Soooo… I had a big argument with a friend a couple of weeks back… it started as a conversation and quickly devolved into stern looks and accusations from both sides that the other was out and out crazy.
I was challenged to go and look into the sources that immunisations are actually bad for our kids and that people shouldn’t be forced to have their children injected with ‘unknown’ chemicals just because someone else said it should happen.
The subject of an increase in autism came up, as it does, so I went away and I looked further into it, thinking I already had a good grounding in the science of it.
I think anyone who would believe autism is caused by vaccines need to consider a few things.
- More kids are being diagnosed with autism because the autism spectrum has been massively broadened… we now have an “autism spectrum” you can find children on it. Those with mild autism might never have previously been officially diagnosed with it, they weren’t part of the stat they now are. Disorders like Aspergers have been folded into the autism spectrum and are no longer a separate statistic.
- We are exposed to between 300,000 and 500,000 more chemicals than our grandparents were. They are active and present in our bodies and a very high number of them pass through the placenta and into our babies. We do not know the effects of many of these chemicals with regard to longterm effects or their impact on foetal development.
- BPA has an impact on featal development and the development of young children, but is still not a banned substance in Australia or the US, while industry has been forced to largely stop its use from public outcry it is likely still present in the plastic lining of canned foods and other plastics that interact with our foods.
- One of those 300,000 to 500,000 chemicals is atrazine, a herbicide used widely on food products we eat every day. The body processes it as an oestrogen in both males and females and has an impact on our sex organs and the health of our off-spring. It has even been shown to have generational impact, meaning if your grandmother was exposed to it, but your mother was not, it will still affect your development as it lives on in your mother regardless of her lack of exposure.
These are just a few of the many, many, many facts that show that we can’t know definitely what may be contributing to the development of Autism. We also have to consider that reporting is more common these days… in the past it wasn’t unheard of for a family to hide a ‘defective’ child from public life. They may have been placed in a sanatorium, effectively removing them from public view.
We are now more exposed to differently-abled people than we have before… and that’s a good thing… it also makes it seem that a condition that was just as prevalent in the past is more-so because we are more aware of it as it is around us rather than locked away from view.
I’d ask that the “vaccine === autism” folk take time to seriously consider their thinking. I’d hate to live in a world where children are dying from preventable diseases but I do. Partly because there are some we still don’t have effective vaccines for but mostly because people are making silly decisions without considering the facts and the extended danger at which they are putting their own children and other children.
Also if you’re on this bandwagon consider all the other chemicals to which you’re exposing yourself, your children and your yet to be born children. Many of our everyday products from cleaners, herbicides, makeup, hairsprays etc all contain chemicals that can enter our systems in multiple ways and many of them remain to be passed on to our offspring.