is_mercury_dangerous

The foregoing information is to assist you in making an informed decision regarding the urgent need to eliminate mercury from vaccines in the United States. Scientific documentation is provided as either local documents on this server, media files on this server or Internet links as indicated by color coding. Other statements which are opinions will be clearly marked as such.

From the perspective of a physician or a policy maker, you will want to be certain that:

1) Mercury (Thimerosal) is indeed a real problem and that there is sufficient scientific data to support this.

2) Mercury-free vaccines or those with only trace amounts are now available that would not disrupt a physician's ability to administer scheduled doses to children or adults.

The term "Autism Spectrum Disorder" is confusing in that these disorders (which include ADHD, Asperger's, PDD-NOS, and Autism) are not psychiatric problems per se, they are medical problems (toxic insults) with psychiatric (behavior) manifestations. As one can easily understand based on the presentation below, the toxic insult in most cases of Autism Spectrum Disorders is undoubtedly mercury toxicity secondary to thimerosal. Other neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood (ie. Tourettes, mental retardation, etc) may have their foundations from this same insult, since mercury poisoning can have a plethora of clinical manifestations.

The U.S. Congressional Record of May 21, 2003, reflects the filing of the "Mercury in Medicine Report" by the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, Committee on Government Reform. This report and its conclusions are most troubling:

"...However, the Committee, upon a thorough review of the scientific literature and internal documents from government and industry, did find evidence that thimerosal did pose a risk.

Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines in (sic) likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin. Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry"

Vaccines can be important to the overall health and well-being of children. Our stance is not "anti-vaccine". The aim is to reinforce the need for safe vaccines--and we are not alone. In fact, as early as July 1999, the US Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics released a joint policy statement declaring:

So why is thimerosal still used in vaccines? In our personal opinion, money and politics. Both are pitiful reasons to expose children to a known neurotoxin. That is why we think it is time for clearer heads and purer motives to prevail. Once you review the evidence, we believe you will concur.

After years of medical practice, many physicians and other health professionals were indeed shocked to learn that most vaccines used over the years actually contained up to 25 micrograms of ethyl mercury. Ethyl mercury, despite what some have professed, has a very similar toxicological profile as the dreaded methyl mercury found in water, fish, and soil.

As a physician, I was recently shocked by the comments of a neighboring state's chief epidemiologist who informed a state legislator (who was considering a "ban Thimerosal" bill) that ethyl mercury, compared to methyl mercury, was safe because ethyl alcohol was safe and methyl alcohol wasn't. Of course, any high school chemistry student knows better. Would this same epidemiologist take an injection of ethyl plutonium?

In fact, there have been many peer-reviewed studies that addressed Thimerosal specifically. Here are just a few highlights:

"There was little difference in the neurotoxicities of methylmercury and ethylmercury
when effects on the dorsal root ganglia or coordination disorders were compared."

"The neurological signs and symptoms of methyl- and ethyl mercury intoxication are identical..."

David S. Baskin, M.D., and his colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery published their findings regarding the Toxicity of Thimerosal in Toxicological Sciences, 2003 74 : 361-368. They concluded:

Also a recent study by a group of Japanese researchers further attest to the toxicity of Thimerosal whereby they conclude:

"Results indicate that thimerosal exerts some cytotoxic actions on cerebellar granule neurons
dissociated from 2-week-old rats and its potency is almost similar to that of methylmercury."

In a study published in 1977, D. G. Fagan refers to 10 deaths among 13 infants in which thimerosal was used as a topical treatment for umbilical hernias and states that:

“in 9 of the 10 cases had blood and organ levels of organic mercury which are well in excess
of the minimum toxic levels in adults and fetuses.”

“…thimerosal….has been found not only to render its primary toxic effect, but also capable of changing the properties of cells. This fact suggests that the use of thimerosal for the preservation of medical biological preparations,
especially those intended for children, is inadmissible.”

More recently, in the year 2000, FDA scientist William Slikker states in the journal Neurotoxicolcogy:

“Thimerosal crosses the blood-brain and placental barriers and results in
appreciable mercury content in tissues including brain.”

Johanna Qvarnström and her colleagues at the Department of Chemistry, Umeå University in Sweden, published an article in Analytical Chemistry; 2003, 75, 4120-4124. Their study analyzed the distribution of thimerosal into the tissues of mice using a novel technique known as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) which uses radioactive isotope labeling of mercury (Hg¹⁹⁹) to determine the distribution of mercury species transformed from standard ethyl mercury in the thimerosal. The researchers concluded that:

“...thimerosal is rapidly taken up in organs as C₂H₅Hg⁺ [ethyl mercury] after oral treatment...In general, C₂H₅Hg⁺ {ethyl mercury] is considered to be converted to Hg²⁺[organic mercury] more rapidly than CH₃Hg⁺[methyl mercury]."

