An Austin based company called PlastiPure will be introducing their line of Estrognic Activity Free plastics at the upcoming All Things Organic trade show taking place in Chicago. If you've been watching current events lately you know that a lot of unwelcome attention has been focused on the levels of toxins that go into today's plastics and the effects that they could potentially have on our health.

Viral Issues and Autism Part II will be presented via a FREE web conference on Wednesday May 7th at 6pm PST. Join Dr. Kurt Woeller DO as he discusses biomedical treatments for autism, developmental disorders, and chonic neurological disorders.

To preregister visit the Registration Link and sign up. It's that easy!

Once you register online, you'll be displayed a page requiring software to download enabling your ability to view the slideshow presentation.

The Florida Autism Bill, thought to be dead by many, was resurrected at the last minute, literally, and passed by the Florida House. However, the bill had to quickly undergo some changes, having some items subtracted in order to make the session deadline. Some members of the Florida Senate were taking bets on whether or not the House would would take the bill, or reject it. They were thankful that they chose to do the right thing.

In a study recently conducted by the University of North Carolina on Swedish families, researchers interpreted that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems likely doubles a child's risk of being autistic. Several families, consisting of over 1,200 children, all with some relation to autism and all born between 1977 and 2003 were part of the study. They were compared against families of nearly 31,000 children, none of which had autism.

Polk County school district, if losing an upcoming appeal, will be cutting a check to the tune of $720,000 for failing to provide adequate educational services to Drew Sammons, according to Judge William F. Quattlebaum. The judge has ordered the district to pay up to $144,000.00 a year for five years at a private school for Drew Sammons. In 2006 a judge previously ruled against the district for not meeting its obligation to provide a free and appropriate education to Drew Sammons during the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 school years.

A town hall meeting on Saturday May 3rd, in Sacramento, CA. has been opened to the general public. The meeting is sponsored by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee. They are looking for input from paretns on what priorities should be set for research into treatments for autism. This is the first meeting of its kind conducted by the committee. Sacramento was chosen because of its proximity to UC Davis long considered a "hotbed of environmental health sciences research" and a large group of researchers specifically exploring autism therapies

"Don't 'dis the ability" 2008 featured artwork from various artists affected by autism, such as Temple Grandin, Ping Lian Yeak, Stephen Wiltshire and others. The concept was created as a means of raising awareness and at the same time showing the sometimes incredible things that the autistic mind can create and accomplish. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of these artworks went toward autism research.

An informal presentation by a group of clinicians specializing in linguistics has uncovered things not known about the abilities to communicate for those that have autism. Robert Stainton, a professor at the University of Western Ontario believes that many of those with autism that have communcation issues have the largest problem with "pragmatics" or the use of metaphor, sarcasm, irony, etc. Most take a literal approach to language so often many may at times, become confused at our choices of words.