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Thimerosal:

Mercury poisoning from the preservative thimerosal may have caused the large epidemic of autism that occurred in the United States in the 1990's.

The evidence is now overwhelming that mercury injected into pregnant women and small infants has caused a huge epidemic of autism in this county.  There are many sources of mercury in our environment, including breathing exhaust from coal burning power plants, ingesting fish, and leaking from mercury amalgam dental fillings, and the dangers of mercury have been recognized by our government for many years.  However, in the late 1980's and early 1990"s there were some changes that dramatically effected the amounts of mercury that fetuses and babies were exposed to.  In the late 1980's we added 3 Hib vaccinations (all containing mercury) to the childhood vaccination schedule, and in the early 90's we added 3 hepatitis B vaccinations (also containing mercury), including one within hours of birth.  Additionally, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists changed the recommendations with regard to Rhogam.  Prior to that time, Rhogam was given to an Rh- mother after the baby was delivered to protect the next pregnancy.  Now it was decided to add a Rhogam shot at 28 weeks of gestation, and whenever amnio was performed, and maybe even when the pregnant woman experienced spotting or trauma, etc.  Prior to this time, babies did receive some thimerosal from DPT shots and the other environmental exposures referred to, but the additions of Hep B, Hib and Rhogam amounted to manyfold higher rates of exposure for babies in the United States.

The result of all of this added exposure was that children were receiving hundreds of times the recommended safe doses of mercury.  For most children, they were able to excrete these large doses of mercury with no obvious sequelae.  But for some children, they could not get rid of the mercury, and this poison invaded their brains and other body organs, producing symptoms that look like autism.  In fact, these cihldren were mercury poisoned, and this fact was first recognized by some dedicated people from Safe Minds who published an article comparing the symptoms of autism with the symptoms of mercury poisoning. (Bernard, et. al, "Autism - A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning")

While our government has slowly removed mercury from childhood vaccines, they still encourage children to receive flu vaccines that still contain thimerosal, and they are recommending flu vaccine with mercury for pregnant women.  It is incredible that their are warnings telling pregnant women not to each fish for fear of mercury exposure, and yet our government is suggesting that pregnant women have mercury injected directly into their bodies. Amazing!  Perhaps they just don't want the rates of autism to fall too sharply.  In Washington, D.C., they say that the cover-up is always worse than the crime, and the thimerosal story is no exception.  Even Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has weighed in on the subject.  (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., "Deadly Immunity") And more recently,in another article, Mr. Kennedy has gone even farther. (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., "Time For CDC to Come Clean")  For a wonderful book on this whole subject, it is recommended that you read David Kirby's book, Evidence of Harm.

The evidence is pretty compelling.  From studying the hair of babies who developed autism after vaccines, and comparing that with the hair of children who did not develop autism, it is obvious that the normal children were able to excrete the mercury, whereas the autistic children were not. (Holmes, et al, "Reduced Levels of Mercury in First Baby Haircuts of Autistic Children) Thanks to the work of Jill James, Richard Deth and others, the genetic predispositions and problems that some children have in excreting mercury is becoming better understood.  (James, "Metabolic Biomarkers" ) (James, "Thimerosal Neurotoxicity...")  Additional evidence has come from a mouse model demonstrating thimerosal neurotoxicity. (Hornig, et al, "Neurotoxic effects of postnatal thimerosal...")

The evidence that thimerosal is neurotoxic is indiputable, and it is something that was known long before we started adding more thimerosal to our childhood vaccines.  Recent studies have shown that thimerosal crosses the blood brain barrier very easily, and, once there, it changes form so that it is very difficult to get it out of the brain.

The rate of autism is 4 to 1, males over females, and if one looks at the more severe autistics, the disparity is even greater.  This coincides with the evidence of Dr. Boyd Hailey that testosterone enhances the effects of mercury, while estrogen is actually somewhat protective.  Again, this fits with what we are observing and makes sense.

The real proof comes in the individual cases, where parents are horrified to discover that when a challenge test is performed, their autistic children dump large amounts of mercury.  Many children also improve when mercury is removed through chelation. More recently, porphyrin testing has proven to be a simple way to demonstrate the total body burden of mercury in a child without requiring any kind of chelating challenge.

Epidemiological proof has been published in the peer-reviewed medical literature (Click here to see links to these articles.), but since it is published by Dr. Mark Geier and his son, David, the government chooses to use "McCarthy-like" tactics to refute the obvious.  Shamefully, our government has supported studies in some countries in Europe where the amounts of thimerosal given to the children never came anywhere close to the amounts our children received.  The studies are flawed, irrelevant, and yet used to disprove a relationship.   Additionally, the person in charge of the flawed Denmark study is under indictment for embezzlement, yet he still continues to publish with co-authors from our CDC.  Amazing!

Over 4,000 claims were filed in the NVICP, but the really shameful fact is that Congress has chosen to ignore the hundreds of thousands of children who are too late to file in the program (where the statute of limitations is only 3 years, and where there is no tolling for minority and no discovery provision).

UNFORTUNATELY, THE TEST CASES THAT WERE TRIED IN THE AUTISM OMNIBUS PROCEEDINGS WERE UNSUCCESSFUL, SO MOST OF THE CLAIMS THAT WERE FILED ARE NOW BEING DISMISSED, AND THANKS TO OUR SUPREME COURT IN THE BRUESEWITZ CASE, PARENTS OF AUTISTIC CHILDREN ARE LEFT WITHOUT A REMEDY ANYWHERE.

It should be added that other theories as to how vaccines are contributing to the autism epidemic are continuing to evolve.  The role of the adjuvant, aluminum, in vaccines is being given serious consideration as a contributing factor.  The switch from vaccines derived in animal cell lines to vaccines derived from human fetal cell lines has been demonstrated to be involved in every change point for autism in the world.  And, of course, more and more literature about mercury in vaccines (especially the flu vaccine still being pushed on pregnant women and children) contributing to the epidemic of autism.

The government and mainstream medicine have decided to search everywhere but where the evidence is obvious as they continue to adamantly maintain, "We don't know what causes autism, but we know it's not the vaccines."  But will they agree to do a vaccinated/unvaccinated study?  Of course not!  And meanwhile the epidemic continues.