Center to focus on causes of autism
Archived article from Nov 30, 2001
By Steve Manas
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have awarded the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) a $5 million, five-year grant to establish a new Center for Childhood Neurotoxicology and Exposure Assessment. The overarching work of researchers will be to determine the influence of environmental exposures to neurotoxicants on child neurological health and development.
The announcement was made Nov. 16 by EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman at EOHSI.
"I am pleased to have the chance to be here today because it indicates the importance of protecting and caring for our children all year long and well into the future," Whitman said. "This center - along with 11 others around the country - will continue to perform and apply research that can help shed light on the links between the environment and the health of our children."
Autism and related disabilities will be the center's focus, according to George Lambert, its director. Autism is a lifelong disability, usually diagnosed in the first three years of life, that affects normal development and results in difficulties with behavior, social interaction and communications skills. The condition knows no racial, ethnic or social boundaries, but is four to five times more prevalent in males than in females.
Autism occurs in an estimated one in 500 individuals; some preliminary studies suggest that it may occur as often as one in every 150.
"The mission of the center is to improve environmental and public health of children through research, assessment, treatment and outreach," Lambert, a pediatric toxicologist, said. "Our objectives are to understand, detect, prevent and solve environmental health problems as they relate to children.
"We hope to fulfill these by promoting and supporting interdisciplinary research, working with community advocacy groups, including The New Jersey Center for Outreach and Services for the Autism Community Inc., the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center and the Eden Institute, and distributing results to the public through publications, conferences and community outreach."
The center comprises three main project areas. The Basic Sciences Project will examine facets of brain development, beginning with nerve cell formation and growth, and proceeding to overall behavior of the organism. The Clinical Sciences Project will draw on interaction with community groups to explore links between environmental chemicals that may alter brain function and regional brain growth. The Exposure Assessment and Intervention Project, led by Paul Lioy, associate director of EOHSI, will characterize the personal, residential and general community of exposure of children.
EOHSI is a joint program of Rutgers and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey--Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
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