### Presentation to the EPA at Arlington City Hall on August 16, 2012 10 miles downwind of Midlothian cement plants As a home owner living in south Grand Prairie, my family lives about 10 miles downwind from the cement plants in Midlothian

. Although we have lived there for the past 8 years, I was mostly oblivious to the pollution from .ee!'fleAt plants, aside from the seasonal allerg ies that had manifested themselves since moving from Dallas, wRere I haellhtQd**il~e!t** n•f enti,:Q life

. However, after the birth of our second child in late 2008, our beautiful son Ziggy, something much more ominous occurred that has changed our lives and our views of industry as well as government regulation (or lack thereof)**~.** Now as I drive up Lake Ridge Parkway across Joe Pool Lake and see the enormous amount of smoke in plain view billowing out of the cement plants in Midlothian, I am at once startled, saddened, angered, and dismayed. 

### regressive autism at age 15-18 months Our son Ziggy was a happy, smiling, joyous, normally developing boy until the age of about 15- 18 months when he began to regress i nto autism. It is inelescrieebiyhard to watch your baby withdraw from you - from life -to watch his smile fade into a mute, expressionless look

. He would no longer make eye contact with us and no longer respond to his name**r~f** how loud or 

### hOw 

## mar•v times it was**..r.ep.ea.t~ .**  And bis..werds'"=-he lost his words and could no longer speak

. 

### affect of autism on family- emotional and financial Of course, this has taken a huge emotional toll on our family. My life has since been devoted to researching possible causes and cures for autism and learning all that I could about the di sease aRd-how it affeets ,Ot eRiy tl=le eraiR, etJt else tRQ bgdy Cai:ISiRg pnysieal paiR to tile cllild that eartiiOt be e.x"J)ressea, besa1:1se he is A6 leRge F- abiQ 

### tg**c;;gmm~:~nicate.** The pain is not only emotional, but also financial.**ManymRU~~es-Wt1~!t:tt~IG.CMIU€~~** _ba nkr1:1pt ill tr yi11g to do-everything-tfley caR, as any caring parent would , to 

### help their 

### GAild to bring them 

### baek
. The bills add up for not only traditional therapies such a speech , occupational, feeding, and ABA, but also for biomedical therapies which help to heal body and brain. 

### financial impact on society And the financial impact on the family extends to society through health care costs in the thousands per month and as well burdening our public school system. But it is worth the cost today for our children, so that these kids might grow up to be useful members of society and not be a burden for the entire lives

. This is not an option that these children have chosen. 

### genetic component plus environmental factors Through my research I have come to learn that, although there is no known cause or cure for autism, it is generally agreed upon that there is a genetic and an envi ronmental component
. Thedramatic ri se in autism cannot simply be attributed to genetics. The**e-~n-irt-eases** cet:t*i-not happ_en tbroug xplome8-away-6y-tmproved-diagi'Wstk:-methods,otherwise, there would be t-housands**upen-toot:tsollds-ot..undiagoosed'"3utts~t:rltslnl>Orsociety.** Studies have shown that-this..is.not..tl:le..case. The curr.ent ratios..of autistic-ehildrenfr:om-the <;:enters for Disease Control**in-2012-ar.e l~n**  88.chlldren-and-t -; n-s4 boys:-Boys-f-ar**mor~k-ely-te-eeeome-awt~stic.-as-is.the** case in our family, whereby our daughter is not autistic, but-our son-is g"'eatly affect-ed. affects of mercury poisoning mirror autistic symptoms All

.of_this brings us to the topic of mercury emissions

. For centuries mercury has been well known as a dangerous neurological toxin

. There is little debate about the devastating affects of mercury poisoning

. It is also well documented that many of the symptoms caused by mercury poisoning mimic the symptoms seen in autistic children iRcludirrgOUtward-physieal-sYfl"'f)toms..sucA-as..sociakvffhdtaWal , speech and.Jaoguage

...**eficits,.sensofY-al:mermaUt~es ,.r** **~t+tive-meter behav~e** **s** as**weU-as-rognit~ve** impairments. Biological symptoms leading-to outward**physrcatmanif~stat-iens-afso--run n**  paraffel. studies In Texas and SF about autism related to proximity to electrical plants and industrial manufacturing facilities There were two separate studies done in Texas in 2004 and in San Francisco in 2006 using the EPA Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) database to compare the rates in autism to relevant pollutants, and namely, mercury. In both cases it was concluded that the risk of a child becoming autistic is moderately increased when living in an area with higher ambient pollution. prevalance of autism in area per ECI case manager These studies corroborate what we learned from our Texas Early Childhood Intervention coordinator who told us that the prevalence of cases was much higher in our area. inability of autistic kids to excrete mercury Studies have also been done on autistic children versus normal ch i ldren measuring the excretion of mercury from their bodies. Whereas researchers at first expected mercury levels to be much higher in autistic kids, the results were exactly the opposite. The autistic children excreted little to no mercury. In retrospect, this makes perfect sense. The autistic kids have a mercury problem because their bodies are not good at removing**mercury....!hey-are-notet-e-geH:id.o f...** **it..qu.i€~1y** enough and levels of mercury begin to build up, accumulate in their brains and organs, and become toxic. difficulty in diagnosing chronic mercury poisoning One of the problems with proving and diagnosing mercury poisoning is that the tests are designed for acute or sudden exposure and not a slow chronic exposure . ChFeAi' exposure affeetiAg the brain

... aod-OFg<ms Qfl onlf really he seen**th~gj, eutop~** **.** Tests have been developed in analyzing hair samples and through detox challenge tests , but these are imperfect at best. The only real method todetermine a mercury problem is through a clinical tria l whereby you use a detox protoco l and close ly monitor the results. mercury detox 

## I clinical trial Our family chose to u se the ha ir test which indicated a mercury problem based on an analysis method developed by And rew Hall Cutler

. We also use hi s method to remove mercury from our so n 's body. Thi s method requires us to administer small doses of DMSA and alpha lipoic acid every three hours for three days on and four days 

### offi n weekly round s. Tilisirn:tudes waking up at night-a nd

.wakiog.
we are wi lli ng to continue becau se we , as well as our so n's th e rap ists, have seen very positive results. first step - remove source of exposure Of course the first s tep in any type of detox effort is to remove the source of the insult

. Th is is why I am here today

. Our family cannot do thi s alone. Our only choice is to stay and fight or to give up our cherished h o m e and move. Thi s is our last stand

. cost of profit I realize indu s try provides a function in society by creating jobs, elect ricity, and material goods, and that indu st ry needs to profit i n order to thrive. But what cost are we willin g to pay for profit?
we need your help in removing mercury from our air I'm not ju s t here to speak for a group of anonymous, faceless autistic ch i ld ren, 20% of whom may neve r be abl e to speak for themselves. I'm he re on behalf of my so n (hold up picture) and my family. Our son has withdrawn from us and though he may never fully recover, we are slowly, pain s takingly brin gi ng him back, but we need your help

. thank you Environmental mercury release , special education rates, and autism disorder: an ecological study of Texas Raymond F

. Palmera ,_, Steven Blanchardb , Zachary Steina , David Mandelic, Claudia Millera Autism Spectrum Disorders in Relation to Distribution of Hazardous Air Pollutants in the San Francisco Bay Area Gayle C

. Windham , 1 Lixia Zhanq ,2 Robert Gunier, 1 Lisa 

### A. Croen ,3 and Judith K

. Grether1 Changing the Course of Auti sm ; Bryan Je pso n, M

. D.