Study Links Autism to Mercury

Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Study Links Autism to Mercury
2. Pine Bark Reduces Osteoarthritis
3. Smoking Raises Risk of Depression
4. Outsmart the Sun at Any Age

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1. Study Links Autism to Mercury

How do mercury emissions affect pregnant mothers, the unborn and toddlers? Do the level of emissions impact autism rates? Does it matter whether a mercury-emitting source is 10 miles away from families versus 20 miles? Is the risk of autism greater for children who live closer to the pollution source?

A newly published study of Texas school district data and industrial mercury-release data, conducted by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, indeed shows a statistically significant link between pounds of industrial release of mercury and increased autism rates. It also shows — for the first time in scientific literature — a statistically significant association between autism risk and distance from the mercury source.

“This is not a definitive study, but just one more that furthers the association between environmental mercury and autism,” said lead author Raymond F. Palmer, Ph.D., associate professor of family and community medicine at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio. The article is in the journal Health & Place.

Dr. Palmer, Stephen Blanchard, Ph.D., of Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio and Robert Wood of the UT Health Science Center found that community autism prevalence is reduced by 1 percent to 2 percent with each 10 miles of distance from the pollution source.

“This study was not designed to understand which individuals in the population are at risk due to mercury exposure,” Dr. Palmer said. “However, it does suggest generally that there is greater autism risk closer to the polluting source.”

The study should encourage further investigations designed to determine the multiple routes of mercury exposure. “The effects of persistent, low-dose exposure to mercury pollution, in addition to fish consumption, deserve attention,” Dr. Palmer said. “Ultimately, we will want to know who in the general population is at greatest risk based on genetic susceptibilities such as subtle deficits in the ability to detoxify heavy metals.”

“We suspect low-dose exposures to various environmental toxicants, including mercury, that occur during critical windows of neural development among genetically susceptible children may increase the risk for developmental disorders such as autism,” the authors wrote.

Study highlights:

• Mercury-release data examined were from 39 coal-fired power plants and 56 industrial facilities in Texas.
• Autism rates examined were from 1,040 Texas school districts.
• For every 1,000 pounds of mercury released by all industrial sources in Texas into the environment in 1998, there was a corresponding 2.6 percent increase in autism rates in the Texas school districts in 2002.
• For every 1,000 pounds of mercury released by Texas power plants in 1998, there was a corresponding 3.7 percent increase in autism rates in Texas school districts in 2002.
• Autism prevalence diminished 1 percent to 2 percent for every 10 miles from the source.
• Mercury exposure through fish consumption is well documented, but very little is known about exposure routes through air and ground water.
• There is evidence that children and other developing organisms are more susceptible to neurobiological effects of mercury.

“We need to be concerned about global mercury emissions since a substantial proportion of mercury releases are spread around the world by long-range air and ocean currents,” Dr. Palmer said. “Steps for controlling and eliminating mercury pollution on a worldwide basis may be advantageous. This entails greener, non-mercury-polluting technologies.”

Editor's Note:

• Discover the Link between Vaccines, ADHD, and Autism.

You'll notice NO government involvement

This post goes out to all you nanny statist types that believe NOTHING can be done without government involvement

PHOENIXVILLE, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- After 22 years in private practice and seeing people "kicked around by the system," Dr. Lorna Stuart found herself frustrated with the number of insurance companies and the rules and restrictions that came with them.

Because there's no insurance paperwork, Dr. Lorna Stuart says she has more time to spend talking with patients.

"The day-to-day time that I spent on paperwork was increasing, while my patients weren't getting the good care that I wanted to give them -- face-to-face time, one-on-one time," she recalls. "I vowed to do whatever little I could about this inequity of care."

For Stuart, that vow came in the form of opening her own clinic and treating the uninsured.

"Every single person knows somebody without health insurance," says Stuart. "There are so many people that fall through the cracks."

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 47 million Americans are currently without medical coverage. So Stuart set out to alleviate that problem where she could -- in her old steel town of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

She confided her desire to start a clinic in the Rev. Marie Swayze, her friend whose parish property was home to a Victorian-style rectory that had become dilapidated from disuse.

The two concocted a plan to restore and remodel the mansion into a place that anyone would be happy to visit for quality medical care.

Then, leaving private practice, Stuart sold her house and set out to raise $400,000 in donated funds, materials and services. In 2002, these efforts resulted in "The Clinic: Medical Center for the Uninsured," a charitable, sun-filled clinic that has since received more than 40,000 patient visits.

