A RESEARCH project to see if daily food supplements can help children with autism is to be carried out in the North-East.

From the results of a study involving County Durham junior schools, researchers already know that capsules containing a pure form of fish and evening primrose oil can boost learning.

Now - for the first time anywhere in the world - scientists want to see if the specially formulated Eye.q capsules can produce improvements.

Youngsters with autism - a little-understood developmental disorder which often results in sufferers living in a world of their own - should start receiving the capsules later this year.

The project is a collaboration between Dr Madelaine Portwood, a senior educational psychologist at Durham education authority, and Paul Shattock, who runs the aut-ism research unit at Sunderland University.

The theory behind the research is that modern diets are lacking in vital oils which help to stimulate learning and the capsules can help to replace missing nutrients.

Both researchers are convinced that the number of children with autism has risen dramatically in the past few decades.

Mr Shattock, who is secretary of the World Autism Organisation and has a grown-up son with autism, said there appeared to have been a "tenfold increase" in diagnosed cases.

Dr Portwood, who manages the pre-school education psychology service in Durham, said the number of children with communication and language difficulties, which were often pointers to autism, had increased in the past decade.

"Ten years ago we had one or two children like this," she said. "Now, about a third of children referred to us have communication and language disorders. Many go on to have a diagnosis of autism."

Mr Shattock, a retired pharmacist awarded the OBE in 1999 for his efforts in building up services for people with autism in the North-East, is convinced that worsening environmental pollution may be responsible for a rise in cases.

"If you asked me what was the major factor I would say pesticides, but we are talking about wider environmental pollution," he said.

"A hundred years ago we were eating decent food and had a cleaner environment. Now, there are lots of horrible chemicals in our food," said Mr Shattock, who is particularly interested in human chemistry.

Dr Portwood agrees that pollution is probably a contributory factor. "Because the number of cases has increas- ed so quickly it has to be an environmental cause rather than an organic change in the popu- lation," she said.

Last week, another group of UK researchers, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, found that tiny pieces of plastic and man-made fibres were causing contamination of the world's oceans and beaches.

The same researchers also carried out an analysis of the blood samples of 37 MEPs - including North-East MEP Stephen Hughes - which showed many had relatively high levels of man-made chemicals in their bodies.