Autism Groups Demand Action In Light Of New CDC Statistics
Posted by: The Liberty Beacon™ Staff
Published May 8, 2013, filed under GOVERNMENT, HEALTH
The Catastrophic Autism Rate is Now 1 in 88, 1 in 54 Boys; Advocacy Groups Ask “What Will it Take for the Feds to Act?”
“When will the federal health authorities wake up? Will
it be 1 in 25? 1 in 10? How many children have to suffer from autism to
call this an emergency?” said Katie Wright, daughter of Autism Speaks co-founders Bob and Suzanne Wright.
Grassroots autism advocacy organizations representing over 100,000 autism
families held a press conference on Monday, April 2, 2012, World Autism
Day, at Hilton Manhattan East, 304 East 42nd St., to push for official
recognition of autism as a national public health emergency and to
analyze the federal health authorities’ ongoing failure to respond.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced
new prevalence rates among 8 year old’s from 2008 as 1 in 88 children
and 1 in 54 boys. “These numbers are staggering,” said Katie Wright,
daughter of Autism Speaks co-founders Bob and Suzanne Wright and board
member of the National Autism Association and of Focus Autism. “When
will the federal health authorities wake up? Will it be 1 in 25? 1 in
10? How many children have to suffer from autism to call this an
emergency?”
Recent research from Stanford University
conclusively shows that environmental triggers account for most cases
of autism, not genetic predisposition. “Parents have been calling on the
NIH to study environmental factors for decades, but almost all the
money has gone into genetic studies. No matter how high the autism rate
soars, the CDC’s continued denial of an autism epidemic is a certitude comparable to death and taxes,” said Mark Blaxill, Editor-at-Large of Age of Autism web-based newspaper.
These advocacy groups believe that ongoing government
research appears to be driven by corporations that fear being implicated
in any environmental relationship with the autism epidemic, and believe
that these apparent conflicts of interest must be exposed.
The organizations call for three urgent action steps:
1. Secretary Sebelius should declare a national health emergency and
order the NIH and CDC to shift their research focus to prevention
efforts, especially investigation of long overlooked environmental
factors.
2. The Government Accounting Office should initiate a study of past
research funding that has ignored environmental causes. We need to
understand whether this was the result of lobbying to avoid possible
liability that might be uncovered with examination of environmental
triggers.
3. The U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee should
initiate promised hearings as soon as possible on the failure of federal
health agencies in appropriately responding to this epidemic. It has
been about ten years since this Committee examined the role of the
federal authorities in the autism epidemic. We can think of no other instance of any comparable epidemic that has gone on so long without Congressional oversight.
Grassroots organizations represented at the press
conference: Age of Autism, AutismOne, Autism Action Network, Autism
File, The Canary Party, Center for Personal Rights, The Coalition for
Safe Minds, Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy, Focus
Autism, National Autism Association, Talk About Curing Autism
Thanks to: http://www.thelibertybeacon.com
Posted by: The Liberty Beacon™ Staff
Published May 8, 2013, filed under GOVERNMENT, HEALTH
The Catastrophic Autism Rate is Now 1 in 88, 1 in 54 Boys; Advocacy Groups Ask “What Will it Take for the Feds to Act?”
“When will the federal health authorities wake up? Will
it be 1 in 25? 1 in 10? How many children have to suffer from autism to
call this an emergency?” said Katie Wright, daughter of Autism Speaks co-founders Bob and Suzanne Wright.
Grassroots autism advocacy organizations representing over 100,000 autism
families held a press conference on Monday, April 2, 2012, World Autism
Day, at Hilton Manhattan East, 304 East 42nd St., to push for official
recognition of autism as a national public health emergency and to
analyze the federal health authorities’ ongoing failure to respond.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced
new prevalence rates among 8 year old’s from 2008 as 1 in 88 children
and 1 in 54 boys. “These numbers are staggering,” said Katie Wright,
daughter of Autism Speaks co-founders Bob and Suzanne Wright and board
member of the National Autism Association and of Focus Autism. “When
will the federal health authorities wake up? Will it be 1 in 25? 1 in
10? How many children have to suffer from autism to call this an
emergency?”
Recent research from Stanford University
conclusively shows that environmental triggers account for most cases
of autism, not genetic predisposition. “Parents have been calling on the
NIH to study environmental factors for decades, but almost all the
money has gone into genetic studies. No matter how high the autism rate
soars, the CDC’s continued denial of an autism epidemic is a certitude comparable to death and taxes,” said Mark Blaxill, Editor-at-Large of Age of Autism web-based newspaper.
These advocacy groups believe that ongoing government
research appears to be driven by corporations that fear being implicated
in any environmental relationship with the autism epidemic, and believe
that these apparent conflicts of interest must be exposed.
The organizations call for three urgent action steps:
1. Secretary Sebelius should declare a national health emergency and
order the NIH and CDC to shift their research focus to prevention
efforts, especially investigation of long overlooked environmental
factors.
2. The Government Accounting Office should initiate a study of past
research funding that has ignored environmental causes. We need to
understand whether this was the result of lobbying to avoid possible
liability that might be uncovered with examination of environmental
triggers.
3. The U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee should
initiate promised hearings as soon as possible on the failure of federal
health agencies in appropriately responding to this epidemic. It has
been about ten years since this Committee examined the role of the
federal authorities in the autism epidemic. We can think of no other instance of any comparable epidemic that has gone on so long without Congressional oversight.
Grassroots organizations represented at the press
conference: Age of Autism, AutismOne, Autism Action Network, Autism
File, The Canary Party, Center for Personal Rights, The Coalition for
Safe Minds, Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy, Focus
Autism, National Autism Association, Talk About Curing Autism
Thanks to: http://www.thelibertybeacon.com