Individuals receive free or low-cost primary medical care across eight specialties, regardless of income or locality. Watch Stuart explain how her healthcare dream came true »

"Since there's no need to spend a lot of time doing paperwork, we have time to talk to the patient and really hear what they're saying," says Stuart. "So the patients go away feeling they've been heard, that they've been helped."

An arsenal of more than 100 local volunteers, including 20 retired and practicing physicians, assist Stuart in providing expert medical services to more than 800 patients per month from across the southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware area.

She even invested in Spanish language audiotape lessons to better communicate with her Spanish-speaking clients. Patients are informed that each visit costs about $60, but they are only expected to contribute what they can toward their care. Watch Stuart explain the benefits of visiting "The Clinic" »

"Many patients pay as little as a dollar or even 50 cents for the same dignified care that patients contributing in full receive," says Mary Ellen Smith, The Clinic's medical resource coordinator.

Patient contributions account for 20 percent of The Clinic's $900,000 annual operating budget. The rest comes exclusively from private grants and donations. If The Clinic accepted money made available through government aid programs, they would be significantly restricted in terms of whom they would be allowed to treat, and how.

For Stuart, giving good old-fashioned care again has restored her sense of fulfillment. Watch Stuart explain how her clinic provides care to the uninsured »

"Each day, I get to treat the patients whom our medical system has forgotten, without the hassle of insurance paperwork," says Stuart. "Is it any wonder I once again feel the real joy of practicing the craft that I love?"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/04/23/heroes.stuart/index.html

AMERICAN MONETARY INSTITUTE

http://www.monetary.org - ami@taconic.net

Presents a

Free Monetary Seminar

Springfield, Missouri

Saturday April 26^th

2 pm to 4 pm

The Library Station (Frisco Room)

2535 N. Kansas Expressway

By Stephen Zarlenga, Director

Why is Our Money System Broken Again?

The Seminar will Discuss:

*How America's Monetary Power has been usurped and privatized.

*How and why the money power must be restored to society where it where it can

promote the general welfare.

*How the money power became privatized, and is kept in place by false theory.

*How the American Monetary Act, a 3-step program, restores control to society.

*Why inflation need not be a problem.

*How the facts demonstrate that counter to prevailing prejudice, governmental control

of money has a far superior record to private control.

This is a hands on do-able reality based program,

not a theory, with many U.S. historical precedents.

The Money system acts like a fourth branch of government, generally affecting our daily lives more than the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches combined. Yet it has been privatized and is largely outside the control of our democratic system of checks and balances where it has unfairly concentrated wealth.

The American Monetary Institute is America's leading think tank focusing on monetary history, theory and reform. Each September we hold a 3 day monetary reform conference at Roosevelt University in Chicago where cutting edge experts speak on these subjects. Each month the Institute offers this free introductory seminar in cities around the U.S.

This seminar is designed to give laymen (and experts) a better background on how our money system functions, why its not working for us now, how to fix it, and what benefits would follow in terms of infrastructure, health care and education; and how our society has the power to begin creating a better future world now

Call 224-805-2200 or email ami@taconic.net

Why won't the News Leader print this ??

Editor
April 23,2008
Springfield News-Leader
Springfield, Missouri

Dear Editor
I am writing this to ask you to clear up an inaccuracy that was presented in your paper last week concerning the designer of Park Central Square in Springfield. In this letter I was credited with being the primary designer of the square.
The only one who can professionally be credited with the project design is Lawrence Halprin. While very flattering to be credited with design, this is not true. I was an architect on the staff of the Halprin office at the time. The Halprin office was hired based on his national reputation for innovative landscape architecture, to design the improvements to the existing bleak, traffic, ridden square. The Halprin office was a large office and as such Halprin could not be expected to do all of the work on every project. My role as project manager/ designer was to, with a small team, execute the job within the Halprin design vernacular. Halprin had been developing this vernacular over the preceding twenty years. I made several trips to Springfield to gather information and to present the work to city staff members and members of the downtown association. Halprin was deeply involved in the Springfield project and every other project in the office from the initial conceptual meetings where the design concepts were established and throughout the life of the project. All my work was supervised by Halprin and one or more of his partners in formal and informal meetings. Park Central Square is most definitely a Halprin project.
It is completely understandable that few drawings in Halprin's hand were found in the Halprin archives. At the time there was no organized system for retaining drawings during and after the life of the project. We also had very limited amounts of flat file drawer
storage space and thus could be ruthless in discarding drawings. Halprin's conceptual design contributions would have been in sketch form on very fragile tracing paper, which often did not survive due simply to its fragility. They also could have been discarded after the
ideas they expressed were incorporated in the more precise drawings.
I would also like to add that judging from the pictures in the
article the Square has been very well maintained and has aged extremely well. It appears to have a lot of life left in it. The Square is a very good example of the work of Lawrence Halprin and is certainly worthy of being designated a historic landmark.

