Mercury is Not Vitamin "M"
Dec 15, 2004
Author: Dr. Wm. Deagle MD
Source: Prison Planet News
Dr. Murray Vimy DDS, Ph.D. Dental Pathology & Toxicology asked me to calculate the total body burden of mercury in patients based on inhaled vapors of mercury produced by chewing gum on the facets of mercury silver amalgams. The equipment we utilized was a part per million mercury vapor meter and a micro-voltmeter to measure the voltages across amalgam filling with two “mercury-silver” or three “gold” crowns etc. anywhere else in the mouth. Differential oxidation of the metals creates a relative potential difference and thus a voltage. As well the tooth amalgam interface acted as a piezoelectric battery that would generate more voltage under the compression of chewing. We easily demonstrated increased amalgam voltages and many parts per million mercury vapors after chewing for 10 to 15 minutes standard chewing gum. Dr. Vimy had read the groundbreaking work of a German Dentist and Inorganic Materials Chemist during WWII. His research proved the toxicity of mercury in living systems and questioned the use in the common Dental Amalgams that had been invented more than a century before in France. This report fell on deaf ears, due to the rise of the Nazi German Reich, even though he had trained many leading British and American Dentists on Dental Metallurgy, and they had respected his work in the thirties before the war. It was our goal to establish that mercury vapor was released in toxic level by chewing. Murray asked me to calculate the expected body burden based on dispersion equations and prior research. My study of the toxicology of mercury brought me to the calculation equations from many studies including the WHO in Geneva. When we plugged out expected vapor concentrations and body mass into the equations, we quickly became alarmed that they exceeded internationally recognized limits for mercury toxicity.
As you may or may know, when a doctor had an old style mercury blood pressure manometer break, the resulting cleanup required men in space-sealed separate Scott air-pack suits with micro-vacuum devices for picking up the ‘quicksilver’ liquid metallic mercury. Forty years ago classroom science instructors played with this material, and student often had it on their desks, as I did in grade two in our private school. Obviously the toxicity of mercury was not common knowledge in the mid-sixties.
Dr. Murray Vimy went on to complete his masters and doctorate in Dental Toxicology and Pathology. Many dentists in the US, Canada and other nations have met terrible opposition from their licensing authorities, and many lost their licenses for removal of amalgams. Things have turned around in the last decade, notably at the University of Calgary, where I did my first research with Dr. Vimy and their medical department has demonstrated neurotoxic effects on the nerve tubulin protein assembly as the growth cone end of developing nerves. Mercury bind to the tubulin preventing it from snapping together end to end, leaving the end of the nerve unable to grow, with degeneration and nerve death resulting. This process prevents new nerve connections and the developing brain is most sensitive to these changes.
A video clip is available on Alex Jones website and I have attached the links in the latter part of attached references to the U of Calgary pathology video-presentation with graphics and electron microscopy of the effects of mercury on developing neurons.
http://movies.common.ucalgary.ca/mercury.
The GTP binding of mercury is just one of the terrible things that happens. It floods neurons and the supporting glia or ‘glue’ cells around neurons that nourish nerve cells with free radicals, excess Calcium and induces brain cell programmed death called ‘apoptosis’. It depletes the Glutathione in nerves, which removes the peroxinitryl radical, the most dangerous radical and the probable source of brain damage in Alzheimer’s brain cell death and neurofibillary tangles and amyloid deposits that gum up nerve cell function.
There are several forms of mercury from inorganic mercury vapor resulting from tooth amalgam surface production, after chewing. Many dentists still give these amalgams, and should become informed that combined with other sources such as vaccinations, transoceanic microparticle dust from North Africa, and the Far East, and ground water and food contamination, the developing nervous system is particular vulnerable. Substitute materials should be used as the new ceramic materials are more cosmetically pleasing and do not have mercury or other heavy metal toxins in their structure. No dentist in America, Canada or the Western world should use mercury or be disciplined for removal of this environmental hazard that has for centuries been placed in our unsuspecting mouths.
