Sharp Increase in Autism Rate Among California Kindergartners: Could Increase be Linked to Fukushima Fallout?

To reiterate, the article is reporting that autism cases grew 17% in kindergartners in 2015.

I was searching for the new autism diagnostic rate and discovered that California has a significant increase in autism incidents among kindergartners:

Reese, Phillip. July 18 2016. Autism rates in California public schools jumped 7 percent in 2016. Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com/site-services/databases/article90300877.html#storylink=cpy

The increase was especially sharp among kindergartners, where autism cases grew by 17 percent last year [2015]. More than one of every 65 kindergartners in California public schools is classified as autistic

To reiterate, the article is reporting that autism cases grew 17% in kindergartners in 2015.

Wow! While some experts will attribute the increase to more screening, I wonder whether the increase is linked to Fukushima fallout.

Ernest J. Sternglass and Steven Bell argued in 1983 that radioactive iodine from nuclear fallout could impact cognitive development in the womb and early infancy:

Ernest J. Sternglass and Steven Bell. 1983. Fallout and SAT Scores: Evidence for Cognitive Damage during Early Infancy. The Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 64, No. 8 (Apr., 1983), pp. 539-545. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20386800 Accessed: 12-10-2016 17:25 UTC

[exceroted] This fallout acts on the thyroid of the developing fetus in the mother’s womb and during infancy, when the thyroid is known to control the development of cognitive functions. In this article we will present the most recent evidence sup porting this hypothesis, as contained in newly available state-by-state data on SAT scores and data collected by the U.S. Public Health Service on radioactive fission products in pasteurized milk (p. 539)

In 1962, Harold Knapp described how radioiodine from a single deposition in pasture-land bioaccumulates and biomagnifies, producing substantial and injurious radiation doses for children consuming milk.[i]

Declassified NRC transcripts of conference calls that occurred on 17 March 2011 concerning Fukushima fallout reveal that the agency had projections of a 40 millisievert (annualized) dose to the thyroid from radioactive iodine for a one-year old child in California:

‘The DITTRA result was four rem [40,000 microsieverts or 40 millisieverts] to the thyroid of a one year-old child based on one year integration of uptake.’[ii]

Parents in North America were not warned about the dangers of radioactive iodine in dairy products.

California children born in 2010 would have been exposed to Fukushima fallout of radioiodine (I-29, I-131, I-133) and other radionuclides in early infancy. According to Wikipedia there are 37 known isotopes of iodine and all are radioactive except for 127 (Isotopoes of Iodine Wikipedia).

Radioiodine wasn’t the only radioactive element that came down in Fukushima’s black rain. Strontium, in particular, can be accumulated in the brain as a substitute for calcium.

Hence, it is possible that the uptick in autism diagnoses could be explained in part by Fukushima fallout.

Fukushima impacts could be investigated in two ways:
1. Thyroid screening of California children diagnosed with autism or PDD
2. Baby teeth screening for radiostrontium, which bioaccumulates in teeth and bones

Of course, thyroid anomalies cannot be proven to have been caused by Fukushima (see Japan as the case example on this matter).

But higher rates of thyroid anomalies when correlated with evidence of radiostrontium in baby teeth would provide enough circumstantial evidence to force public attention to potentially catastrophic health (and environmental) effects from our increasingly radioactive and toxic environment.

It is imperative that potential Fukushima fallout effects be investigated by impartial actors who will conduct impartial science (to the extent possible) to investigate health and reproductive effects across generations.

I am not convinced that this happening in Japan (via the Fukushima Health Management Survey) and it is most definitely not happening in the US despite evidence collected by the US Geological Survey of Fukushima fallout throughout the western US.

[i] S. Kirsch (2004) ‘Harold Knapp and the Geography of Normal Controversy: Radioiodine in the Historical Environment’, Osiris, 19, 167-181.
[ii] U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission (17 March 2011) ‘Official Transcript of Proceedings of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi ET Audio File’, http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1205/ML12052A109.pdf, p. 187, date accessed November 5, 2012.

http://majiasblog.blogspot.fr/2016/10/sharp-increase-in-autism-rate-among.html