New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof examines the question of whether chemicals in the environment may be partly to blame for the proliferation of autism diagnoses across the country. He cites an article by Philip J. Landrigan, just posted online in the peer-reviewed journal Current Opinion in Pediatrics, that says the “likelihood is high” that many environmental chemicals “have potential to cause injury to the developing brain and to produce neurodevelopmental disorders.”

An excerpt:

Frankly, these are difficult issues for journalists to write about. Evidence is technical, fragmentary and conflicting, and there’s a danger of sensationalizing risks. Publicity about fears that vaccinations cause autism — a theory that has now been discredited — perhaps had the catastrophic consequence of lowering vaccination rates in America.

On the other hand, in the case of great health dangers of modern times — mercury, lead, tobacco, asbestos — journalists were too slow to blow the whistle. In public health, we in the press have more often been lap dogs than watchdogs.

At a time when many Americans still use plastic containers to microwave food, in ways that make toxicologists blanch, we need accelerated research, regulation and consumer protection.

From the [UK] Times, [UK] Guardian, Austin [TX] American-Statesman (blog):

Andrew Wakefield, the discredited British doctor whose research triggered a wave of opposition to childhood vaccines, has resigned unexpectedly from the autism center he founded in Austin, Texas.

The announcement comes only a few weeks after a British regulatory agency ruled that Wakefield acted dishonestly and irresponsibly in research that led to the 1998 publication of a paper which claimed a link between autism and the vaccination for measles, mumps and rubella.

Wakefield is now defending his medical license in England, and does not have a license to practice medicine in the United States. In a statement, representatives of the Thoughtful House Center for Children said Wakefield had left his post voluntarily to avoid allowing the controversy to overshadow the center’s work.

Related posts here.

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal says the Lancet’s retraction of Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 vaccine study comes “about 12 years too late.” The research paper, which purported to link vaccines with autism, launched a global vaccine scare, caused vaccination rates to plummet, and triggered waves of measles outbreaks.

Even as overwhelming scientific evidence showed vaccines to be safe, the editors say, the respected research journal turned aside questions about the credibility of Wakefield’s study. It was only after Britain’s medical regulator confirmed that Wakefield had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” that the Lancet said it “fully retract[s] this paper from the published record.”

The Lancet episode shows how even reputable publications can become conduits for junk science when political causes run hot. Especially amid the scandal over politically motivated climate science, the public needs professional journals to be scrupulous about their standards and honest about the science.

From the [UK] Times,  [UK] Guardian, BBC, [UK] Telegraph:

A leading medical journal has retracted a discredited research paper that sparked an international health crisis by claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Lancet’s announcement follows a finding by a British oversight panel that Andrew Wakefield (above), the lead author of the 1998 paper, had been irresponsible and dishonest in carrying out the study.

Lancet editor Richard Horton told the [UK] Guardian that the finding by Britain’s General Medical Council (GMC) last week had prompted the journal’s decision. “It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false,” he said. “I feel I was deceived.”

Wakefield’s research prompted a significant drop in the number of children who were immunized for mumps, measles and rubella, contributing to a resurgence of measles cases in Britain.

Wakefield moved across the Atlantic to Austin, Texas, five years ago to help establish an autism clinic shortly before the GMC investigation began. Wakefield, who does not have a medical license in the United States, says he is not practicing medicine but rather working on research as executive director of the Thoughtful House autism center. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Related articles:

MMR scare doctor makes a fortune in U.S. — [UK] Times

‘Callous, unethical and dishonest’: Dr. Andrew Wakefield — by Brian Deer in the [UK] Sunday Times

Earlier posts:

Doctor censured over research claiming autism-vaccine link

Newspaper: Autism-vaccine scare began when researcher faked data

(Photo from [UK] Guardian)

British panel says he acted ‘dishonestly and irresponsibly’

From the BBC, [UK] Times, AP/San Jose Mercury-News:

A British doctor whose research stoked fears that vaccinations cause autism has been censured by a medical panel, which found that he had “abused his position of trust” in doing the research. Research published by Dr. Andrew Wakefield in the Lancet medical journal led many parents to refuse to vaccinate their children.

Britain’s General Medical Council found Wakefield guilty of a series of misconduct charges, including putting children through painful and unnecessary tests.

The disciplinary panel said Wakefield was misleading in describing the study, and should have disclosed that he was being paid to advise parents who believed their children had been harmed by the vaccine. Ten of the study’s 13 authors have renounced the study.

Wakefield has denied all charges.

See also:

How MMR saga shaped science’s rules of engagement with the media. Fiona Fox, writing in the [UK] Times, says the scientific community should have raised a concerted voice to counter erroneous claims that children had been damaged by vaccines. The consequences for silence have been catastrophic, she says, as a fearful public withheld vaccinations from their children.

‘If there were a cure for your child that would fundamentally change who they are, would you welcome it?’

Lisa Belkin, writing in the New York Times Motherlode blog, wonders what parents think of recent research news out of Stanford University that offers the eventual possibility of enhancing cognition for their children with Down syndrome.

She quotes Jenn Power, a Canadian mother of twin boys with Down syndrome writing on the Contrarian website, as saying she greeted the Stanford announcement with tears. Power says she feels people with intellectual disabilities play an “irreplaceable” role in creating a “more humane, compassionate and hospitable society,” and she worries that cognition research encourages society to overlook the value of her children’s lives.

An excerpt from Power’s post:

In the end, for me, this all comes back to people. Josh, Jacob, Mary, Cathy, Kate, Janet … these people have Down syndrome. These people are my family, my friends, my teachers. Without the benefit of that extra chromosome, they would not be who they are. Their intellectual ‘impairment’ gives them an insight and an emotional intelligence and maturity that I can only aspire to. They do not need a needle in their brain to make them more functional, to help them find their car keys. What they need is a society that values what they have to offer. I would like to think that I can be a part of creating that society.

Reader comments are critical of Powers, saying she is guilty of “the worst type of paternalism and selfishness” for suggesting she would deny her sons access to medications that might enhance their intellectual capabilities.

Earlier post: Parents divided on hypothetical cure for Down syndrome

Autism clusters found in areas with older, white, educated parents

From the Orange County Register Healthy Living blog,  National Public Radio:

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, conclude that autism diagnoses are clustered in areas where parents are more likely to have access to professionals who are qualified to make a diagnosis.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean that higher education causes autism,” says Irva Hertz-Picciotto, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the UC Davis MIND Institute. “It gets you the diagnosis more frequently.”