June 4th, 2008 - Green Our Vaccines Rally with Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey

Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey are getting pumped!!! Thousands of people have registered for the Green Our Vaccines Rally! Jenny & Jim are so excited that so many have decided to join them.

We need to keep the numbers rising! Let's have the largest event Washington, DC has ever seen!!

Some really great folks have made it even easier for those of you still trying to decide whether to come because of travel. Below you will see a list of buses and vans traveling from across the country to attend the rally. For a small cost, you can ride with them too!

Seats are going fast! So get on the bus, get registered, and join Jenny & Jim for the Green Our Vaccines Rally!

Register and Confirm for the Rally
For more information, visit tacanow.org

Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative (LDDI) Consensus Statement on Environmental Factors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
CONTACTS: Elise Miller, MEd - (360) 331-7904; emiller@iceh.org
Steve G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT – (206) 527-0926; sgilbert@innd.org
CONSENSUS STATEMENT: http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES INITIATIVE (LDDI)
PUBLISHES SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS STATEMENT ON ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

February 20, 2008, Seattle, WA. The Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative published today the Scientific Consensus Statement on Environmental Agents Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders (available at http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html). This statement, signed by more than 50 scientists and health professionals nationally and internationally, summarizes the latest science about environmental contaminants associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disabilities and developmental delays.

The statement, which has a glossary and over 200 references, was drafted and reviewed by a prestigious committee of scientists and health professionals based in North America. They concluded:

Given the established knowledge, protecting children from neurotoxic environmental exposures from the earliest stages of fetal development through adolescence is clearly an essential public health measure if we are to help reduce the growing numbers of those with learning and developmental disorders and create an environment in which children can reach and maintain their full potential.”

We know enough now to move on with taking steps to protect our children. This document pulls that knowledge together to further this vital effort," said reviewer Martha Herbert, PhD, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric neurologist with subspecialty certification in neurodevelopmental disabilities at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Other researchers on the review committee underscored the cost-savings, policy-related and ethical implications of this consensus statement. “We could cut the health costs of childhood disabilities and disease by billions of dollars every year by minimizing contaminants in the environment,” said Phil Landrigan, MD, MSc, of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “Investing in our children’s health is both cost-effective and the right thing to do.”

The overwhelming evidence shows that certain environmental exposures can contribute to life-long learning and developmental disorders,” noted Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, with the Science and Environmental Health Network. “We should eliminate children’s exposures to substances that we know can have these impacts by implementing stronger health-based policies requiring safer alternatives. Further, we must urgently examine other environmental contaminants of concern for which safety data are lacking. ”

The proportion of environmentally induced learning and developmental disabilities is a question of profound human, scientific and public policy significance,” said lead author Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, of the Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders, “and has implications for individuals, families, school systems, communities and the future of our society. The bottom line is it is our ethical responsibility to ensure all children have a healthy future.”

This document is designed for researchers, health professionals, health-affected groups, environmental health and justice organizations, policymakers and journalists to use as a resource for understanding and addressing concerns about links between environmental factors and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Elise Miller, M.Ed.
Executive Director
Institute for Children’s Environmental Health
1646 Dow Road, Freeland, WA 98249
Ph: 360-331-7904; Fax: 360-331-7908
New direct phone line: 360-331-7989
emiller@iceh.org
www.iceh.org; www.partnersforchildren.org; www.chenw.org

Our Italian Colleagues

The Rimland Center is delighted to have an ongoing collaboration with clinicians and families in Italy. Dr. Mumper has consulted on patients at Dr. Franco Verzella's clinic in Bologna on several occasions. She lectured in Rome for the first European Defeat Autism Now! conference in May 2007. In November, six Italian families came to the Rimland Center for three weeks to receive consultations, assessments and therapies. They were accompanied by Dr. Nicola Antonucci, who is establishing a practice in Bari, Italy to care for children with autism. Dr. Antonucci will be returning to the Rimland Center four more times in the coming year, bringing four Italian families with him each time. We thoroughly enjoy our time with our Italian colleagues whenever we are together.

See this Italian translation of an article Dr. Mumper has authored and the website of our colleagues in Italy

Hope For You To Heal

A friend of the practice, Hugo Hanson, has allowed us to make the song "Hope For You To Heal" available on our website. This song was inspired by the vision we share.

Download it here

Angela Moore Autism Collection

"Making everyday living an art." Angela Moore lives and breathes her tagline with style and color, building an international retail business in ten years from the ground up.

The daughter of an Italian father and a British mother, Angela learned much from her parents and credits their influence for her very unique life and career path.   Angela's father was a MIT fellow who invented and obtained patents on fabrics and a knitting machine. "I learned about business and the entrepreneurial spirit from him," says Angela. "He went out on his own, and I watched and learned."

Angela is the oldest of five children and the only girl. Her mother always taught her to do her best, and to not think of herself as any different from boys.   Her mother was very community involved which gave Angela the philanthropic spirit that embodies her company now. "She was a great role model," says Angela of her mother.

Her mother is also very Southern and combined with her father's European roots and their love of china and crystal, Angela developed an early appreciation for fine things and for proper etiquette. Their influence was complemented by other mentors that also showed Angela courage and self-reliance.

"I have a number of women friends who have also been role models for me over the years. They are strong and confident, including one who has fought and beat ovarian cancer. They helped me with my positive self image." Angela did not reveal, but this woman must have been the impetus for her Ovarian Cancer Research collection which includes Angela's signature bracelet and other pieces that feature "crisp" white beads adorned with the teal ribbon that symbolizes "new beginnings."

Angela Moore found Dr. Mumper and consulted with her about the design for the autism collection which has just been unveiled and can be purchased. With one in 150 children being diagnosed, autism is an epidemic and Angela Moore is once again trying to make a difference, this time with helping fund treatments for children.