Mount Sinai to launch The Autism and Learning Disabilities Discovery and Prevention Project

A Piece Of The Puzzle

Mount Sinai to launch The Autism and Learning Disabilities Discovery and Prevention Project . Emerging science strongly suggests our multiple exposures to toxic chemicals contribute to the onset of disease and chronic conditions. The rates of cancer, autism, asthma, Alzheimer's disease, birth defects, developmental disabilities, Parkinson's, and obesity are rising. Why? There is mounting scientific evidence that our genes or familial risk address only a piece of the puzzle. Under the leadership of Dr. Philip Landrigan, researchers at Mount Sinai will be developing a "bio-bank" of babies core blood and have a unique opportunity to analyze 200 chemicals of concern.

This project has been put in place to address the trends in the environment and public health and hopefully to answer a piece of the puzzle as to why we are seeing increase in diseases and chronic illness. The project is a perfect complement to the National Children’s Study already underway across the U.S. That study—with a consortium of partners that includes the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—was launched in January 2010 and has set out to enroll 100,000 pregnant women in 105 counties and track the babies’ development until age 21. They’re collecting hair, blood and urine samples from pregnant women, testing household dust, water and carpeting and analyzing the samples for chemicals, for genetic makeup and for infections.

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