[ RadSafe ] Uranium in the hair of autistic children URGENT

[Steven Dapra]

April 6

         More about testing hair for uranium.  I believe the mystery has 
been solved.  See the excerpt from an autobiographical sketch of Carin Smit 
at the end of this posting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7979022.stm

Punjab disability 'uranium link'
By Asit Jolly
BBC News, Chandigarh

Tests on children with cerebral palsy or mental disabilities in the Indian 
state of Punjab have revealed high levels of uranium.
A charity based in Faridkot city said chemical analyses of hair specimens 
collected from 149 children in its care showed "unexpected amounts" of toxins.
The children included in the study were all under 13, it said.
The result has baffled the authorities as there are no known sources of 
uranium in Punjab.
'Startling'
The chemical tests were conducted on the suggestion of Dr Carin Smit, a 
South African metal toxicologist associated with the UK-based 
non-governmental organisation Defeat Autism Now.
Samples of hair collected from the 149 children, then resident at the 
Faridkot-based charity, Baba Farid Centre for Special Children, were tested 
at Trace Mineral, a laboratory in Germany.
The results were startling, Prithpal Singh, head of Baba Farid, said.
"Around 80% of the samples, including those from children with cerebral 
palsy, revealed the presence of uranium in levels that the experts have 
described as pathological," Mr Singh said.
"We are informed that there is a fairly well established correlation 
between exposure to uranium and birth defects, renal damage and several 
forms of cancer.
"This could well be among the causes of the conditions afflicting our 
children."
The "unexpected" results have drawn Dr Smit and her colleague Vera Dirr 
back to Faridkot, where they have now collected urine samples from the 
children to get more specific evidence of uranium exposure.
No-one seems to have any idea as to the source of the uranium.
Some experts say the problem may be more widespread.
No-one apart from the children at the Faridkot centre has been examined for 
the presence of toxic metals.
Mr Singh said experts had clarified that the results did not imply any 
exposure to radioactivity.
Health officials in Punjab said they were unaware of the problem.
"This is not a health subject. We don't know how children are showing such 
high concentrations of uranium," Punjab health minister Lakshmi Kanta 
Chawla said.
"It is for the central government in Delhi to deal with the problem."


http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Uranium-deforms-kids-in-Faridkot/articleshow/4347313.cms

FARIDKOT: Big heads, bulging eyes, twisted hands that don't reach their 
mouths and bent legs that can barely support their frail frames. Intrigued 
by these abnormalities among children in a pocket of Faridkot, visiting 
South African toxicologist Dr Carin Smit had their hair samples sent to a 
German laboratory. The results, which have just come in, are shocking: the 
deformities were caused by alarmingly high levels of uranium.

''The test results have left us baffled as there's no apparent source of 
uranium in Punjab,'' said Prithpal Singh, head of Baba Farid Centre for 
Special Children in Faridkot. More tests are now being organized among the 
150 affected children with the help of a team of German and South African 
doctors to establish whether the traces found are from depleted uranium or 
natural sources.

Dr Smit, a clinical metal toxicologist from Johannesburg who is here to 
collect more samples of children's hair and urine, said, ''When I first saw 
such overwhelming evidence of severe brain damage, I thought it was 
poisoning. I never suspected uranium.''

It was Smit's liaison with a laboratory in Germany which specializes in 
toxicology that made the first tests possible. Now she, along with Vera 
Dirr, another specialist from Johannesburg, are here to collect urine 
samples. ''Of the 149 children tested, 53 are likely to show more traces of 
uranium. We are now focusing on them to get more specific evidence,'' Smit 
said. Since uranium severely harms the kidneys and liver, 53 kids are being 
tested for physical degeneration.


 From an autobiograhical sketch of Carin Smit, at 
<http://www.causecast.org/member/carin-smit>

Smit begins, "I am a Clinical Metal Toxicologist who mainly works with 
broken children in South Africa and around the world. I am passionate about 
seeing people detoxify and autistic children become whole.
"Recently (May 2008) I visited India on a mercy mission to train 3 Indian 
Neuro-therapists. A colleague from South Africa, Mrs. Vera Dirr, a teacher 
of CP [cerebral palsy] children accompanied me.
"What we encountered in India broke our hearts! We saw more than 70 
children in the Baba Farid Centre for Spectial [sic] Children broken and 
brain injured, whilst people lived and worked under the most squallid [sic] 
of living conditions.
"The worst of it all is that India, with its 1 billion 50 million people 
practices pulsed vaccinations. By law in India all these vaccines, even the 
single shots, contain a lethal lacing of Thimerasol, which is ethyl mercury."

(I believe she should have said methyl mercury.)

         And so it goes.  Uranium and mercury get the blame for 
everything.  I can remember the 1970s, when PCBs were blamed for every 
malady.  How the times have changed.  Or should we follow Alphonse Karr, 
who said, "The more things change the more they remain the same."

If you do a Google search for "Carin Smit" and "Vera Dirr" you will get 
about 20 links.  Some of them are repetitious, and some of them are blogs.

Steven Dapra


At 11:28 AM 4/6/09 +0000, parthasarathy k s wrote:
>Dear friends, Recently, the reported  presence of "high" levels of uranium 
>in the hair of children suffering from autism has attracted wide media 
>attention in India. In spite of all efforts, I could not get the actual 
>data so far. The person who suggested that autistic children in Faridkot, 
>Punjab are having high concentrations of uranium in their hair also stated 
>that the source of uranium is likely to be the either  pressurized heavy 
>water reactors at Rajasthan 150 km from Faridkot or the reactors in 
>Pakistan. I have serious doublts about the credibility of such persons If 
>any one in the list has any references to enhanced uranium levels in the 
>hair of autistic children, I shall be grateful to receive them Regards 
>K.S.Parthasarathy