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News- Page 9
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Mercury : Toxic Tipping Point
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Posted by Sylvia on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 (10:40:46)
Mother Jones March/April Issue
By Andrea Rock
Are the CDC, the FDA, and other health agencies covering up evidence that a mercury preservative in children's vaccines caused an epidemic of autism?
In August of 2001, Rita Shreffler of Nixa, Missouri, sent her son's baby tooth to a lab. A year earlier, nine-year-old Andy had been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, and Shreffler had just read a report in the journal Medical Hypotheses suggesting that such neurological disorders might be the result of mercury poisoning associated with an additive in children's vaccines.
Wayne Middleton, of Middleton Microbiological & Environmental Testing Laboratory, was so astonished at Andy's results that he even used his own children's baby teeth as controls. Andy's tooth registered a mercury level of 3,040 parts per billion. By comparison, the Environmental Protection Agency's limit for mercury in drinking water is 2 ppb, and the limit for mercury content in waste going into a landfill is 200 ppb.
"Wayne asked me how on earth Andy could have been exposed to so much mercury," recalls Shreffler. "When I explained that a vaccine preservative called thimerosal had exposed babies to excessive levels of mercury, he said that couldn't be true because he used to work for a lab that made animal vaccines, and thimerosal had been discontinued in vaccines for cattle back in the early 1990s. He was sure it wouldn't be allowed in children's vaccines."
He was wrong.
The Battle Lines
Did the use of a mercury preservative in vaccines directly contribute to the autism epidemic plaguing the country? And did federal health officials—fearful of liability facing their agencies and vaccine manufacturers, and loss of compliance with the federal vaccine program—put such concerns above the health of millions of infants?
Are the recent studies discounting a link between thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs) and autism really rife with conflicts of interest and data manipulation? Or are the parents, researchers, and members of Congress who make such claims seeing conspiracies where none exist?
The stakes in this debate are high indeed. In 2002, an estimated 1 in 250 American children was diagnosed with autism, up from 1 in 500 in 2000, and 1 in 5,000 in the 1980s.
If vaccine manufacturers and government agencies are found liable for neurological damage to millions of infants, TCV litigation could rival that of tobacco or asbestos. Currently, some 3,500 families of autistic children are slated to go before a special federal vaccine court—a step that Congress has required before they engage in any civil litigation, but one that will probably be just the first in a long legal battle.
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Mercury : Jacksonville Parents File Claim in Vaccine Court
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Posted by Sylvia on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 (22:09:17)
First Coast News 03/03/2004
By Melissa Ross
JACKSONVILLE-- "The cover-up from all this just drives me crazy."
It's a massive cover-up, says Jacksonville mother Cindy Hartman. She's referring to the potentially damaging effects of a preservative once commonly used in childhood vaccinations. That preservative, thimerosal, is 49.6 percent mercury, one of the most toxic substances on the planet.
A substance she says left her five-year-old son Trent neurologically impaired, along with damage to his liver, intestines, and immune system.
"Until we started treatment, he was banging his head against the wall, melting down in the grocery store, hitting himself until he was covered with bruises," she says. "After he received his series of shots at one year of age, he completely stopped functioning."
Trent has made remarkable progress over the last 15 months, by switching to a wheat- and dairy-free diet, taking a wide variety of supplements, and undergoing "ABA," or Applied Behavior Analysis therapy, which is a form of behavior modification that focuses on language and social skills.
"A year ago, he didn't talk at all," his mother says. "Now, he's reading words, doing simple math, counting up to 24."
She pauses to demonstrate Trent's proficiency with flash cards. Trent, a happy, high-spirited child, is excited to practice.
"What's this word?" Hartman asks. "When!" shouts Trent. "Do! Up!"
"Now he's doing phenomenal," Hartman says proudly.
But Hartman, a registered nurse, is outraged she was never informed that the preservative thimerosal, present in most of Trent's routine vaccinations, may have had the potential to harm.