The vaccine form of mercury is ethyl mercury salicylate, and is even more toxic and removed slower from the body than methyl mercury. With the number of vaccinations now eighteen to twenty plus, children before school entry have had a total load of mercury that by itself exceeds the total accepted by all major bodies, including the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics. An astute pediatrician in the mid-90s did some calculations on the amount of ethyl mercury in the multiplying vaccinations and was alarmed by the totals she arrived at exceeding toxic limits. With calls in the 90s by the FDA to check for heavy metal toxicity in all medicines, the vaccinations were under scrutiny. As you can see from the spectrum of abstracts in the reference section, Dental Schools here and overseas, vaccine manufacturers, and doctors regulatory and educations bodies have tried to stem the tide of vaccination refusals by parents concerned with the autism and neurodegenerative links with mercury. Dr. Ball of the FDA called for the removal from all vaccinations. Has this happened? No, they are tapering. Strange way to taper, when many of the vaccinations, including the MMR and flu, as well as many of the hepatitis vaccinations are laced with higher concentrations that a decade ago. Current stocks and timetables for removal of all mercury from vaccinations has met stubborn persistence of the addition of Aluminum based preservatives, with some mercury in some vaccinations. Only a few have totally eliminated mercury from single dose vaccinations such as the hepatitis vaccination.
The research at the University of Calgary is conclusive. Mercury is not Vitamin M. It prevents the nerve growth cone from advancing leaving nerve ending stripped and degenerating, and causes nerve cell death or apoptosis. This is a travesty in this day and age of advanced dental pathology, neurotoxicology and Immunotoxicology. My colleague Dr. Ari Vojdani has proven with Federal Certified testing that mercury causes anti-nerve protein antibodies, and makes your immune system attach your brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves. He was the director of Immunology Research at UCLA for years and now runs the top immunology clinical lab in America, ImmunoSciences of Beverly Hills, Calif. . The mountain of evidence now cannot be disputed.
Lets not just stop with vaccinations and dental exposure. What about food, water, and air. Dr. Shinn Ph.D., USGS, US Geological Survey scientist presented in October 2001 satellite photos to our American Academy of Environmental Medicine, showing African dust spreading microparticulates across the South Atlantic jet stream to North America and from Asia to the North Western US. There are estimated to be upward of 100 million tons per month striking the Gulf of Mexico and dumping over Southern States and South Eastern seaboard states. These contain fungi such as Aspergillus that is destroying the coral reefs, but also bacteria, and more importantly mercury and toxic pesticides not allowed in American farming. The particles contain 1,000 to 10,000 times the toxic limits by weight as American soils, and are readily carried into our lungs to disperse methyl mercury and inorganic mercury that is toxic to our nervous and immune systems.
Let me repeat “Mercury” is everywhere. Lets get the toxin out of all vaccinations NOW! Lets test challenge test levels as we do for lead in our children in our cities. You must challenge the body with chelators sometimes for days to have the mercury displaced into stool or urine. Otherwise it is so toxic the body will remove it and sequester it to protect our immune and nerve biochemistry from toxic free radicals and death. There is no more discussion on the science of mercury toxicity. It is over. Anyone who says otherwise is a quack and a medical sociopath or political criminal.
Dr. William Shaw heads up Great Plains Laboratory in Lenexa, Kansas. He was the director of the University of Washington Inborn Errors of Metabolism research team for years, and had done many years of research on laboratory diagnosis of the metallothionine protein and organic acid changes from mercury inducing autism. These patterns are easily identified and his laboratory findings are highly recommended for initial testing besides neuropsychological evaluation with a professional in autism. Periodic stool testing for mercury and other heavy metals with oral or intravenous chelating is done at Doctors Data in Chicago or other toxicology Labs such as the Federally certified Accu Chem Labs in Dallas, Tx. This is a ‘molecular holocaust’, and make no mistake, if it is not delt with the rising incidence of neurodevelopment disorders from 1 in 25,000 more than a decade ago to 1 in several hundred of autism alone is frightening to the informed.
Summary:
Mercury is not Vitamin M.
Vaccinations should not have ethyl mercury salicylate, PERIOD.
