Vaccines, Mercury, and Autism � Is There a Link?
by Lewis Regenstein

In recent years, there has been an explosion of neurological disorders among children, the most serious of which is the crippling syndrome knows as autism.

The dramatic increase in the incidence of autism has accompanied the more than tripling of the childhood vaccination schedule, and many parents have described how their perfectly normal, alert, intelligent, healthy infants suddenly regressed into an autistic state after receiving vaccination shots.

Pediatricians and health officials have long ridiculed the claims of parents of thousands of autistic children, that vaccines appear to have played a role in their children�s regression. But these claims have been corroborated by the recent admission of medical experts at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who conceded, in a case before a secretive special court, that childhood vaccinations contributed to causing Hannah Poling, a child from Athens, Georgia to, in effect, become autistic (contract a brain disorder "with features of autism spectrum disorder").

What has been largely overlooked in this debate is the well known and extreme toxicity of mercury, a preservative used in most childhood vaccines and flu shots, known for hundreds of years to be toxic to nerve cells, and especially harmful to the minds of developing children.

The routine flu vaccination now being recommended for almost all Americans, including kids as young as six months and pregnant women, contains about 25 micrograms of mercury, perhaps the most toxic non-radioactive compound on earth. Thimerosal, a preservative, is about half mercury, and was largely though not completely removed from children's vaccines several years ago because of fears about its toxicity.

Federal health authorities routinely tell reporters, falsely, that mercury was eliminated from childhood vaccines manufactured after 2001, yet autism continued to increase. This misinformation has been widely reported and repeatedly cited by the medical industry as evidence that mercury is not linked to the ever-rising rate of autism.

However, some mercury is still present in the vaccines � except for the MMR shot (measles, mumps, rubella) � at reduced levels that no one can precisely quantify. Moreover, since the earlier vaccines were never recalled, they probably remained in use for years after 2001.

Defenders of vaccines also repeatedly claim that scientific studies have failed to establish a link between vaccines and autism. But dozens of studies showing a link and going back decades can be found on such websites as generationrescue.org, nationalautismassociation.org, and in David Kirby�s extensively documented, best-selling book, Evidence of Harm. Two new studies show that Japanese children developed autism in direct proportion to the numbers vaccinated; and vaccinated baby monkeys developed autism-like neurological abnormalities.

It is baffling that mercury is still allowed to be injected into the bodies of youngsters and women carrying fetuses. The federal Environmental Protection Agency and most state governments warn against eating many types of fish contaminated with tiny traces of this deadly metal, especially pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Indeed, mercury has been known for hundreds of years to be deadly � a compound that severely damages the brains of humans. The famous Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland was made insane by breathing vapors of mercury used in making hats, a common occurrence in the 19th century.

In the 1st century A.D., Roman prisoners received death sentences by being forced to work in cinnabar mines, thus exposing them to fatal levels of mercury. In Minamata Bay, Japan, over ten thousand people in the fishing village were poisoned (and some two thousand killed, plus numerous dogs and cats) by fish and shellfish contaminated with mercury waste dumped into the bay in the 1950's and �60's. In Iraq in 1971�72, up to 1,000 people were killed and as many as 60,000 gravely poisoned by imported U.S. grain treated with a mercury-based pesticide banned for use in America.

Yet today, we inject mercury into millions of infants and pregnant women while medical officials deny there is a risk of causing such neurological disorders as autism, and ADD/ADHD.

Interestingly, the current autism epidemic coincides with the dramatic increase of childhood vaccination shots, from ten in the 1980�s to some 36 today, perhaps overburdening the immune systems of some children. In the 1970's, the autism rate among kids was one in 10,000. Today, it averages one in 150, and one in 94 for boys.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), FDA, and many pediatricians and scientists who defend vaccines are not disinterested parties, because, for decades, they have been responsible for permitting, promoting and administering the vaccines containing thimerosal. The prestigious Institute of Medicine, a leading defender of vaccines, has even opposed conducting research into their dangers, concluding that efforts to find a link between vaccines and autism "must be balanced against the broader benefit of the current vaccine program for all children."

