive generations have passed many of these chemicals to their offspring, especially the carbon based organic ones.   They are stored in fat cells, which in the case of pregnant women, means they share these chemicals with their unborn child, and again while nursing.  Many of these chemicals interfere with hormones, some are carcinogens, while others are neurotoxic.

Dioxins and furans are by products of plastic manufacturing.  They are dumped illegally, or burned off legally.  When absorbed by the soil, they can take 25 years to decay!  They can disrupt the immune, endocrine, and reproductive systems.  They are also carcinogens.  PCB’s are carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.  They have a life of maybe twenty years in fish, and maybe six years in soil.

While the chemical doses may be small, build up over successive generations becomes serious.  Amphibians are very sensitive to chemical toxins in their environment; they are the equivalent to the canary in the mine.  Researchers find more amphibian anomalies all the time.  What is the cumulative effect of these toxins?  What is the combined synergy of these chemicals?  At what point does the body load pass critical level and we begin to see neurological and reproductive problems, that appear with increasing frequency?  We don’t know!  Perhaps autism is a body load problem.  Researchers have found increasingly lower sperm counts in males.  Chemical body load doesn’t show up in standard blood testing panels.  Special blood tests are necessary, and insurance won’t cover the testing.  Chemical body burden may be the answer to many misdiagnosed and unexplained medical problems.

Please don’t be foolish enough to expect your government will protect you!  They do very little to mitigate pollution in America, and do even less to control contamination of the food chain by Chinese exports.  This week the Environmental Protection Agency overrode the recommendation of fifty scientists, half a dozen of which were nobel laureates.  They will allow methyl iodide to be sprayed on fields before planting, to fumigate the soil of weeds and pests. California will not allow spraying until further testing is done on this carcinogen.  The EPA will require strict safety for farm workers.  What happens when the chemicals are drawn into the plants that will be ingested by animals and humans?

Let your senators and representatives know how you feel with a ticking bomb inside you!  For further reading on this crisis, here are some links:  http://www.oztoxics.org/cmwg/body%20burden/load.html   http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/problem/bodyburden.html

J.R. Lutticken