Mercury damages developing human and animal brains, and we can see the retraction of developing nerve growth cones, and the brain cell death that results.
The environment sources of mercury include amalgams, food, air and water. Jets stream dust is a national disaster, and must be delt with on international levels. Our children breathe in garbage burned in the third world.
Drink filtered water, especially for children.
Test for heavy metal toxicity early and push for regular screening as many states do for Lead testing to prevent IQ damage, and neurobehavioral disorders.
Dr. D. Says “If we do not heed my warnings, investing in Alzheimer’s units and prisons.”
God Help Us from this “molecular holocaust”.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2004/141204notvitaminm.htm
IV c) HgEDTA Complex Inhibits Tubulin
E.F. Duhr, J.C. Pendergrass, J.T. Slevin, and B.E. Haley, "HgEDTA Complex Inhibits GTP Interactions with the E-Site of Brain B-Tubulin," Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 122, 273-280 (1993).
We have found that EDTA and EGTA complexes of Hg2+, which conventional wisdom has assumed are biologically inert, are potentially injurious to the neuronal cytoskeleton. Tubulin, a major protein component of the neuronal cytoskeleton, is the target of multiple toxicants, including many heavy metal ions. Among the mercurials, inorganic mercuric ion (HG2+) is one of the most potent inhibitors of microtubule polymerization both in vivo and in vitro. In contrast to other heavy metals, the capacity of Hg2+ to inhibit microtubule polymerization or disrupt formed microtubules cannot be prevented by the addition of EDTA and EGTA, both of which bind Hg2+ with very high affinity. To the contrary, the addition of these two chelating agents potentiates Hg2+ inhibitiion of tubulin polymerization. Results herein show that HgEDTA and HgEGTA inhibit tubulin polymerization by disrupting the interaction of GTP with the E-site of brain B-tubulin, an obligatory step in the polymerization of tubulin. Both HgEDTA and HgEGTA, but not free Hg2+, prevented binding of (32P)8N3GTP, a photoaffinity nucleotide analog of GTP, to the E-site and displaced bound (32P)8N3GTP at low micromolar concentrations. This complete inhibition of photoinsertion into the E-site occured in a concentration and time dependent fashion and was specific for Hg2+ complexes of EDTA and EGTA, among the chelating agents tested. Given the ubiquity of Hg2+ in the environment and the widespread use of EDTA in foodstuffs and medicine, these mercury complexes may pose a potentially serious threat to human health and play a role in diseases of the neuronal cytoskeleton.
Vaccine findings confirm fears
Some parents long suspected mercury levels were too high.
By Marisa Lagos
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, February 10, 2005 10:05 AM PST
http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/10/news/20050210_ne04_vacci
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Parents of children with autism said this week's revelation that at least one pharmaceutical company knew of the high levels of mercury in vaccinations years before disclosing it further supports their suspicions that the poison causes neurodevelopmental disorders. Many parents have long been suspicious of the effects of vaccines containing thimerosal, a compound used to guard against contamination and which is almost 50 percent ethyl mercury. Until recently, the neurotoxin was used in many pediatric vaccines; public health officials first acknowledged the high levels of mercury in those shots in 1999.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times uncovered a 1991 memo from a Merck & Co. vaccinologist -- written to the president of the company's vaccine division -- warning that infants who get their shots on time could receive up to 87 times the recommended daily amount of mercury from fish. Parents such as Kim Garrison of San Francisco and Jennifer Hoffiz of Danville link that heightened amount of mercury to the problems their children have had, although many doctors say no reputable studies reinforce their claim. Hoffiz has two children, now 8 and 5. Her daughter, Sabrina, is learning-impaired and her son, Steven, has severe autism. She believes both suffer from mercury poisoning.
"My kids are a perfect example of the least amount of damage mercury can cause to the greatest," said Hoffiz, who runs the Sensory Center in Pleasanton, a program meant to help patients dealing with autism, other neurological disorders and brain injuries through "brain exercises." Garrison's 12-year-old son, Tod, was diagnosed when he was three. She says no one in their family was autistic, and he was developing normally until he received a combination MMR shot -- for measles, mumps and rubella -- when he was a little over 1 year old. "I think there is very strongly compelling evidence that my son was poisoned," Garrison said. "If somebody can argue the other way, I would be more than happy to believe them. ... I get angry sometimes that I did what the doctors told me, because I didn't want him to get ill, but I think I could have poisoned my son."