Of course, if a link were conclusively established, the medical community fears it would find itself accused of being responsible (and perhaps financially liable) for poisoning and crippling the minds of tens of thousands of children.

Now, the medical community�s unrelenting defense of vaccines seems to be crumbling. Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health and later the American Red Cross, writes of the Hannah Poling case, "� the decision was a vindication for families who have been battling with the vaccine community, arguing that some poorly understood reaction to components of vaccines or their mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, could cause brain injury."

Even CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, who has led the campaign to defend vaccines, reassure the public, and belittle parents� concerns, recently admitted during a CNN interview that vaccines can trigger autism in a certain vulnerable subset of children.

Vaccines have done much good in preventing many dread diseases, and most children suffer no apparent ill effects from them. But we cannot ignore the possibility that vaccines, particularly the mercury component, may be a factor in the current epidemic among children of neurological disorders, perhaps exacerbated by a genetic or other underlying disposition in some youngsters.

So what is to be done? To begin, federal health officials should conduct the long-called-for comprehensive studies comparing vaccinated children with unvaccinated ones, such as in the Amish community, where the incidence of autism is said to be almost non-existent.

At the very least, why not remove mercury and other toxic substances like aluminum, anti-freeze, and formaldehyde as preservatives from vaccinations; space out the schedule of shots, instead of giving so many at once; and delay giving some of the riskiest of them until infants are somewhat older?

These would be good first steps in maintaining public confidence in vaccines, and so much less trouble than providing lifetime care for children with autism.


May 22, 2008

Lewis Regenstein is an Atlanta environmental writer and author of America the Poisoned: How Deadly Chemicals Are Poisoning our Environment, our Wildlife � and Ourselves.

I know this, my brother is autistic. I did a research paper on it 4 years ago

So sorry to hear about your brother, I hope all is well with him.
If you've still got that research paper, you should post it, I'd imagine there are quite a few people who would be interested in seeing what you came up with.

Sure with pleasure...the grammar may not be that great, as I wrote it when I was a freshman.

Thimerosal Endangers the Public Sector Fall 2003 and Spring 2004

Imagine being living with a mentally handicapped person. The relative alters his or her life to take care of this person. Imagine living with a person who could have a random temper tantrum at any point, or throw things without reasonable cause. A mental handicap that produces such effects is autism. Autism is on the rise; which, remains a mystery. It has been suggested by the several, including Indiana Representative Dan Burton, that thimerosal, a mercury-containing chemical preservative, could be the cause of the rise in autistic cases among infants. Eli Lilly (Pharmaceutical Company), former Representative **** Armey, and others, suggest that there is no correlation between autism and thimerosal.
I was watching television one day in November and saw the C-Span information guideline. It said the word autism. Because I have a brother with autism, I was immediately engrossed. This segment showed a drug company representative and a politician in a debate pertaining to the link between mercury and autism. No evidence was conclusive during that time. After that November, I followed this story for two years.
In 1982, the FDA concluded thimerosal was unsafe; the government has tried to cover up a link between thimerosal and autism ever since. The government has protected the pharmaceutical companies better than it has its own people. The usage of vaccines with this chemical preservative should be outlawed, despite the lack on conclusive evidence. In addition, action should be taken against those responsible for endangering the public sector with thimerosal.
Karin B. Nelson and Margaret L. Bauman, authors of the article “Thimerosal and Autism?” state, “…thimerosal is sodium ethyl mercury thiosalicylate, an organic compound of ethyl mercury, included in certain vaccines to protect multiple dose ampules from bacterial and fungal contamination (Nelson 674).” A mercury-containing chemical preservative used to increase the shelf life of certain common vaccines. The Center for Disease Control concluded, by weight, thimerosal is approximately 50% ethyl mercury (CDC). Mercury has been proven to be neurotoxic.
According to the Web MD provided by AOL, “Autism is a type of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD). It interferes with a person's ability to communicate with and relate to others. Autism is a lifelong condition that results in some degree of social isolation (Web MD with AOL Health).” This disorder alters and handicaps a person’s nervous system. A child is diagnosed with autism when he or she is one to two years old. During this time, the child is going or is finishing his or her booster shots; these shots contain thimerosal. Without question mercury would be more toxic to a premature brain, than to a mature brain. Therefore it is plausible that thimerosal (containing Hg) can be neurotoxic to the brain and can cause neurological disability, one such neurological disability being autism (Nelson 674).
According to R.G. Taylor II, website creator of Thimerosal Litigation, statistical trends show correlation between the number of vaccines with thimerosal on a child’s immunization schedule and the number of cases of autism within the last 10 years. These trends suggest that the increase of thimerosal-containing vaccines exposed to an infant increased the percentage of mercury within an infant’s body over a short period of time. An increased percentage leads to a greater risk of a toxic amount of mercury within an infant’s body, yielding more children with autism in the recent years. Taylor stated in 1970, one in every 2000 children was diagnosed with autism. As of 2000, one in every 250 children was diagnosed with autism. This is a substantial increase in autistic cases amongst the masses (Taylor).

