Keynote Speaker Dr. Andy Wakefield Reveals Startling New Data From His Advanced Research On Autism

PR Log (Press Release) – Nov 16, 2009 – SAN MATEO, CALIF., — Four Northern California nonprofits are co-hosting a symposium entitled “Making Healthy Babies, Raising Healthy Children: Living Well in a Toxic World” at the UC Berkeley Art Museum in Berkeley, California on Saturday, November 21, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This day-long event, developed for parents, doctors, nurses, midwives and educators, presents the latest research on pre-birth and birth through the newly-developing lens of environmental risk; followed by a special focus on autism spectrum disorders— now the most common chronic disease of childhood.

Keynote speaker Dr. Andy Wakefield, Executive Director of Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas, will present data from the recent primate studies related to autism and vaccines which supports the emerging view of the illness as environmentally induced. “We undertook these experiments largely because we were unable to find any safety studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated animals,” said Dr. Wakefield, a co-investigator of the project. “This study is part of a larger research program looking at the safety of the vaccine schedule from birth to age four years. What is particularly concerning is that in spite of the recommendation to remove thimerosal from vaccines a decade ago, millions of people, many of them children and pregnant mothers, are about to get mercury in their flu shots.”

Clips will be shown from FINDING THE WORDS, a recent documentary by Elizabeth Horn, president of Horn Productions in San Mateo, California, that underscore the findings of Dr. Wakefield’s work. In the film, parents of children once considered hopeless describe the amazing journeys they have taken to bring their sons and daughters back through autism recovery — fighting the prevailing view of autism as a disorder rather than incurable and untreatable.

One of the doctors leading the struggle to help children with autism, Dr. Kenneth Bock, an integrative family practitioner and Co-Director of the Rhinebeck Health Center in New York, will be introducing a remarkable new software system, ChARM Physician, for managing autism treatment within the context of a medical practice. “Clinicians have been waiting a long time for a way to track treatment effectiveness more systematically in multi-factorial illnesses like autism,” said Dr. Bock. “I am thrilled to introduce this new product that brings cutting-edge Silicon Valley software technology into the fight to help children with autism.”
ChARM founder Pramila Srinivasan, PhD, from Palo Alto-based MedicalMine, agrees: “We are delighted to have Dr. Bock as part of the ChARM team. His decades of experience treating children with autism, and his understanding of the intricacies of running a clinical practice, will be invaluable in helping shape the direction of our new ChARM Physician product.”

Additional speakers at this event will include Sharyle Patton, Director, Commonweal Health and Environment Program, in Bolinas, California, who will describe the findings of their recent biomonitoring projects evaluating chemical exposures people experience every day; Dr. Joann Perron, OB/GYN, who will discuss personal and patients’ experience with environmentally induced disease; Robbie Davis-Floyd, PhD., who will provide a brief history of birth procedures in the United States; Elizabeth Davis, a Certified Professional Midwife, who will describe an integrated view of birth; and pediatrician Dr. Marshall Klaus and Phyllis Klaus C.S.W., M.F.C.C., who will discuss the care and support women and babies need during birth. Carolyn Raffensberger, M.A., J.D., Executive Director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, will be master of ceremonies for the event.

For tickets please visit www.makinghealthybabies.eventbrite.com.

Parking and Restaurant Information
There are 10 parking lots or garages within 2 blocks of UC Berkeley Art Museum. There is street parking, but only for 2 hours per payment. Below is a map of the garages: www.parkinggarages.

Both parking garages below are located within 2 blocks from UC Berkeley Art Museum Theater, 2625 Durant Ave:

The Telegraph/Channing Garage (formerly the Sather Gate Garage) at 2450 Durant Ave
is located two blocks west of the UC Berkeley Art Museum Theater and one-half block
west of Telegraph Avenue, with entrances on both Durant Avenue and Channing Way.  
The old multi-meter system has been replaced by central cashiers and automated pay
machines at which you pay before exit.  New elevators, improved lighting and higher
levels of customer service are now available. $20 for full 6-hour day, open 7 am to 2 am.

University of California Student Union Garage: located on Bancroft just west of Telegraph on the edge of the campus and 2 blocks west from UC Berkeley Art Museum Theater. $18 for full 6-hour day, CASH ONLY  (you can walk straight up Bancroft and enter through the Museum Garden Gate, just west of the Museum regular entrance, to find the Theater entrance).