That thinking is common in parents whose children are autistic, according to Bryna Siegel, the director of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders Clinic at UC San Francisco. Siegel, who has acted as an expert witness for pharmaceutical companies being sued by parents, sees no correlation between the vaccinations and autism, pointing toward numerous studies that have found just that.
"You have to balance emotion and science," said Siegel, adding that studies before the vaccines showed autistic children developing normally, then losing skills -- such as language -- at the onset, much like Tod did. "I really worry about people going without vaccines for their kids -- people forget how deadly the diseases are you're preventing."
Seattle, WA (PRWEB) September 13, 2004 -- THE TWENTY FIVE FACTS PRESENTED IN THE BOOK TITLED: MERCURY: THE WINGED MESSENGER.
Fact # 1 Mercury is one of the most poisonous substances known to medical science.
Fact # 2 Thimerosal, is a chemical that was used as a preservative in children's vaccines that was intentionally added to the vaccines to increase profits by way of multi dose bottles that were given to millions of our children.
Fact # 3 Thimerosal is 49.6% MERCURY, a proven and deadly neuro-toxin that causes permanent brain damage. The Material Safety Data Sheet (M.S.D.S.) confirms toxicity fears.
Fact # 4 Hundreds of Thousands of children received as much as 40 times (this could be 250 times) the safe level for mercury exposure as established by the Environmental Protection Agency ( E.P.A.) from the thimerosal that was used in the vaccines.
Fact # 5 The pharmaceutical industry stocks exploded in value from 1986 to 1999. This was the direct result of federal mandates requiring vaccines for all school children.
Fact # 6 There has been over 700 waivers of the conflict of interest rule by the F.D.A., C.D.C., and the N.I.H regarding paid consultancy from the drug industry. Congressman Dan Burton of Indiana has called this a "VIOLATION OF THE PUBLICS TRUST".
Fact # 7 Former President Bush (41) was appointed to the Eli Lilly board of directors and lobbied for additional tax breaks until the Supreme Court itself told him to stop.
Fact # 8 Former Vice President Quayle's family controlled Eli Lilly during that time frame. As a result of Bush's appointment to the Eli Lilly Board of Directors, it is suspected that Dan Quayle was selected as the Vice Presidential Candidate.
Fact # 9 Present and former Eli Lilly executives are now employed with the current Bush Administration.
Fact # 10 The Current Administration has tried to insert an eleventh hour Eli Lilly Rider provision in the Homeland Security Bill, that illegally protected the drug industry at the expense of thousands of mercury poisoned children.
Fact # 11 The current administration tried to "SEAL" CDC documents that proved the danger to children from the thimerosal additive used in the vaccines.
Fact # 12 The CDC tried to bury documented reports on thimerosal. They deliberately marked public documents with the phrase "DO NOT COPY OR RELEASE" This violated most consumer protection laws.
Fact # 13 The drug industry has paid consultants that tried to disprove the relationship between autism and mercury poisoning from the multi doses of thimerosal that was given to our children.
Fact # 14 The symptoms of mercury poisoning and that of autism are IDENTICAL.
Fact # 15 The onset of "Autism" has exploded in the last 15 years to epidemic levels.
Fact # 16 This onset occurred when the multi dose vaccines containing the thimerosal was given to our children on multiple occasions during the first two years of a childs life.
Fact # 17 The U.S. Government and state governments require ALL children to have
21 mandated vaccines before being admitted to schools. Most of these vaccines contained the Thimerosal / Mercury up to the year 2001. The current flu vaccine still contains thimerosal.
Fact # 18 The pet vaccine industry took thimerosal out of pet vaccines over ten years
ago (1991) because of known risks to animals.
