Before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing
Tuesday, April 19, 2005, 2:00-4:00 p.m. in Dirksen 430
An Oversight Hearing on the Administration's Mercury Pollution
Rule
Members of the Senate, my distinguished colleagues, thank you
for this opportunity to speak to you today about my concerns over
the links between mercury emissions and the rising incidence of
learning and other developmental disabilities. My name is Jane Browning;
I am the Executive Director of the Learning Disabilities Association
of America and have advocated for the rights and welfare of individuals
with disabilities for 33 years.
The Learning Disabilities Association of America is a national
non-profit association with approximately 20,000 members and some
200 affiliates in 41 states. 60% of our members are parents of children
with learning disabilities; 57% of our members identify themselves
as professionals in the field; and 25% of our members identify themselves
as adults who have learning disabilities.
Organized by volunteer parents in 1963, LDA established a Research
Committee in 1975, which promotes research and policies aimed at
identifying the nature and causes of learning disabilities and reducing
its incidence. LDA has avidly tracked the emerging science of children's
environmental health: we know now that 2/3 of learning and other
developmental disabilities are caused by genetic/environmental interactions
and that increasing amounts of chemical and other toxic exposures
increase the incidence of cognitive disabilities. In 2002, LDA launched
its Healthy Children Project which promotes grassroots prevention
activities aimed at reducing human exposure to environmental neurotoxicants:
regional Healthy Children Project sites are now operating through
LDA affiliates in 14 states. LDA is a founder of the national 900-member
Collaborative on Health and the Environment and its Learning and
Other Developmental Disabilities Initiative, and just staged a 400-participant
regional Health and the Environment Conference in Pittsburgh last
week with funding from the Heinz Endowments and featuring Teresa
Heinz Kerry as our keynoter.
The Learning Disabilities Association of America is gravely concerned
about reported increases in the number of children diagnosed with
learning and other developmental disabilities, especially notable
in the dramatic rise in the incidence of autism and Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. ADHD is not technically categorized
as a specific learning disability, such as Dyslexia, but is co-morbid
with learning disabilities 50% of the time and can deem a child
eligible for special education services. Knowing for over a century
that mercury is a potent toxicant directly affecting the nervous
system, and knowing the research history of that other deadly neurotoxicant,
lead, we are convinced that there exists a direct relationship between
human exposure to mercury pollution - especially for women of child-bearing
years - and the rising incidence of cognitive disabilities.
According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics
and the Centers for Disease Control, 630,000 of the four million
babies born each year in the United States are carrying body burdens
of mercury above the EPA's current health threshold. In a study
appearing just last month in the journal Health and Place,
University of Texas researchers reported on the correlation of mercury
emissions from local coal-burning utility plants and the incidence
of autism: on average, for every 1000 pounds of environmentally
released mercury, there was a 43% increase in the rate of special
education services and a 61% increase in the rate of autism.
Our concern was such that LDA in concert with The Arc and the
NEA Health Information Network, recently published a new brochure,
Mercury and Learning Disabilities: A Parent's Guide, warning
of the dangers of eating contaminated fish and encouraging state
and local policy action to reduce mercury emissions. I have a copy
of that brochure for each of you, along with a flier inviting you
to participate in Senator Lautenberg's briefing on these and other
environmental health issues the morning of May 10th.
What does it mean for a fetus to develop with a damaged brain?
Dr. Trasande will be talking to you about the social and economic
costs. As the representative of parents of children with learning
disabilities and the mother of a developmentally disabled son, I'll
tell you of the human and familial costs. Our children struggle
and fail; they learn early to doubt themselves and experience loss
and sadness and guilt; our children's frustration sometimes leads
them to anger and they strike out at others, or become the target
of bullies. Homework is not a night time activity, but a daily nightmare.
Finding the right school, the right teacher, the right intervention
system becomes a family crusade. Career paths of moms proceed in
fits and starts, depending upon the disabled child's current needs.
Dad's careers are hamstrung by the need to stay in or move to a
better school district (and yes, people relocate every day to obtain
a more fitting education, I and my family have done it ourselves).
And our children's careers?
You must understand that learning and other developmental disabilities
are lifelong; they do not go away. A number of highly intelligent
people with severe processing disorders have become highly successful
by working with and around their particular obstacles, people like
Governor Gaston Caperton and Charles Schwab. But many of our children
fail to get a high school diploma, especially in this era of high
stakes exit exams. Many of our children struggle to master daily
life activities: my son just turned 22 last week, and he still needs
help to shower and shave; he'll never be able to drive. He cannot
be left alone for extended periods of time, and we pay a neighborhood
high school buddy $100 a week to check in on him every afternoon.
It isn't just an individual who has a disability; every family with
such a child becomes in many ways a disabled family.
Conservatively estimating, 15% of American families now have that
status. Do we really want to increase that burden in our midst?
Not if we can help it, and we can.
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