PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: October 29, 2007

Contact: Rita Shreffler, NAA (Nixa, MO) 401-632-6452 Lyn Redwood, SafeMinds (Atlanta, GA) 404-932-1786

IOM Workshop Calls for Greater Research Focus on Environmental Causes of Autism

Advocacy organizations support shift from exclusively genetic model to environmental research emphasis

Washington, DC - The Institute of Medicine (IOM) last Friday released an online prepublication of the April 18-19 workshop Autism and the Environment, demonstrating a marked shift in the research agenda from heritability factors to toxic environmental exposures in the development of autism.  “The National Autism Association (NAA) and SafeMinds have long called for a paradigm shift from children with autism are genetically defective to children with autism are sick and treatable. Now, we have high hopes that the recognition of the role environmental factors (including vaccines and heavy metals) play in the development of autism will lead to effective treatments for hundreds of thousands with autism and prevention for susceptible infants,” said Laura Bono, NAA and SafeMinds Board Member, IOM Planning Committee member and presenter at the workshop.

In response to a request from the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, the two-day workshop brought together the nation’s leaders in autism research from government agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Autism community advocates from SafeMinds, NAA and Autism Speaks were also invited participants of the workshop, plus scientists from Harvard, the MIND Institute, Columbia University, and more. The experts discussed strategies to develop a framework for a broad research agenda focusing on the potential relationship between autism and environmental exposures.

Presentations emphasized the urgency of need to combat the growing national health crisis of autism and focused on the mechanisms by which environmental factors (including vaccines) such as chemicals, infectious agents, or physiological or psychological stress can affect the neurodevelopment of children. In addition, discussions addressed the infrastructure needs for pursuing the identified research opportunities—tools, technologies, and partnerships.

In his introductory remarks, Dr. William Raub, Science Advisor to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, expressed his hopes that the workshop would prove to be an important milestone in autism research. He stated: “The planning committee recognized that vaccine constituents, especially organic chemicals used as preservatives or adjuvants, obviously qualify as environmental agents that warrant attention.  . . . . Other aspects of the autism challenge deserve similar attention, especially the paucity of effective treatments.”

Workshop participants identified a broad range of research priorities, including: biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment of differing subtypes of autism; rigorous analysis of effective treatments; a comparison of the health outcomes of vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children, immune system and anti-viral therapies, and the need for more effective chelators.  The full list is included as an appendix to the proceedings.

Mark Blaxill, SafeMinds Vice President, member of the IOM Planning Committee and an invited workshop participant said, “Our scientific leadership is increasingly realizing that ongoing epidemic denial, the bizarre idea that current autism rates have been with us forever, and myopic insistence that autism is an inherited untreatable disorder, are inconsistent with the evidence and disciplined scientific thought. They are certainly no longer acceptable as guiding principles for policy.”

SafeMinds Executive Director Sallie Bernard delivered a presentation focusing on research opportunities. Ms. Bernard called for an “overcorrection” of environmental research funding to make up for the last 15 years of funding going mostly to genetics. She outlined many of the small-scale studies funded by SafeMinds since 2000 and said, “Now we are at the stage where we would like to see these types of ideas go to the next level and, for that, we need the public side of the public-private partnership.”

In her presentation, NAA and SafeMinds Board Member Lyn Redwood discussed the power of public-private partnerships in solving the epidemic of autism such as “autism advisory boards, integration panels, the establishment of shared research inventories, and community-based and –driven research initiatives” where parents as stakeholders have their status elevated and their voices heard. “The urgency of this mission cannot be overstated,” said Ms. Redwood.  “Treatments, especially those aimed are targeting underlying medical abnormalities, are more effective if begun in earnest as early as possible.  The cost of this epidemic and its devastating impact on families is so great that we must do all we can to prevent new cases.”

Dr. Alan Leshner, publisher of the journal Science, concluded the workshop by noting the importance of redirecting the research agenda: “I think this has been spectacular and I hope I am right. I would repeat the comment I made fairly glibly before, that is, this is a very important start, and if we don’t do something, then shame on us.”

The workshop prepublication can be downloaded at http://www.iom.edu/AutismProceedings

For more information on autism visit www.safeminds.org and www.nationalautism.org

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