Fact # 19 Eli Lilly Company distorted information on the dangers of thimerosal as early as 1930. This has been proven by internal Eli Lilly documents and Congressional investigations by Congressman Burton's committee on Government Reform.
Fact # 20 The U.S. Government has a three year statute of limitation vaccine court of law, that has illegally protected the drug industry by way of violating the U.S. Constitution. This court has and will dismiss law suits because of this illegal three year statute.....This in essence is obstruction of justice and violates the Constitutional rights of these vaccine injured children.
Fact # 21 Eli Lilly and other drug giants have contributed large sums of money to the Republican political process.
Fact # 22 The drug industry never disclosed that their baby vaccine products contained this dangerous mercury additive. Parents were never warned or notified.
Fact # 23 Congressman Burton of Indiana has proposed bringing criminal charges against those who are responsible for this national tragedy.
Fact # 24 There have been over 120,000 documented cases of "AUTISM" - Mercury poisoning to our children. Another 250,000 cases are suspected. (In India the figure is
a whopping 40,00,000+. Even China already has over 18,00,000 cases after the Govt opened
its doors to vaccines in 1990)
These children will require care and support for the rest of their lives. The costs to the parents will exceed $ 2 million dollars per injured child. These are crimes against humanity. Children's lives have been destroyed.
Fact # 25 Majority leader Bill Frist has proposed a new law that again illegally protects The pharmaceutical industry by way of violating the Constitutional Rights of over 120,000 vaccine injured children. Title ll of this proposed law is an atrocity. The rights of these children and that of their parents MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS.
These 25 facts and others are presented in detail in the Book Titled, MERCURY: THE WINGED MESSENGER...A MUST READ BOOK FOR EVERY PARENT.
Environ Health Perspect. 2006 July; 114(7): A429.
Copyright This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose
Environews
Science Selections
Potential Immunotoxic Effect of Thimerosal: Compound Alters Dendritic Cell Response in Vitro
Julia R. Barrett
See "Uncoupling of ATP-Mediated Calcium Signaling and Dysregulated Interleukin-6 Secretion in Dendritic Cells by Nanomolar Thimerosal" on page 1083.
Top Thimerosal, an ethylmercury-based compound used for decades as a vaccine preservative, has previously been linked to neurotoxic effects. New research reveals that it may also affect the immune system by altering how dendritic cells respond to biochemical signals [EHP 114:1083–1091; Goth et al.].
Dendritic cells are influential primary actors in the immune system’s response to infectious invasion of the body. Once activated, a single dendritic cell can direct hundreds of T cells against an infectious agent. This ability, however, depends on the dendritic cell responding appropriately to signals.
Previous studies by other researchers have indicated that thimerosal is an immunotoxicant, but its specific targets were unknown. Hypothesizing that dendritic cells might be sensitive targets, the researchers cultured bone marrow–derived dendritic cells from mice and assayed how both mature and immature cells responded to activation following treatment with thimerosal. They especially focused on the responses of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate and ryanodine receptors (IP3R and RyR, respectively), which are known thimerosal targets. These gatekeepers of intracellular calcium stores are essential for signaling activities affecting dendritic cell function and maturation.
The team showed for the first time that both mature and immature dendritic cells express isoforms of these receptors, IP3R1 and RyR1. Upon activation with the cellular energy source adenosine triphosphate, immature control cells responded with a measurable rise and fall in intracellular calcium concentration that involved RyR1 building upon the initial IP3R1-controlled calcium release and afterward working with IP3R1 to bring calcium down to resting levels.
Exposure to thimerosal at concentrations as low as 20 ppb altered the time course of these responses, however, and prolonged the length of time that intracellular calcium levels remained elevated. One possible consequence of these sustained calcium levels is a change in the rate and timing of dendritic cells’ secretion of interleukin-6, a chemical that triggers further immune system action. Exposure to thimerosal at concentrations above 200 ppb caused immature dendritic cells to die.
