Blue lights sweep the nation as battle against autism heats up today

Blue lights sweep the nation as battle against autism heats up today

Today is World Autism Awareness Day, and numerous cities are raising awareness by lighting up bridges and high-rise buildings with blue lights.

It’s World Autism Awareness Day, and cities around the United States are participating with their own demonstrations in order to raise awareness about the condition.

The University of Utah will light a bridge with blue light — the color of the autism awareness campaign — on Thursday, according to an Associated Press report. The George S. Eccles Legacy Bridge in Salt Lake City will be lit blue at nightfall and stay that way throughout the night, the second year in a row that the city has participated in this way. About one in 54 children in the state are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, according to the report.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, officials are lighting up high-rises along the Hudson River with blue lights as part of the World Autism Awareness Day “Light it Up Blue” campaign, according to a Jersey Journal report. A total of eight commercial office buildings along the waterfront in Newport will be lit up, just a few among the 10,000 structures worldwide that will participate, including the Empire State Building in Manhattan across the river.

More than 136 countries in all will participate in the event, including Canada; Brazil and Argentina in South America; China and Japan in Asia; and Hungary and Ukraine in Europe, just to name a few.

It is the 10th anniversary of Autism Speaks, which is the world’s leading science and advocacy organization that is focused on raising funding for research as well as awareness of the condition. They can be found at autismspeaks.org.

Autism refers to a condition where the brain develops in a certain way, impacting communications as well as behavioral and social skills. It affects one in 68 children, according to the report.

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