The Age of Autism

Title:

The Age of Autism

Author:

Dan Olmsted

Subject:

Family & Relationships

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Health & Fitness

Children's Health

Date:

2010-09-14

Digital Format:

HOOPLA E BOOK

Summary

A groundbreaking book, THE AGE OF AUTISM explores how mankind has unwittingly poisoned itself for half a millennium

For centuries, medicine has made reckless use of one of earth's most toxic substances: mercury--and the consequences, often invisible or ignored, continue to be tragic. Today, background pollution levels, including global emissions of mercury as well as other toxicants, make us all more vulnerable to its effects. From the worst cases of syphilis to Sigmund Freud's first cases of hysteria, from baffling new disorders in 19th century Britain to the modern scourge of autism, THE AGE OF AUTISM traces the long overlooked history of mercury poisoning.

Now, for the first time, authors Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill uncover that history. Within this context, they present startling findings: investigating the first cases of autism diagnosed in the 1940s revealed an unsuspected link to a new form of mercury in seed disinfectants, lumber fungicides and vaccines. In the tradition of Silent Spring and An Inconvenient Truth, Olmsted and Blaxill demonstrate with clarity how chemical and environmental clues may have been missed as medical "experts," many of them blinded by decades of systemic bias, instead placed blamed on parental behavior or children's biology. By exposing the roots and rise of The Age of Autism, this book attempts to point the way out - to a safer future for our children and the planet.

Author Notes

Mark Blaxill was a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group and is now a managing partner at 3LP Advisors. The father of a child diagnosed with autism, he has been involved in autism advocacy for over a decade and has written widely on the scientific controversies surrounding autism.

Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism. He has been a journalist for 35 years and was an original staff member of USA Today and Senior Editor of USA WEEKEND and United Press International. He lives in Falls Church City, Virginia and is a member of the National Press Club.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Journalist Olmstead and independent researcher Blaxill enter the fray of the autism controversy, arguing that, just as mercury's toxic effects in treating syphilis and teething pain were long ignored, the same type of denial is happening now with respect to autism and other illnesses the authors say are linked to mercury exposure in the environment and in childhood vaccines. But other than providing information on mercury exposure in seven of the 11 individuals first diagnosed with autism, they offer little new material. Second, they uncritically present the opinions of those who assert the autism-vaccine link while virtually ignoring contrary scientific views (e.g., the World Health Organization has repudiated any such link). Third, they stake out new ground by accusing scientists and government agencies of creating a conspiracy to defend vaccines as safe. They state, without supporting evidence: "Much of what the medical industry and public health community has produced on the question of autism and vaccines has been propaganda masquerading as science." Readers looking for an unbiased examination of whether there is a link between vaccines and autism will not find enlightenment here. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Kirkus Review

Debut authors Olmsted and Blaxill argue that autism is a "man-made" disease triggered by environmental factors.While this is a highly controversial subjectmany public-health officials question whether the incidence of autism spectrum disorder is actually increasing (or an artifact of diagnosis), and they downplay the importance of environmental factorsthe authors have amassed a compelling body of material that suggests that a "complex mix of genetic susceptibility, toxic chemistry and poorly understood events in childhood" are at the root of the disorder. Looking to the history of mercury poisoning, they found many clues to its possible roleoccupational illnesses, people treated with medicinal mercury, infants receiving mega doses of vaccines that contain mercury preservative, water and atmospheric pollution, etc. One of the most dramatic instances they cite was the use of mercury's toxic properties to treat syphilis. While significant side effects were observedweakness, tremors and even the loss of teethmore long-term effects were not recognized and were mistakenly attributed to the disease rather than mercury poisoning. Many children routinely given an over-the-counter mercury compound, Calomel, as a teething powder or purgative, suffered from symptoms similar to autism. Only in the late 1940s was a connection made between a mysterious disease, "acrodynia," and mercury poisoning. Industrial pollution from mercury, toxic waste in oceans and bays that poison the fish we eat and atmospheric pollution from coal dust have been shown to have serious health effects. The use of mercury as a preservative in the vaccines routinely given to infants has begun to come under scrutiny, but the evidence is inconclusive. In the author's view, the occurrence of autism may be triggered by a number of factors acting together, which trigger the disorder in children who have a genetic predisposition or a compromised immune system.Not entirely convincing, but carries the powerful message that "[t]his long nightmare of neglect and delay and denial needs to end."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