This, after the First Coast News I-Team confirmed in February, the Centers for Disease Control conducted an internal study in 2000 that found a thimerosal-autism connection - findings the CDC kept hidden from the public.
The agency went on to release a study in the November 2003 issue of "Pediatrics" clearing thimerosal of any link to neurological problems in children. The CDC has since been accused by Florida congressman and physician, David Weldon (R-Melbourne), of watering down the data in the earlier study to make the mercury-autism connection disappear.
Additionally, Hartman was diagnosed as RH-negative while pregnant with Trent. She was treated with RhoGAM, which stops the RH-negative mother from creating antibodies to the RH factor in her child's blood.
But the RhoGAM shot Hartman received also contained thimerosal, which Trent received in-utero.
So Hartman, along with 36 other North Florida families, is demanding justice from the government. Although, she says receiving compensation is not her ultimate goal.
"My biggest hope from all this is that babies will be safer," she says.
Her attorney, Alan Pickert of Brown, Terrell, Hogan, concurs. Pickert is filing petitions in The U.S. Court of Federal Claims on behalf of Hartman and his 36 other North Florida clients, all of whom have neurologically impaired children who may have suffered adverse reactions to the mercury in vaccines. Additionally, Pickert says the children were exposed to mercury from JEA's fossil fuel-burning facilities.
"The medical bills these families face are tremendous," he says. "You're talking about formerly healthy children, who start to regress, and who require a lifetime of special treatment and care. These parents, in some cases, have to quit their jobs to care for these kids. So in addition to the medical costs, you've got lost earnings to consider."
Hartman spends her entire salary from her nursing position at Jacksonville's St. Luke's Hospital on Trent's treatment, which also involves visits to a specialist in Wisconsin. The tab is approximately $3,000 a month.
"I'm lucky that my husband's salary pays the rest of the bills," she says. "Other families have it much rougher."
Families seeking to prove their children were injured by vaccines must petition the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Plan before taking their case to state or federal court. The maximum amount of damages the government doles out through Vaccine Court claims is capped at $250,000.
And Pickert says, the statute of limitations on such claims is short. A parent must file within three years of a child's onset of symptoms to be eligible for compensation.
"These parents, while they deserve compensation, are also united in one goal. They want to make sure thimerosal is taken out of vaccines. In other words, learn from my tragedy, before it harms someone else."
Due to the growing controversy in recent years, thimerosal has been removed from most vaccines. However, FDA data shows it is still present in many flu shots, and can be found in small concentrations in the meningococcal vaccine and some DT, Td, and TT shots.
The preservative was used to keep vaccines shipped in multi-dose vials fresh. Shots in individual vials do not need any preservative.
"My clients are not anti-vaccine," he says. "After all, we've all been vaccinated, but the shots you and I got 20 or 30 years ago didn't contain these amounts of thimerosal."
He points out the use of thimerosal began to increase during the late 1980s to make the shipment of vials more convenient - and presumably, more profitable.
On February 9th, leading researchers presented new information on the issue in Washington, D.C. at an Institute of Medicine panel looking into the potential hazards of thimerosal.
Dr. Richard Deth of Northeastern University, one of the featured speakers, had just published with several colleagues a study in the journal "Molecular Psychiatry" that found exposure to heavy metals like mercury can impair neurological development in genetically susceptible children.
"Our work provides a plausible biochemical link between the effects of heavy metals generally, but thimerosal particularly, and the mechanisms in the body and the brain that could account for a role for these metals and thimerosal in developmental disorders, autism being the most prominent," says Deth.
The research also finds an apparent link between exposure to heavy metals and neurotoxins, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The Centers for Disease Control is expected to respond to the findings presented at the IOM panel later this spring. A spokesman for the CDC tells First Coast News the agency plans to undertake an objective review of the data before doing so.
