LOOKING FOR THE CAUSES OF AUTISM

On November 16, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator and former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman announced a $5 million, five-year grant to fund a new Center for Childhood Neurotoxicology and Exposure Assessment.The Center will be located at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), jointly sponsored by UMDNJ and Rutgers.

Researchers at the Center will investigate how exposure to environmental toxins influences the neurological health and development of children. Funding is provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Autism and related disabilities will be the Center’s focus, according to George Lambert, MD, its director. Autism is a lifelong disability that affects normal development and results in difficulties with behavior, social interaction and communications skills. It’s usually diagnosed in the first three years of life. The condition is four to five times more prevalent in males than females, and may occur in as many as one in every 150 children.

According to Lambert, a pediatric toxicologist and associate professor of pediatrics at UMDNJ’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), 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 explore links between environmental chemicals that may alter brain function and regional brain growth, and explain possible new gene-environment interactions with autism. Scientists affiliated with this project will work with community groups representing children with learning disabilities and their families, with particular emphasis on autism.

The Exposure Assessment and Intervention Project, led by Paul Lioy, PhD, acting associate director of EOHSI and professor of environmental and community medicine at RWJMS, will characterize the personal, residential and general community of exposure of children selected by the Clinical Sciences Project. "We must focus specifically on the daily personal environment of these children to understand the potential for exposures," says Lioy. This group will also determine the need for interventions to reduce exposure to neurotoxins among learning disabled children and assess the impact of such interventions.