To be clear, Blaxill and Olmsted state upfront that they support vaccination. What they do not support is mainstream science's explanation of the cause and history of autism. Carefully laying groundwork for their hypothesis, they trace the origins of other illnesses that, if not directly caused by human hands, were worsened by them. One case in point: syphilis was once treated with mercury, which resulted in a type of madness thought to be another symptom of the disease, but instead was found to be mercury poisoning. Additionally they trace mercury poisoning as the basis of other illnesses before concluding that mercury plays a part in what may likely be multiple causes of autism. In this they relate a history of the discovery of autism and tie the disorder's recent ascendancy to increased environmental toxins, most specifically mercury. These two iconoclasts, one the father of a child with autism, lay out credible investigative evidence in support of their theory even if it does fly in the face of what they feel is the medical industry's current cant.--Chavez, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

Excerpts

We believe that autism was newly discovered in the 1930s for the simple reason that it was new. The organic chemicals industry that grew out of chemical warfare research during World War I led to new commercial uses for mercury, including the introduction of an extraordinarily toxic compound made from ethylmercury. This, our research suggests, led directly to the first cases of autism. Among the parents of those first eleven cases described in 1943, you will meet a plant pathologist experimenting with ethylmercury fungicides in Mary land; a pediatrician in Boston who was an early champion of mass vaccinations containing ethylmercury; and a stenographer in a pathology lab in Washington, D.C., who spent her workday exposed to mercury fumes while her future husband, a psychiatrist, treated syphilis with mercury just as Freud had done decades earlier. Several other families cluster around the medical profession, agriculture, and forestry-- the three biggest risk factors for exposure to mercury in its newest and most toxic form. Psychiatrist Leo Kanner provided some clues to the backgrounds of these early parents-- such as their professions-- but our investigation uncovered dramatic new details about what the parents were doing when each child was born and in the critical years before that. By the time our research was done, we had worked our way through newspaper clippings, professional archives, city directories, cemetery records, ancestry searches, last- known addresses, and libraries from Washington, D.C., to Moscow, Idaho. We found and interviewed family members of several of the first eleven children; most memorably, we met two of those "cases" ourselves. At the end of our search, we talked with "Case 1: Donald T." around the kitchen table in his lifelong home in the small lumber town of Forest, Mississippi. By any measure, he has fared astonishingly well. President of his college fraternity and later the Forest Kiwanis Club, a pillar of his Presbyterian church, he had a long career at the local bank, plays a competitive game of golf, and regularly travels the world. We learned how "Donald T." went from being the first unmistakable case of autism to the first unmistakable case of recovery. He also reminds us how recent autism is-- the space of one man's lifetime: "Donald T." turned seventy- seven in September 2010. Leo Kanner's original cases, linked only by this overlooked association with mercury, suggest that from the very beginning autism was an environmentally induced illness-- a toxic injury rather than something inherited or inculcated. Certainly, some children were more susceptible to mercury exposure-- and that may implicate genetic vulnerabilities. This is very different, however, from saying that autism is an inherited genetic disorder. Tragically, the best and the brightest in science and medicine have missed these clues from the start, blinded first by the belief the parents were responsible and then by their ongoing pursuit of the "autism gene." The Great Autism Gene Hunt has come up empty-- but continues to drain off millions of dollars and thousands of hours that should go to more promising environmental research. Having thoroughly failed to solve the autism puzzle, the medical industry is putting forth a new wave of epidemic deniers to claim autism isn't really increasing after all. Simply put, this idea is nonsense; and sadly, it prolongs the epidemic and prevents the urgent response this public health crisis demands. In tracing the history of autism, we cannot avoid discussion of what we have already acknowledged as a controversial topic: vaccines. Some critics have labeled us antivaccine for even broaching the subject. But our interest has more to do with vaccination as a risk factor, perhaps one of several. We want to state explicitly that we support vaccines as long as they are individually and collectively tested for safety, and not deployed excessively, as part of an overall policy to promote childhood health. We are not antifungicide or antivaccine or anti- anything but autism. We support progress and innovation. (Mercury was removed from fungicides in the 1970s for safety reasons after several episodes of mass poisoning.) We don't want crops to wither, or houses to rot, or children to die of vaccine- preventable illnesses. We simply want to stop an autism epidemic whose origin we believe can be discerned from a careful examination of its environmental history. Copyright (c) 2010 by Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Excerpted from The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Manmade Epidemic by Dan Olmsted, Mark Blaxill All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.