Taylor claims a panel of FDA experts in 1982 concluded thimerosal was unsafe. It was recommended by the FDA that thimerosal be taken out of all vaccines at that time, but these regulations were not finalized until 1998. Thimerosal was known to be unsafe, yet for 16 years after such conclusions, it was used as a preservative within several vaccines. In July 1999, the FDA asked every pharmaceutical company to remove thimerosal from vaccines because the immunization schedule for an infant had increased over the years. The amount of mercury within an infant’s body was thus increased. After the government stopped production of mercury-containing vaccines for infants, the FDA discovered the American vaccine schedule for an infant exposed him or her to 30 times the recommended amount of Mercury within infancy (Taylor).
As of May 2003 the government concluded a three-year study by the Committee on Government Reform. It said, “There’s no question that mercury does not belong in vaccines.” This is the first time that U.S. officials openly admitted neurotoxin thimerosal is a risk to public health (Taylor).
The opposition would have one believe there are case studies upon linking thimerosal to autism. They would bring up the case study done in the Denmark. From 1971 until 1991, thimerosal had been used in several commercial vaccines (in amounts similar to that of the U.S.), and there was no rising incidence in autistic children. From 1991 and on, Denmark quit the production and usage of thimerosal. The number of autistic cases did not decrease, but actually, increased. Peter H. Andersen and others state, “Our ecological data does not support a correlation between thimerosal-containing vaccines and the incidence of autism, (Andersen, 604).” However, the alarming fact is that the sampling of the children was from age’s two to ten. This did not test the infant population. The opposition claims this is conclusive evidence, but the study was misleading due to the sampling ages.

The opposition claims the U.S. has done recent studies upon the subject and found results not linking thimerosal and autism. According to Paul Simao, writer of the article, “Study finds no Link between Vaccines, Autism,” a recent study by U.S. researchers concludes that there is no link between thimerosal and autism. CDC researcher, Dr. Frank DeStefano, said, "The final results of the study show no statistical association between thimerosal vaccines and harmful health outcomes in children, in particular autism and attention-deficit disorder," (Simao).
The critics of this study realize that the leader of the study, Dr. Thomas Verstraeten, left the CDC two years ago to join GlaxoSmithKline Plc., a pharmaceutical company (Simao). According to R.G. Taylor II, on July 25th, 2001, Dr. Verstraeten admitted that the results of the study were flawed. Dr. Verstraeten stated, "One thing is for sure, there is certainly under-ascertainment of all these [conditions] because some of the children are just not old enough to be diagnosed.” Taylor further proved his point by publishing that the CDC said that they had, “...found a statistically significant link between mercury in vaccines and developmental disorders, including attention deficit disorder and speech and language delays (Taylor).”
There are alarming circumstantial pieces of evidence. As of November of 2002, the Homeland Security Act was on the political agenda. This legislation provided for a homeland security task force. Within this bill was pork barrel legislation, exempting Drug Company giant, Eli Lilly, of all lawsuits of or relating to thimerosal. This pork barrel legislation was quickly and slyly inserted by the House Majority Leader at the time, **** Armey (Rep-Texas). According to a CBS news report on December 12th, 2002, Jim Acosta reported, Armey stated, "I did it and I'm proud of it...It's a matter of national security...We need their vaccines if the country is attacked with germ weapons (Acosta, 1).” Germ weaponry is no excuse for such pork barrel legislation.
The current White House Administration has several ties to Eli Lilly: Bush Sr. was on the board of trustees for Eli Lilly in the 1970's, the budget director of the white house (Mitch Daniels) was an executive and current Eli Lilly CEO, Sidney Taurel, serves on the Homeland Security Council (Acosta 1).