Meantime, Pickert plans to soldier on through the court system. A ruling from Vaccine Court for his clients is expected July 3rd of this year. Depending on the outcome, Pickert tells First Coast News he may go on to sue America's major vaccine manufacturers and local fossil-burning facilities in state court.
"The stress on these families' home life is unimaginable," he says. "We're going to pursue this fully."
"I totally believe in Western modern medicine," adds Cindy Hartman. "I am a nurse, after all. But you know, I see these expectant moms and new moms all the time at the hospital, and they're so concerned about getting the right crib, the right car seat for the baby. They won't even take a Tylenol while they're pregnant. But they take for granted the advice they get from the medical establishment on this issue. I'm saying parents need to ask more questions, do their research."
"Regardless of any money that might come my way, I just want babies to be safe."
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Mercury : Commission urged to take aim at mercury
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Posted by Sylvia on Monday, March 01, 2004 (22:14:16)
Edie.net 27/02/2004
The EU should take a global lead in ending use of the heavy metal mercury and cutting emissions, Sweden's environment ministry has urged in a letter to the European Commission's environment directorate. The move comes amidst intense negotiations as the Commission prepares to release an EU mercury strategy in September.
Europe should "lead by example" while also pushing for a global commitment to mercury emissions reduction, the director of the Swedish environment ministry's unit for eco-management strategies, Nina Cromnier, told Environment Daily.
An overriding goal of the future EU mercury strategy must be to "break the mercury cycle", the letter states. This can only be achieved through a "holistic" approach that addresses every phase of the heavy metal's life cycle.
Actions it proposes include an EU metallic mercury export ban and further restrictions on the marketing and use of mercury in products, leading to a total phase-out. In dealing with waste containing mercury, no recycling should be allowed, while separate sorting and treatment must be carried out, leading to controlled final disposal.
Sweden calls for further measures to reduce emissions from coal-burning power stations and urges the Commission to consider new regulations on emissions from crematoria. Controls on crematoria emissions are already in place in several EU countries and are being considered elsewhere.
Among industrial facilities covered by the EU's new emissions register Eper, large combustion plants and the metals industry emerge as the two largest sources, contributing 16 tonnes out of 30.4 tonnes per year of mercury releases recorded in Eper.
Emissions from Nordic countries are minimal, but transboundary dispersion makes mercury pollution a significant problem in the area. Sweden, where heavy metal pollution of forest and freshwater ecosystems is a high priority, has traditionally had a very restrictive policy towards mercury, and is gearing up to introduce a total ban in the coming months.
Environment ministers from all the Nordic countries recently urged global action to reduce emissions.
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Mercury : Possible link to autism and childhood vaccines
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Posted by Sylvia on Monday, March 01, 2004 (20:25:41)
Torrington Telegram
By Kim Noteboom
A federal panel of medical experts recently tried to determine whether a mercury-based preservative that was once common in childhood vaccines was behind autism rates rising in the United States.
Some toxicologists throughout the U.S. believe there is a potential link between the preservative, thimerosal, and the increase in autism and neurological disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
“There is a new study indicating that the type of mercury found in thimerosal, which is ethyl mercury, is just as toxic as the methyl mercury found in fish, and may possibly be twice as toxic,†said Rita Shreffler, National Autism Association board member and mother of two autistic children.
Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. The result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain, autism and its associated behaviors have been estimated to occur in as many as one in every 166 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Autism is four times more prevalent in boys than girls and knows no racial, ethnic, or social boundaries. Family income, lifestyle, and educational levels do not affect the chance of autism’s occurrence.
For Shreffler, the descent into autism came when, “My son’s behavior had reached an alarming state that involved irrational thoughts, unprovoked outbursts, obsessive-compulsive traits and just inexplicable, bizarre actions,†Shreffler said.
“When I read about the various manifestations of mercury poisoning, I realized these physical and emotional symptoms were consistent with exposure to mercury through vaccines. My daughter also had many of the same symptoms, but in addition she had also lost previously acquired speech.â€
A study from the CDC showed that the relative risk for autism was 2.48 times higher for children receiving 62.5 micrograms or more of mercury from thimerosal containing vaccines by three months of age.