Thank you
George McLaughlin
469 Mississippi St.
San Francisco CA 9417
415-647-7917
geommcl@yahoo.com

This may surprise some of you but I grow weary of these talk radio pundits and labeling everyone with the broad sweep of the brush.
Disagree with the War in Iraq = you're a 'liberal'
Support Ron Paul for president(probably the most constitutional person in congress = you're a 'liberal'
Shed light on the ever expansive government = you're a 'liberal'
the list goes on but there is an easy solution to determine who is what;

Most if not all democrats believe in the Law of Plunder

The Fatal Idea of Legal Plunder

But on the other hand, imagine that this fatal principle has been introduced: Under the pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law takes the property from one person and gives it to another; the law takes the wealth of all and gives it to a few-whether farmers, manufacturers, shipowners, artists, or comedians. Under these circumstances, then certainly every class will aspire to grasp the law, and logically so.
The excluded classes will furiously demand their right to vote-and will overthrow society rather than not to obtain it. Even beggars and vagabonds will then prove to you that they also have an incontestable title to vote. They will say to you:
"We cannot buy wine, tobacco, or salt without paying the tax. And a part of the tax that we pay is given by law-in privileges and subsidies-to men who are richer than we are. Others use the law to raise the prices of bread, meat, iron, or cloth. Thus, since everyone else uses the law for his own profit, we also would like to use the law for our profit. We demand from the law the right to relief, which is the poor man's plunder. To obtain this right, we also should be voters and legislators in order that we may organize beggary on a grand scale for our own class, as you have organized, protection on a grand scale for your class. Now don't tell us beggars that you will act for us, and then toss us, as Mr. Mimerel proposes, 600,000 francs to keep us quiet, like throwing us a bone to gnaw. We have other claims. And anyway, we wish to bargain for ourselves as other classes have bargained for themselves!"
And what can you say to answer that argument?

Most Republicans believe in Law of morality, in that they believe they should determine what you can do and how you can do it.

The Law and Morals

You say: "Here are persons who are lacking in morality or religion," and you turn to the law. But law is force. And need I point out what a violent and futile effort it is to use force in the matters of morality and religion?

It would seem that socialists, however self-complacent, could not avoid seeing this monstrous legal plunder that results from such systems and such efforts. But what do the socialists do? They cleverly disguise this legal plunder from others-and even from themselves-under the seductive names of fraternity, unity, organization, and association. Because we ask so little from the law-only justice-the socialists thereby assume that we reject fraternity, unity, and organization, and association. The socialist brand us with the name individualist.

But we assume the socialists that we repudiate only forced organization, not natural organization. We repudiate the forms of association that are forced upon us, not free association. We repudiate forced fraternity, not true fraternity. We repudiate the artificial unity that does nothing more than deprive persons of individual responsibility. We do not repudiate the natural unity of mankind under Providence.

This is why I defer to freedom and liberty in the purest sense

What is Liberty?

Actually, what is the political struggle that we witness? It is the instinctive struggle of all people toward liberty. And what is this liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties-liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, of labor, of trade? In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so? Is not liberty the destruction of all despotism-including, of course, legal despotism? Finally, is not liberty the restricting of the law only to its rational sphere of organizing the right of the individual to lawful self-defense; of punishing injustice?

It must be admitted that the tendency of the human race toward liberty is largely thwarted, especially in France. This is greatly due to a fatal desire-learned from the teachings of antiquity-that our writers on public affairs have in common: They desire to set themselves above mankind in order to arrange, organize, and regulate it according to their fancy.

To further understand this absolute meaning one only to do a little research

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7006/thelaw.html

Forget Earth Day

National Jelly Bean Day

When : Always April 22and

National Jelly Bean Day is a time to enjoy gobs and gobs of jelly beans. Anyone who loves jelly beans, knows they are not just for Easter. Sure, they are very popular at Easter. But, they are also enjoyed year round. The flavors are limited only by the imagination of candy makers. If you've never enjoyed the multitude of flavors in a box of gourmet jelly beans, the we suggest you head right out to the store and buy some.

Jelly beans date back to at least the 1860's. Advertisements promoted sending jelly beans to Union troops fighting in the Civil War. The original candy maker is unknown.

Do you know how to celebrate National Jelly Bean Day? We thought so!

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Origin of "National Jelly Bean Day":

Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day.

This is referred to as a "National" day. However, we did not find any congressional records or presidential proclamations for this day. If a president had done so, it would have been President Ronald Reagan. He was well known for his love of jelly beans.

