Two days before Alanna's 3rd birthday, she was diagnosed with autism. Alanna is a beautiful, affectionate child. We weren't quite sure what autism was going to mean for us, but we were actually relieved to have an answer. Although we now had a name for the reason our daughter wouldn't speak, why she would line up objects obsessively and spin in circles making herself dizzy, we found there is little help.

Shortly after Alanna's diagnosis, our son Austin, 19 months old, began to exhibit some of the typical behaviors of autism. He flapped his hands, stared into space ignoring our calls, and, again, had no speech. The second time around, we had learned a little more about where to go and what to do, but by now we were of course asking, "Why?" No one on either side of the family has ever had autism. There was no genetic cause; no explanation could be given to us, even by the professionals, except that they had to assume it was a gene that has yet to be found.

At first we thought it was something in our own home. The family before us had a child with mental retardation. The neighbor across the street had a child with mental retardation. Then we began to meet more parents of children with autism. I attended a support group and noticed that most of us were from the same town. Our school district claimed that the parents moved here for the school's program (which is another story in itself). Well, we didn't, and many that we asked hadn't.

So we set out to find out how many of these children were born in this town. We made a simple one page survey and handed it out to as many people as we knew, and asked them to do the same. Twenty-four completed surveys were returned, showing that 19 of the children's mothers were pregnant while living in Brick Township, New Jersey. This was no coincidence.

Brick Township has a history of pollution, including its landfill which was at one time listed on the Superfund National Priority List. A company pleaded guilty to dumping into our river for over six years. The company has been there for over 20 years, and the drainage pipe built under their building ran into the same river that supplies our drinking water. We spoke with the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) and they met with the families in July 1997. They explained the difficulty of proving a cluster, and in finding a cause because of the lack of research on autism, especially in the area of the environment. But they confirmed that our numbers deserved further investigation. We involved our local congressman Chris Smith and he helped to move this project to the forefront by working with the federal agencies.

At this point, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is evaluating each of the children to ensure he/she falls within the spectrum of autism. So far they have identified forty children between three and ten years old. Once the evaluations are completed, we will have a more accurate head count. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is also involved in finding the environmental pathways to link each of the families. There is not enough research in this area of autism, and we are truly at the beginning stages of trying to figure out why Brick Township may have a higher rate of autism than other towns. We do not feel Brick will be alone, but unfortunately just one of many.

Currently on the House floor is bill HR274, sponsored by Congressman Chris Smith, to fund Centers for Excellence for Autism throughout the nation, in an attempt to increase research, prevalence studies and to be a clearinghouse of information for professionals and parents. This is just a small step towards where research should be. Autism is more prevalent than many other disorders, yet receives only a fraction of the funding that other disorders receive.

— Written by Bobbie Gallagher

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