Dec 26, 2007 3:13 pm US/Eastern
Teachers Studied For High Rate Of Autistic Births
Autism Cluster Found In Babies Of Teachers At A NJ School For Autistic Children
NORTHVALE, N.J. (AP) ―
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Teachers at St. Anthony's school in Northvale, which serves children with autism and other learning disabilities, are giving birth to an unusually high number of learning disabled children, especially children suffering from symptoms of autism.
AP
Teachers at a Bergen County school that serves autistic children are giving birth to an unusually high number of autistic children, a researcher said.
Dr. Lawrence Rosen, medical adviser at the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, said there appears to be an autism cluster at St. Anthony's school in Northvale, which serves children with autism and other learning disabilities.
He said he suspects it's because of an environmental problem and that the center, which started the inquiry, wants tests of air, water and soil at the school, The Record of Bergen County reported for Wednesday's newspapers.
However, preliminary findings from air quality tests done for the Northern Valley regional school district have not found anything unusual at the school, according to an assistant superintendent. No abnormalities were found during inspections by the state health department and by an engineering firm hired by theArchdiocese of Newark, which owns the property.
The initial study included interviews with 24 current or former school employees who had children either while they worked at the school or since then. Their 42 offspring included 24 with developmental disorders -- 10 with autism.
Superintendent Jan Furman pointed out that Rosen's conclusions were based on a small sampling of employees. Only 46 of the 515 employees at St. Antony's and other district facilities responded to a letter sent to them before the interviews were conducted.
Furman noted that Dr. Walter Zahorodny, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, has said the study's limited scope means it may be premature to declare an autism cluster at St. Anthony's.
Zahorodny heads the New Jersey Autism Study, part of a multistate study that found one in every 150 eight-year-olds in the country has some degree of autism. In New Jersey, the figure is one of every 94 children.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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