The continuing use of thimerosal in some vaccines and other products warrants further investigation of possible immunotoxic effects of this compound and its constituent ethylmercury. The researchers also note that the human RyR1 gene is highly polymorphic, an observation that raises several questions about the role of RyR1 in the immune system’s genetic vulnerability to mercury.
http://www.counterpunch.org/dachel04022007.html
April 2, 2007
"Studies Show No Link"
Never Mind the Mercury
By ANNE McELROY DACHEL
As we've watched autism grow to epidemic levels in the U.S., we have been given one hard-to-swallow explanation after another. For instance, we have been continuously told that there is no real increase in the number of kids who are autistic, it just seems that way. What's really going on is "better diagnosing" by doctors. And while we rarely hear the term "controversy" connected to a disease or disorder, more and more the words "autism controversy" appear in the press. Why this endless debate over autism?
The argument swirls around what causes autism. Officials who still haven't figured out if there are actually more kids with autism or if they're just counting better, are sure of one thing: Vaccines, especially ones with mercury, have nothing to do with the disorder. No matter how many times parents describe their child's regression after vaccinations, it's only a coincidence. No matter how many children are found to be carrying high levels of mercury in their bodies, it has nothing to do with the vaccines they received that contained mercury. The latest news that autism has been shown to be connected to genetic mutations stops short of admitting that there are environmental triggers to these mutations and that one of the triggers might be the use of a known neurotoxin in vaccines.
Stories about the autism controversy endlessly repeat the reassuring phrase, "Studies show no link." Recent news reports about autism give us statements like, "A link between autism and vaccines has never been proven," "Several well-designed studies indicate that childhood vaccines are not associated with autism," and "Large studies have not shown an association between vaccines and autism." It sounds like all the research clearly shows there is no scientific evidence that the mercury used in vaccines has harmed anyone.
No one seems at all disturbed that officials can't show us the results of the rigorous testing that was done on thimerosal before it was ever allowed in our children's vaccines. The only test on thimerosal was done by the manufacturer, Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Co., back in 1930. Eli Lilly tried it on 22 adult patients who were already dying of meningitis and by the end of the experiment, all the participants were dead. Eli Lilly said it was safe and the medical community just accepted it. After the creation of the FDA, its use was simply continued. Since federal health officials can't go back more than 75 years and undo a terrible oversight failure, the next best thing seems to be devising studies to show using mercury in vaccines hasn't done overwhelming damage to our children.
Head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerberding, assured parents, "What we know today is based on many studies that have looked at children in various populations around the world including the United States and have involved thousands of children that the preponderance of evidence consistently does not reveal an association between thimerosal and autism. These studies have been looked at by some of the best and brightest scientists across the world and in the United States through our Institutes of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences."
Studies by "some of the best and brightest scientists across the world" conjure up images of white-coated experts in state-of-the-art laboratories researching all the possible side effects that could result from using mercury in vaccines. Despite exhausting research, they just came up empty. Notice the often-repeated phrase is "studies show no link" not, "research shows no link." That's an important distinction. The scientists in this case are statisticians sitting at computers running the numbers on children and vaccinations instead of in a laboratory doing testing on the toxicity of the mercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal..
The figures these researchers come up with are the proof used to disprove any connection between vaccines and autism. These are called epidemiological studies. The word "epidemiological" to the layman seems impressive. It sounds like "epidemic" so it must be some kind of high tech science. Actually, these are merely population studies. They're the same kinds of studies made famous back in the 1940s and 1950s when they were used by the tobacco industry to debunk the claim that smoking was a health risk.
David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm, Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy, investigated the studies that seemed to disprove any link between vaccines and autism. He wrote, "Epidemiological analysis is notoriously susceptible to misinterpretations, and even manipulation. Two sets of researchers can extract diametrically opposed results from the same data." H. Vasken Aposhian, PhD, professor of molecular and cellular biology and professor of pharmacology at the University of Arizona, a researcher whose work has shown a relationship between vaccines and autism said, "Epidemiological studies do not reveal cause and effect. Rather, they reveal statistical correlations. . . . It is this toxicologist's view that the link between thimerosal and neurodevelopmental disorders in children has become more plausible."
