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Parent-teachers at a NJ school have a much higher rate of autistic children born to them. The Center for School Mold Help has certainly heard of a high number of autistic-like symptoms reported in schools and homes with mold and dampness.
Toxic exposures are strongly suspected as culprits in the development of autism. It is likely, in our estimation, that there is a toxic and/or damp building exposure in this school. This is an area of great need for research - the connection between environmental toxins and autism (SMH). Read the article and a comment from a parent of two boys who developed autism after being exposed to home mold.
BIZARRE OUTBREAK: Parent-teachers at St. Anthony's school in New Jersey have had autistic children at many times the rate of the overall population. (NY POST)
SICK SCHOOL: AUTISM STUMPS DOCS
http://www.nypost.com/seven/11052007/news/regionalnews/sick_school_355226.htm
By LEONARD GREENE
BIZARRE OUTBREAK: Parent-teachers at St. Anthony's school in New Jersey have had autistic children at many times the rate of the overall population.
November 5, 2007 -- It started out as a quirk. A couple of parents at one northern New Jersey school gave birth to children with similar learning disorders.
Then it became a crisis, and before the decade passed, 24 of the 42 children born to teachers there were diagnosed with developmental disorders. Ten students were diagnosed with autism.
"It was sort of a trickle effect," said pediatrician Lawrence Rosen. "Just gradually over the years it became a thing where it was like, 'What about you? What about you?' "
Rosen and the parents at St. Anthony's school in Northvale in Bergen County, near the Rockland County border, were concerned enough about the phenomenon to commission a surprising study that raised more questions than it answered.
After tracking down teachers who had worked at St. Anthony's, researchers learned that there is a statistical anomaly of developmental disorders at the school. What they do not know is why.
The Northern Valley Regional High School district leases the former parochial school from the Newark Archdiocese.
District officials shut down the school over the summer and relocated the teachers and their students to other schools in the district.
Northern Valley had been using the site to educate kids with autism and other disabilities. That put the teachers who worked there in a unique position of recognizing the signs when it came to their own children.
"They were really concerned for their health and their kids' health," Rosen said. "Nobody had any idea why this happened."
They still don't.
Rosen and the Hackensack University Medical Center, which conducted the inquiry through its Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, hope that environmental tests of the site will reveal some answers.
"We are concerned about these children, their families and our community," said Deirdre Imus, the wife of talk-show host Don Imus.
New Jersey has the highest rate of autism ever recorded in the United States, with one out of every 94 children, according to a federal study released in February. The national rate is one in 150.
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A letter emailed to the author of the above article, Mr. Greene, posted herein with permission from R. Haynes:
I'm the parent of two boys who were headed for Asperger's diagnoses. Both boys were born healthy and normal. They began regressing when we built a house that we learned 4 months later was full of mold. Since they developed their symptoms simultaneously and are two years apart in age we know that the cause was environmental. I hope the testing on the New Jersey school will include testing by a reputable tester. Those results are very easy to manipulate.
I've reversed most of my children's symptoms (compulsivity, sensory integration disorder, auditory processing problems) by treating them for mold exposure. I have lots of resources. I spent a lot of my time as an activist around the mold issue and talk with victims on a very regular basis.
Here are a couple of links to our story:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/20053/0/prweb215988.htm
http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_021807_news_moldy_house_fire.12f79cbf.html
Sincerely,
Renee Haynes, Oregon/Washington Representative, 509-535-2502
2429 E. 35th Avenue
Spokane, WA 99223
Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings INC. (www.HADD.com)
A National Not for Profit Organization
"Because Sick Buildings Make Sick Children"
Whether you've been a victim (yet) or not, please sign this petition requesting
a Congressional hearing concerning accountability of the home building industry
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/322833272?ltl=1110496374
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