Could Bob Barr’s Run as Libertarian Doom McCain?

Once more the elitist still believe that a voter is a mind numb robot and they are going to cast a ballot for McCain if Bob Barr isn't in the race just like the other side will proclaim that Ralph Nader will lampoon Barack Obama's chance of getting elected.

As per this article if Ron Paul were not in the primary McCain by caveat would have earned that 35 million. I respect George Will as a man and columnist but in this column he is quite the buffoon.

The reason why Bob Barr could get enough votes to scare the elite is because the elite have been exactly what they believe themselves to be ELITIST !!!

People don't trust the two party system, at least the people that think for themselves don't, and therefore we will either vote for an individual which best represents our views but we won't hold our noses to vote for the lessor evil in any election.

1. Could Bob Barr’s Run as Libertarian Doom McCain?

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr is seen as the Libertarian Party’s most likely presidential candidate — and he could wind up torpedoing John McCain’s White House hopes.

“Given the recent fundraising prowess of a kindred spirit — Ron Paul's campaign for the Republican nomination siphoned up $35 million, mostly off the Internet — libertarians are feeling their oats,” political analyst George F. Will writes in Newsweek.

“Come November, Barr conceivably could be to John McCain what Ralph Nader was to Al Gore in 2000 — ruinous.”

Nader was a weak third-party candidate and won only 2,882,955 popular votes nationwide, but 97,488 of them were in Florida — where, because of Nader, George W. Bush won by 537 votes, Will notes.

Shane Cory, the Libertarian Party's executive director, “thinks his party is upwardly mobile,” Will writes.

“In 2004, its presidential candidate received just 397,265 votes, a mere .32 percent of the national popular vote…

“But in no state was the Libertarian vote larger than the winning candidate's margin of victory. This year, however, Cory thinks the party can far surpass its best national performance — 921,299 votes in 1980.”

Cory and Barr say the party almost certainly will be on the ballot in at least 48 states.

Republican consultant Craig Shirley recently wrote: “This Libertarian thing may be bigger than anyone is foreseeing right now.”

Barr left the GOP in 2006 over what he called bloated spending and civil liberties intrusions by the Bush administration.

A former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, Barr served eight years as a Republican congressman from Georgia before losing his seat in 2002 after a redistricting.

A Barr run for the White House would be handicapped by “John McCain's handiwork,” Will added.

“One wealthy libertarian would give $1 million if the McCain-Feingold law regulating political participation did not ban contributions of more than $28,500 to national parties.

But Will concludes: “If libertarian voters cost McCain the presidency, that will be condign punishment.”

The many faces of the Clinton's

It's no secret that I won't be voting democrat since they can't be trusted as far as you can throw them which is quite similar to many republicans, however NO one can tell a WHOPPER like the Clinton's.

http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/bill-and-hillary-clintons-top-5-lies-to-voters-on-the-campaign-trail/

http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2003/14.html

http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2003/15.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iOsGo_HWP-c&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc&feature=related

AMERICAN MONETARY INSTITUTE

http://www.monetary.org - ami@taconic.net

Presents a

Free Monetary Seminar

Springfield, Missouri

Saturday April 26^th

2 pm to 4 pm

The Library Station (Frisco Room)

2535 N. Kansas Expressway

By Stephen Zarlenga, Director

Why is Our Money System Broken Again?

The Seminar will Discuss:

*How America's Monetary Power has been usurped and privatized.

*How and why the money power must be restored to society where it where it can

promote the general welfare.

*How the money power became privatized, and is kept in place by false theory.

*How the American Monetary Act, a 3-step program, restores control to society.

*Why inflation need not be a problem.

*How the facts demonstrate that counter to prevailing prejudice, governmental control

of money has a far superior record to private control.

This is a hands on do-able reality based program,

not a theory, with many U.S. historical precedents.

The Money system acts like a fourth branch of government, generally affecting our daily lives more than the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches combined. Yet it has been privatized and is largely outside the control of our democratic system of checks and balances where it has unfairly concentrated wealth.

The American Monetary Institute is America’s leading think tank focusing on monetary history, theory and reform. Each September we hold a 3 day monetary reform conference at Roosevelt University in Chicago where cutting edge experts speak on these subjects. Each month the Institute offers this free introductory seminar in cities around the U.S.

This seminar is designed to give laymen (and experts) a better background on how our money system functions, why its not working for us now, how to fix it, and what benefits would follow in terms of infrastructure, health care and education; and how our society has the power to begin creating a better future world now

Call 224-805-2200 or email ami@taconic.net