The most common complaints about epidemiological studies are that they can be biased and confounding. This may have been the reason the Institute of Medicine was selected to look into possible connections between vaccines and autism. The adjectives "independent" and "prestigious" are often included as descriptive terms when talking about the IOM so their findings would seemingly be above reproach and end the autism controversy once and for all. After the May 18, 2004 IOM meeting on vaccine safety it was announced officially that "based on a thorough review of clinical and epidemiological studies, neither the mercury-based vaccine preservative thimerosal nor the mumps-measles-rubella vaccine (MMR) are associated with autism. Furthermore, the hypotheses regarding how the MMR vaccine or thimerosal could trigger autism lack supporting evidence and are theoretical only. Further research to find the cause of autism should be directed toward other lines of inquiry that are supported by current knowledge and evidence and offer more promise for providing an answer."
The FDA, in their September-October 2004 consumer magazine, solemnly declared, "There is no link between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine or the vaccine preservative thimerosal, according to a report released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Immunization Safety Review Committee." Regardless of the inherent problems with epidemiological studies, it seems the IOM was well-satisfied with the results and vaccines had been cleared. Many members of the press thought so anyway. CBS News ran the story, Autism, Mercury Link Disputed: Doctors Say No Connection Found, Parents Disagree. Without any hesitation, we were told the science was conclusive: "There is no evidence that a controversial mercury-based vaccine preservative causes autism,
concludes an eagerly anticipated scientific review that says it's time to lay vaccine suspicions to rest and find the real culprit." These findings were from the "prestigious Institute of Medicine" and it seemed that only "parents of autistic children who blame vaccination for the brain disorder" were the only ones not convinced. We were told that thimerosal had been used as a "pharmaceutical preservative since the 1930s," and that "the amount of mercury it contains is very small."
CBS also told us that "genetics plays a role in autism, and several studies show clear signs of prenatal onset of the disorder, including brain differences at birth." Even though "recent data suggest a 10- fold increase in autism rates over the last decade," CBS reassured viewers that "it's not clear how much of the apparent surge reflects better diagnosis and how much is a true rise."Washington Post reporter David Brown wrote an article titled, Experts Find No Vaccine-Autism Link. Brown announced, "The Institute of Medicine, a highly influential adviser of the government on scientific matters, said yesterday there is no credible evidence that either the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine or vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal cause autism."
Furthermore Brown told readers that the study had been done at the request of two federal agencies, one of which was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The IOM panel of 14 experts consisted of physicians, neuroscientists, epidemiologists, statisticians and a nurse and that they had been most impressed by the a Danish study "showing no difference in the rate of autism between children who got thimerosal-containing vaccines and those who did not."
The Washington Post seemed to put to rest "the doubts raised by a small but vocal group of parents who question the safety of childhood vaccines" with terms like "highly influential advisor" and "no credible evidence." Since the IOM Report of 2004, the claim that "studies show no link" has been the continual mantra of federal health officials, local department of health personnel, and doctors, and they seem to have all the science on their side. It hasn't worked however. The heated controversy only gets worse, especially with the recent announcement that the autism rate is one in every 150 children in the U.S., including one in every 94 boys. We still have no plausible explanation for all the disabled children everywhere.
While the CDC and the FDA were satisfied about the findings of the IOM committee, they will be haunted by the research that they selectively and intentionally ignored. Population studies can be made to say whatever the researchers want and they're no substitute for genuine science. Prestigious titles may sound impressive but they can't turn science fiction into scientific fact. The IOM placed overwhelming importance on five population studies, one of which was the famous Danish Study, often referred to by those defending the use of thimerosal. The findings in the Denmark study have come under serious criticism. When the data of study was reviewed, it was found that the sampling was flawed. The low incidence of autism during the use of thimerosal can be attributed to the fact that the database that was used only tracked inpatient cases of autism at the time. At the same time thimerosal was removed from children's vaccines in Denmark, the database was expanded to include cases from a large clinic outside of Copenhagen where 20% of the country's autistic patents were diagnosed.