Bill Frist, the current Senate majority leader tried to pass a bill pertaining to thimerosal. This bill would not only exempt Eli Lilly from current and future lawsuits regarding thimerosal, it would exempt every other vaccine producer of lawsuits regarding any vaccine created. Frist has ties to Eli Lilly: 226,250 dollars was contributed to the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee that Frist headed. Frist wrote a book after September 11th, 2001 on bioterrorism and had 5000 copies sent to Eli Lilly and distributed by this pharmaceutical corporation (Taylor).
My brother has autism. He was diagnosed with autism when he was two years old, after his booster shots. My brother cannot experience a life of his choice. This has hurt many families like mine. My brother can throw a temper tantrum at any point. He can’t help it; he doesn’t understand. My brother is named Adam; he is eighteen. I love him and wish I could help him.
This research suggests that the pharmaceutical companies caused him to be autistic. Did the government protect pharmaceutical companies like Elli Lilly at the expense of its own people?
Something needs to be done to rectify past effects. Production of thimerosal in the U.S. of thimerosal has decreased dramatically, especially its use among infants. Will the government do anything for those kids who were affected before the thimerosal production was stopped? We, the people need to take action against the government and pharmaceutical companies. Shouldn’t the guilty be forced to pay retribution to all those who were hurt?



Works Cited

Acosta, Jim “Man Behind the Vaccine Mystery.” CBS Evening News 12 Dec. 2002.
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/12/eveningnews/main532886.shtml>

Andersen, Peter H., Marlene B. Lauritsen, Kreesten M. Madsen, Preben B. Mortensen, Carsten B. Pedersen, Anne-Marie Plesner, and Poul Thorsen. “Thimerosal and the Occurrence of Autism: Negative Ecological Evidence From Danish Population-Based Data.” Pediatrics, 112.3 Sept. 2003:604-606 <http://www. ebsco.com.>

CDC. “Thimerosal and Vaccines.” CDC, May 2003.
< http://www.cdc.gov/nip/vacsafe/concerns/thimerosal/faqs thimerosal.htm#4>

Nelson, Karin and Margaret L. Bauman. “Thimerosal and Autism?” Pediatrics, 111.3 Mar. 2003: 674-680 <http://www.ebsco.com.>

Simao, Paul. “Study finds No Links Between Thimerosal, Autism.” Yahoo 3 Nov. 2003 <http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=571&ncid=751&e=1&u=/nm/20031103/hl_nm/health_vaccines_dc>

Taylor II, R.G. “Thimerosal in the news.” Thimerosal Litigation 6 May 2003 & 25 July
2001. < http://www.thimerosal litigation.com/html/links.html#may>

Taylor II, R.G. “High Number of Lawsuits Anticipated.” Thimerosal Litigation May
2003 <http://www.thimerosal autism symptoms.com/html/report_5_03.htm>

Taylor II, R.G. “Thimerosal Litigation.” Thimerosal Litigation
<http://www.thimerosal litigation.com/>
Web MD with AOL Health, “Autism.” AOL, 23 Aug. 2002
<http://aolsvc.health.webmd.aol.com/content/healthwise/40/10056.htm?SRC=aolKW=autism>

Wow, thats good stuff, Maverick.