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Originally Posted by Brett's Honey
I'd like to ask a question - for any of you terrific parents who may respond - do you spend much time or energy dealing with the "why?!" part of your children's disabilities? I know you have to wonder at times, but do you spend much time researching the possible causes, etc.? I seem to have dealt much better than my kids' Dad has, with the guilt issues that every parent has when they lose a child. My ex is convinced our daughter developed childhood cancer because of his work in a local refinery. I stopped researching neuroblastoma a few years ago, although I did try to research it a lot for several years. Our situation is a bit different of course, because we no longer had her here to focus all of our energy on, but I would really like to know how you guys deal with this part of your kid's disabilitites. Thanks.......
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Well, first it depends on the disability. Some, like Tay-Sachs, are obviously genetic. Autism at one point was considered behavioral, the result of bad parenting. Now it is thought that it might be genetic or environmental, the result of exposure to mercury or some other chemical.
The science on issues like cancer is very difficult. For one thing, cancer can occur for no obvious reason. The only way to measure if proximity to a chemical plant is the cause is by looking for
cancer clusters. Sometimes this evidence is enough to assign blame to the company.
Autism now is treated more as a symptom than anything else. I have really not paid much attention to the research because of all of the conflicting information being presented. I don't really spend much time thinking about it because there was really nothing we could have done to prevent it. There were no blood tests for Autism genes when we were married. Even now, I can't be sure if it was the doctor's fault for not inducing labor when there were signs of distress, mercury timerisol in a vaccination, our living near an industrial area, or genetics.
I would like an answer someday, even if it is one I don't like. However, I might have to wait another 10 years for the research to present me with one, and in the meantime I intend to deal with the reality.
I hope everything worked out alright with your daughter. I couldn't tell with your statement. The fact is that it might not have been the job so much as the location where you lived. It's very hard to find out how many chemicals are released by plants, even when they actually file their reports and don't lie. Sometimes the industries which supply the jobs to support our familiies are the ones which pollute the environment around them. Not working for a company is not a solution, since entire regions can be affected. The only real solution is to make enough money to afford a house far away from an industrial location.
If I had a tool like
Enviromapper when I bought the house where my kids grew up, I would have at least had more data to make an informed choice.
This map is where we first lived. Green = hazardous, Blue = toxic release, Orange = Superfund, Red = Water Dischargers