That seemed to show that when thimerosal was no longer used, cases of autism increased dramatically. The database however had expanded further to include all cases of autism, inpatient and outpatient in the country and that fact should have called the entire study into question. Thomas Verstraeten, M.D. was lead author of an earlier U.S. study that had shown a correlation between thimerosal exposure and autism, but by 2003 his findings had been changed to show epidemiological evidence of no connection between vaccinations with mercury and the incidence of autism. Dr. Verstraeten was a CDC employee at the time of his research, but immediately after the study was announced, he went to work for vaccine maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
What wasn't important to the IOM Committee was the science that showed that thimerosal is a deadly and damaging neurotoxin with no place in our children's vaccines. Mady Hornig, MD, an associate professor of epidemiology and director of translational research at the Jerome L. and Dawn Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City presented the results of a study done on mice to demonstrate that even exposure to low-dose ethylmercury can lead to behavioral and neurologic changes in the developing brain of genetically susceptible mice.
Equally disturbing was the study done by Mark Geier, M.D., Ph.D. and his son David. After an exhausting struggle, the Geiers gained assess to the Vaccine Safety Datalink maintained by the CDC for recording adverse effects from vaccines. The Geiers compared "the autism rates of 85,000 children who received thimerosal-containing vaccines with 70,000 children who received thimerosal-free vaccines. The rate of autism was 27 times higher in the group that received thimerosal- containing vaccines." The IOM Panel dismissed the findings. More clear evidence of the causal relationship between thimerosal and autism was presented yet had little influence on the minds of the IOM panel determined to focus only on the studies that showed no association. Scientist after scientist revealed research that showed evidence of thimerosal's great potential to damage the physical health of children. David Baskin, M.D., Richard Deth, Ph.D., Boyd Haley, Ph.D., H, Vasken Aposhian, Ph.D., Jeffrey Bradstreet, M.D., F.A.A.P. were just a sampling of the experts whose work was presented on the toxic effects of thimerosal.
Parent after parent testified on medical evidence showing the mercury levels in their children or live measles virus found. The panel remained unmoved.
The failure of the IOM Panel to recognize thimerosal as directly related to the autism epidemic caused Dr. Haley to state publicly, "Specifically, I accuse the 2004 IOM committee of poor scientific judgment in that they dismissed all the science that showed that thimerosal is the most likely cause of the autism spectrum disorders epidemic and I stand by this accusation..." The science that the federal health officials refuse to look at is voluminous and ever-increasing. Thomas Burbacher, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington has since produced the research on the blood and brain levels of mercury in infant primates and found that the
ethylmercury in thimerosal actually accumulated in the brain at two to four times the amount as methylmercury, the mercury found in fish.
For the IOM Panel to dismiss all the evidence of a link between vaccines and autism is nothing less than scientific fraud. Simply pretending that the toxicological evidence was only "theory" and that statistics prove a known neurotoxin is safe will never settle the debate. In the very least, the disparity between the epidemiological and toxicological studies should have caused the IOM Panel to call for more research into the possible link between the use of thimerosal and the coincidental explosion in the autism rate.
For any findings on thimerosal to be accepted as legitimate, they can't come from any of the federal health agencies, or even the supposedly independent IOM . The conflict of interest waivers for individuals from the CDC, FDA, and the IOM because of direct financial ties to the vaccine makers raise suspicions about any
findings they announce. In the end, the official denials will never explain the number of disabled children we now have in the U.S. When the final cost of care for so many people is finally realized, the failure of officials to recognize the disaster and legitimately address the cause will be a source of outrage.
Lori McIlwain, Executive Director of the National Autism Association said, "It appears the IOM's admitted fear of an undermined vaccination program has led to this decision, not scientific evidence." "The IOM has not only compromised their integrity and independence but also failed the American public, especially mercury-injured children with autism, by towing the CDC, FDA, vaccine industry line," stated Lyn Redwood of SafeMinds. Dr. Mark Geier summed up his outrage over the IOM Panel's findings, "What's occurring here is a cover up under the guise of protecting the vaccine program. And I'm for the vaccine program. You keep covering it up and you're not going to have a vaccine program."
Anne McElroy Dachel lives in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. She can be reached at: amdachel@msn.com