According to Shreffler, a large percentage of people believe that the extraordinary increase in autism is due to the FDA-admitted mistake of using ethyl mercury thimerosal at hundreds of times more than safety levels starting in the early 1990s.
She continued to say, that many parents of autistic children were upset about a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which stated that thimerosal was out of all childhood vaccines, which according to the vaccine manufacturers isn’t true.
Thimerosal has been used to prevent the growth of bacteria or fungi in multi-dose units of vaccines for diseases such as hepatitis and diphtheria, whooping cough (pertussis) and tetanus.
“They’ve (vaccine suppliers) taken thimerosal out of most vaccines two or three years ago,†said Kathy Grace, Torrington Public Health nurse manager.â€We average about 600 childhood vaccines a year and that includes all age children.â€
In accordance with Insight magazine, the first part of the two-phase study to determine if there is a connection between thimerosal and neurodevelopment disorders began in 1999. The data revealed a significant association with thimerosal containing vaccines administered to infants and later developmental abnormalities such as speech and language delays.
While Grace wasn’t sure about other health clinics in Torrington, she said that the Public Health Office did not have thimerosal in their vaccines.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for fetuses, infants and children, the primary health effects of mercury are on neurological development. Even low levels of mercury exposure resulting from a mother’s consumption of methyl mercury in dietary sources can adversely affect the brain and nervous system.
Impacts on memory, attention, language and other skills have been found in children exposed to moderate levels in the womb.
Some toxicologists believe that while mercury levels are higher in children with autism, these children might have biochemical defects that prevent them from processing the metal as efficiently as normal children do, which to them indicates that autism is not caused by these vaccines.
The California Department of Developmental Services has reported that since the 1980s, California experienced a dramatic increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism.
Between 1987 and December 2002, the population of persons with autism increased by 634 percent, said Mark Geier, M.D. President of the Genetic Centers of America during the Institute of Medicine’s (IMO) Immunization Safety Review meeting on Feb. 9.
Geier stated that he and his colleagues evaluated the instantaneous exposure of children to mercury from thimerosal- containing childhood vaccines that were administered as part of the routine childhood immunization and determined that in some cases children were exposed to more than 100-fold in excess of the Federal Safety Guidelines.
At the IMO meeting, “Mady Hornig, an associate professor from Columbia University presented a video of rats treated with thimerosal,†Shreffler said. “The rats became extremely agitated, biting their own tails and excessively grooming their mates. One rat groomed his mate’s head obsessively until the skull was exposed, killing the mate.â€
Grace doesn’t believe that autism and thimerosal are linked but said, “Everybody has their own opinion.â€
“Finding out what caused the changes in my children was difficult - none of us want to live with the knowledge that we helped hold our children down for these shots,†Shreffler said. “Also, no one wants to think that something could have gone so horribly wrong with this country’s vaccine problem, so initially, almost no one would listen to the people talking about mercury in vaccines as being harmful.â€
“While a growing number of scientists and parents know that mercury in vaccines harmed hundreds of thousands of children, we’re up against some very powerful people as we try to get the truth out,†she concluded.
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Mercury : Is it safe?
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Posted by Sylvia on Monday, February 23, 2004 (20:04:41)
Clarksburg Exponent and Telegram
By Darlene J. Taylor
CLARKSBURG - The state Department of Health and Human Resources distributed 68,000 flu vaccine doses this flu season, with 63,000 of them containing a chemical the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has suggested be removed from childhood vaccines.
Joe Thornton, state Health and Human Resources spokesman, said 5,000 were pediatric doses that did not contain thimerosal, a preservative containing mercury.
The FDA has been actively addressing the issue of thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines since 1999, when independent research indicated a 400 percent increase in child autism in the preceding decade.
