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Autism Awareness Month

Moving From Awareness to Action

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Environmental Factors -What Are

They & Why Do They Matter?Educational Forum

Washington, DC US House of Representatives

Presented by SafeMindsApril 12, 2013


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Environmental Factors

What Are They & Why Do They Matter?

Facilitator: Scott Bono, Board Member, SafeMinds

Speakers and Topics

Existing Knowledge on Environmental Factors Related to Autism:

Richard Deth, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology, Northeastern

University and Autism Researcher The Environmental Epidemiology of Autism:

Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Professor & Deputy Director, Center forChildren's Environmental Health M.I.N.D. Institute (MedicalInvestigations of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) University ofCalifornia Davis.

Out of Balance: The Disparity Between Environmental and GeneticResearch:

Lyn Redwood RN, MSNInter-agency Autism CoordinatingCommittee; Vice-President & Co-Chair of Research Committee,SafeMinds


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SafeMinds Continues its Advocacy

SafeMinds was founded a dozen years ago byparents who recognized the importance ofaddressing the environmental factors at the root

of the autism epidemic.Top of the list was medical exposures to mercury

a contentious issue for some, but common senseto others.

We in collaboration with other organizations havelong fought for increased quality research onenvironmental factors.


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Not a Genetic Epidemic

There is no such thing as a genetic epidemic.

The increased numbers cannot be explained away. It isNOT simply:

Better awareness by parents

Better diagnosis by doctors

That it is now in vogue to have your childdiagnosed with autism

We have children who have complex medical conditions

of varying degrees and co-morbid diagnoses, causednot be bad genes but by environmental factorsincluding medical injuries.


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Facilitator: Scott Bono, Board

Member, SafeMindsScott Bono is Chairman Emeritus and a founding board member of the

National Autism Association (NAA).

Scott has been an active advocate on behalf of autistic children andfamilies since the early 1990s at the local, state and national levels.

He has appeared before the US Congress, and has spoken at rallies,

universities and local service organizations to increase awareness ofthe need for biomedical research, treatments, therapies, andimproved educational opportunities for those with autism.

When lobbying Congress and the State Legislature, Scott advocates onbehalf of those who cannot defend their own rights and strives toeducate society that autism is not a lifelong incurable disorder butone that is biomedically definable and treatable.

Most recently Scott has served on the SafeMinds Government AffairsCommittee as Co-Chair.


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Existing Knowledge on Environmental Factors Related to Autism:

Richard Deth, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology, Northeastern University and

Autism Researcher

Dr. Richard Deth is a molecular neuropharmacologist and Professor of Pharmacology atNortheastern University in Boston. His research efforts are directed toward elucidating themolecular events causing neuropsychiatric disorders in which oxidative stress and impairedmethylation are prominent features. These include autism, ADHD, schizophrenia and Alzheimersdisease.

His laboratory was first to discover the novel signaling mechanism of D4 dopamine receptor-stimulated phospholipid methylation, which appears to be important for neuronal synchronizationduring attention.

A key aspect of his work is regulation of the folate and B12-dependent enzyme methioninesynthase, which supplies methyl groups to the D4 receptor and is inhibited by oxidative stress. Dr.Deth is the author of the book: Molecular Origins of Human Attention: The Dopamine-FolateConnection.

Current Research Interests

1. Role of redox and methylation status in neurodevelopmental disorders.

2. Receptor dependent regulation of gene expression via epigenetic mechanisms.3. Involvement of epigenetic mechanisms in drug addiction

4. Role of D4 -dopamine receptor - mediated phospholipid methylation in psychiatric illnesses.

5. Redox and methylation effects of casein/gluten -derived opiate peptides.


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The Environmental Epidemiology of Autism:

Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Professor & Deputy Director, Center for Children's

Environmental Health M.I.N.D. Institute (Medical Investigations of

Neurodevelopmental Disorders) University of California Davis.

Irva Hertz-Picciotto is an internationally renowned environmental epidemiologist with more than200 scientific publications addressing environmental exposures, their interactions with nutrition,and their influences on pregnancy, the newborn, and child development. She leads a program ofinterdisciplinary research on the environmental contributors to autism and otherneurodevelopmental disorders, as well as mechanisms of pathogenesis. Studies involvecollaborations with immunology, molecular biology and microbiology, genomics, environmentalsciences, nutrition and biostatistics.

Hertz-Picciotto launched the CHARGE Study, the first large, comprehensive population-based study

of environmental factors in autism, and the landmark MARBLES study of early environmental andbiologic predictors of autism. She also collaborates on the multi -site EARLI study of risk factors forautism spectrum disorders, and directs the Northern California Center for the National Children'sStudy.

Beyond the autism program, other projects have focused on exposure-related behaviors,polychlorinated biphenyls and pesticides in relation to early growth and development, leadexposures during pregnancy, and the relation of air pollutants to immune development and earlyacute respiratory illness.

Hertz-Picciotto has chaired or served several state, national and international advisory panels andwas elected president of two of the largest professional epidemiology societies. She sits on editorialboards for major scientific journals in epidemiology, environmental health, and autism and hastaught epidemiologic methods on four continents. In 2011, she received the Goldsmith LifetimeAchievement Award by the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.


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Out of Balance: The Disparity Between Environmental and Genetic Research:

Lyn Redwood RN, MSNInter-agency Autism Coordinating Committee; Vice-President

& Co-Chair of Research Committee, SafeMinds

Lyn Redwood, R.N., M.S.N., is co-founder and board member of the

Coalition for SafeMinds and the National Autism Association. Ms.Redwood testified before the Government Reform Committee onMercury in Medicine: Are we taking unnecessary risks? in 2000, andbefore a Congressional sub-committee on health in 2003.

She has published in the journals Neurotoxicology, Molecular Psychiatry,Medical Hypotheses, Mothering Magazine, and Autism-Aspergers Digest.

Ms. Redwood has appeared on "Good Morning America," the MontelWilliams Show, and has been interviewed by U.S News and World Report,WiredMagazine, People and numerous other publications. She isprominently featured in the award-winning book by David Kirby Evidenceof Harm.

Ms. Redwood served on the Department of Defense Autism SpectrumDisorder Research Program from 2007-2009 and currently serves as apublic member of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee.

She resides outside Atlanta with her husband Tommy, and three children,Hanna, Drew and Will.

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