Something I stumbled on recently was a news article regarding low incidences of Autism in Pennsylvania Dutch country. The reporter (pretty mainstream) noticed some interesting things outside the immediate scope of this blog post – but I refer you to Google..
Anyway, the matter intrigued me.. something must be up I thought, so I did a bit of superficial research, nothing in depth. It led me to an interesting Autism advocacy group’s website, called fighting autism. I read briefs on major surveys in all 50 states and something hit me like a hammer in my head.
Something MASSIVE is going on. Overall Autism prevalence trends nationwide have steadily increased from 1992 to 2003. They don’t have newer data on their site but 2003 is recent enough, 5 years ago you can only suppose rates are even higher now.
The site deals with percentages and mentions something of their statistical methodology, it shouldn’t be hard for someone to fact check them.
Since we are dealing with percentages, actual population numbers shouldn’t matter that much, what we are looking at are increases in the percentage of newly diagnosed cases in a population.
CUT TO THE CHASE:
Looking at the graphs in the reports put a shiver in my back and chilled me. Since I was in the 11th grade cases of Autism have increased almost 1000%
And yet no one seems to be talking about this on NPR or fox news or anything. They are too busy talking about half fed Somali pirates (avast mate!) or the color of Paris Hilton’s thong (which I hope never to see), or in more serious environmental matters, Global Warming.
The factors have to be in our immediate environment, either food, medication, air, water, or a combination of factors working in Syngery.. somehow this seems more immediate to me than carbon footprints and carbon credits. Somehow the fact that the ENTIRE environmental discourse on a public and popular level has been downgraded to “climate change” only rings alarm bells in my head. There are far more significant matters than global warming – not to minimize it but if your child has an 800% higher chance of popping out Autistic, I’d say you deserve to know why.
Snippets (I’m not going to do your homework for you):
Utah has had 758% cumulative growth rate of autism from 1992 to 2003, and 20% average annual growth rate for autism from 1992 to 2003. 1 out of 316 (32/10,000) children has autism in 2003.
Ohio has a 23,291% cumulative growth rate of autism from 1992 to 2003, and a 81% average annual growth rate for autism from 1992 to 2003. 1 out of 268 (37/10,000) children has autism in 2003.
Pennsylvania has a 876% cumulative growth rate from the same period, and a 21% average annual growth rate.
What gives?
In all cases the increase is in newly diagnosed cases of autism’s prevalence, in 2003, which was attributed to younger autistic children (ages 3-8) – in other words, more young children are popping up with Autism. The thought that it is simply getting noticed more often is a canard, all kids go to school and these sort of things tend to get noticed early. These figures cover public school children only, Private or home school children fell outside the study’s methodology
They refer to one recent review study, which reviewed 54 published reports and studies, and showed a 10 fold increase in autism prevalence rates in the United States.
They indicate that this increase cannot be explained by changes in diagnostic criteria or improvements in case ascertainment. Reported rates of autism increased from < 3 per 10,000 children in the 1970s to > 30 per 10,000 children in the 1990s. The reported rates for the full spectrum of autistic disorders rose from 5 to 10 per 10,000 range to the 50 to 80 per 10,000 range.
Statistics are not my strong point, and I have NO DOUBT that there are factors that should be considered, but this is by any standard worthy of worry.
Next, infertility. Some people who would make the BEST mothers and fathers, whom I know, are having very difficult times conceiving. This on an anecdotal level seems to be something a bit on the increase, I am noticing. This also worries me. I have no hard numbers at hand, though a brief and superficial search indicates some United Nations data indicating drastically dropping Sperm counts in some industrialized countries, in particular Europe. In essence, White Europeans seem to be breeding less. Which is highly peculiar.
Social factors play a roll, the importance of child birthing in Western cultures has changed, young people – in particular middle class and upper middle class – are choosing to wait longer before starting families. But there is something else at play here, what can account for declining Sperm count? It has to be something in the immediate environment of many people. Tight clothing perhaps, something in the food, something affecting hormonal balances in males?
And what of females who face increasing difficulties to conceive outside of the sperm counts of their partners.
Somehow this seems to at least rival bloody carbon credits in my book.
Lovely article, and I’ve been thinking the same thing about the rise of autism to “1 in 150” children recently. Those commercials are scaring me and I’m only 21! Anyway, I do believe enviroment and bad food are some of the key causes. Ever wonder why everyone has such bad teeth? Well, we didn’t use to about 150 years ago. And with all the pesticides and hormones in the foods these days, it’s now wonder there are development problems in children and infertility in parents who almost all have some sort of development problem of their own.
Here’s an article I’d like to share with your blog. It’s an old and fascinating article written around 1939 by a dentist, named Weston Price, who decided to do some research on why children’s teeth had gotten so bad even in the 1930’s. He found out that refined foods were the cause of poor skeletal and dental development in children around the world and I do believe he also documented a marked growth of infertility from the consumption of the refined foods. Though, the book can be bought, the free online version online is a bit bland. Though, there are plently of photographs to look at showing the change in the physical structure of the people who were afflicted with refined foods starting around chapter 3.
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/pricetoc.html
Thank you for sharing the article.
I think, personally, that a good deal of the problem with our teeth lies in the vast consumption of refined sugar. I recently discovered that sucrose basically causes minerals to leech out of your body, it doesn’t take a brain scientist to a see the potential drawbacks to our teeth and bones.
Let’s just say that I wish I knew this some years ago 🙂