"We wanted to ensure there were doses for children without thimerosal," Thornton said. "Typically, 5,000 would be enough for kids. Most doses are used by the elderly and more at-risk population. But we had more children based on the problems we had with the flu this season."
Ramona Swiger, Harrison-Clarksburg Health Department clinical nursing director, said the department received vaccines both with and without thimerosal and they were marked as such.
"Both flu vaccines were the standard, with indications and dosage for pediatric use," Swiger said.
Swiger said she was familiar with the argument some groups bring forward that such vaccines could cause problems.
"From what we have read, there has not been any conclusive study to definitely link it with childhood problems. The recommendation by CDC is to use the vaccine. Until they change the guidelines, we would not have a reservation about using either vaccine," Swiger said.
The county health department vaccinates children who have autism, as well, she said.
"The medical diagnosis does not change the vaccine used," Swiger said.
Information on the Centers for Disease Control Web site stated: "There is no evidence that any vaccine or vaccine additive increases the risk of developing autism or any other behavior disorder.
Nonetheless, given the level of concern among parents and others regarding vaccines and autism, the CDC is committed to investigating this issue to the fullest extent possible, using the best scientific methods available."
The FDA review found no evidence of harm from the use of thimerosal as a vaccine preservative, other than local hypersensitivity reactions, according to its Web site. But still, the agency has urged vaccine manufacturers to "reduce or eliminate thimerosal in vaccines as soon as possible."
Thornton said he had not heard of any relation between thimerosal and autism.
"Public health officials monitor these things closely and it would not be provided if there was a risk. I am pretty confident that there is a very minimal risk," Thornton said.
However, depending on the vaccine formulations used and the weight of the infant, some infants could have been exposed to cumulative levels of mercury during the first six months of life that exceeded EPA recommended guidelines for safe intake of methylmercury, the FDA Web site states.
Dr. Kelly Nelson is the medical director at Medbrook Medical Associates Inc. in Bridgeport. Nelson said thimerosal is a pretty common agent used in a number of vaccines, including hepatitis vaccines.
A 2003 study implicated the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine as a factor in the current epidemic of autism. The study was conducted by Anderew Wakefield, the pioneering physician who in 1998 identified a unique form of intestinal inflammation which occurs in many autistic children and which appears to be linked to MMR vaccination, according to "Autism Research Review International."
"The vaccine would be a big problem for someone with thimerosal allergies. But the general population has not experienced a significant problem," Nelson said.
Nelson declined to comment on whether he would administer a vaccine with thimerosal to an autistic child.
Thimerosal information is not readily available at physician's offices. Nelson said for parents and others who want information about it, he would recommend the FDA.gov Web site.
"I feel real confident in the FDA Web site. There is a wealth of information on this topic there," Nelson said.
At least one autism expert does not agree with the FDA stand on the issue.
Dr. Bernard Rimland, director of the Autism Research Institute in San Diego, and founder of the Autism Society of America, said there is a strong connection between thimerosal and neurological disorders in children.
"I think it is absolutely incredibly outrageous to consider using thimerosal in children, knowing what we know, especially for some children who are genetically susceptible to mercury poisoning.
"Research by Professor Boyd Haley, chairman of the Chemistry Department of the University of Kentucky, has shown that autistic children do not have the capacity for excreting mercury from their bodies as normal children do. That is an important clue as to why they may be autistic.
"In view of these and other findings, it is unthinkable that mercury be injected into the bloodstream of children," Rimland said.
Jennifer Watson of Stonewood said her two children, ages 4 and 2, had to get their flu shots in two visits.
"It's kind of scary to know they are giving them something that could be harmful to their health," Watson said. "We should have a choice of which one our children take."
Hayward Minear II of Lost Creek said the information makes him wonder about his grandchildren since thimerosal has been used for years. He has two daughters and two granddaughters.
"I think parents should be made aware in writing of the problems that may be associated with the vaccine," said Doris White, also of Lost Creek.
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