One reason, according to the authors, is that the ethyl mercury carbon bond is less stable than that of methyl mercury. This is good evidence of the enhanced toxicity of ethyl mercury (in thimerosal) as opposed to methyl mercury (found in fish, soil and water sources).

Thimerosal damages DNA. This fact has been well documented in lab samples (in vitro) and in animals (in vivo). A very good source which compiles much of this research can be seen in a study by Götz A. Westphal, Soha Asgari, Thomas Schulz and colleagues done at Georg-August-University Göttingen which was published in the Archives of Toxicology (2003) 77: 50-55. Dr. Westphal studied whether or not the known genotoxic (DNA damaging) effects of thimerosal were dependent upon any protective effect of individuals with higher levels of glutathione S-transferase (GST) (one of the body's defenses against thimerosal). Some individuals with genetic changes (polymorphisms) do not make as much GST and might be more susceptible to DNA damage from thimerosal. However, this study concluded that:

"...thimerosal induced strong [DNA damaging] effects in...human lymphocytes. Inter-individual differences in the response were not linked to different GST genotypes. Since thimerosal was repeatedly shown to be genotoxic in vitro and in vivo, there is reason for concern about its widespread use."

Since vaccines with thimerosal have been known to contain up to 50 micrograms/ml, genotoxic effects could be seen at the injection sites. Westphal found toxicity to DNA occurs at 0.6 micrograms/ml.

Ironically, Thimerosal has been found to be ineffective as a preservative in vaccines. In 1985, Walter Orenstein, M.D. and his colleagues at the CDC in Atlanta published an article in Pediatrics on this topic. One statement in the article reads:

"At currently used concentrations, Thimerosal is not an ideal preservative. However, because Thimerosal is an organic mercurial compound, higher concentrations might reduce vaccine potency or pose a health hazard to recipients ."

It is interesting to note that Dr. Orenstein served as Director of the National Immunization Program from 1993 to March 2004 and has also served as Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service.

This was not the only paper to point out that Thimerosal, specifically, is a poor antibacterial. A paper by A. E. Elkhouly and R. T. Yousef titled Antibacterial Efficiency of Mercurials published May 1974 in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences clearly states"...thimerosal was the least [effective]".

Another good source of information regarding the comparison of ethyl and methyl mercury is found in the 2001 IOM Immunization Safety Review Committee presentation by George Lucier, Ph.D., a well-known toxicologist and former Director of the Environmental Toxicology Program at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences. The audio of this presentation can be heard online here (requires Real Player Plug-in). A quick graphic showing an overview of Thimerosal toxicity studies can be viewed here. This slide came from a paper presented by the National Toxicology Program (NTP) on Thimerosal's nomination as a potentially toxic substance in April of 2001.

On November 15, 1999 the FDA nominated Thimerosal to the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction and on at least two occasions the core Scientific Advisory Board recommended further evaluation. On March 20, 2000 the Federal Register Notice shows that the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction (CERHR) recommended further study on Thimerosal

Even as recently as August 2002, the Federal Register still had Thimerosal on its list of recommended products to be studied. It is still a mystery why this table from the CERHR website has continued to place Thimerosal in a deferred category (as of July, 2000) stating that other chemicals had a higher priority. In our opinion, July 2000 seems to be a significant turning point regarding the actions (or inactions) taken on Thimerosal. This is also less than one month after the CDC, FDA and vaccine manufacturers met at Simpsonwood to review the first analysis on Thimerosal's role in childhood neurodevelopmental disorders. Simpsonwood is the turning point on the Thimerosal issue and there is more information included herein. (see below).

Mercury has some devastating effects on many organ systems, particularly the brain, where it has been shown conclusively to destroy neurotubulin in the axons. Some individuals are genetically predisposed to greater toxicity due to their inability to excrete the accumulating mercury via several metabolic pathways (metallothionein, glutathione reduction, and Apo-e protein removal). Recently, as pointed out by Jeff Bradstreet, M.D. at the February 9, 2004 IOM Vaccine Safety Committee hearing, polymorphisms in the gene which produces the enzyme methyltetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) have been shown to produce abnormally low generation of reduced folate, which, along with B12 is necessary for proper brain neurotransmitter function. Defects in this gene would predispose a subgroup of children to the neurodevelopmental disorders now called "autism spectrum disorders." Parts of this same biochemical pathway can also be damaged directly by mercury due to direct effects on methionine synthase (recently shown by Waly, Deth et al in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry).

For a graphical overview of these two defects in the biochemical pathway, click here.

Any one or a combination of these genetic deficiencies can spell disaster for children (i.e., autism spectrum disorders or better termed "childhood neurodevelopmental disorders") and adults (neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinsons, ALS or "Lou Gerhig's disease", and MS). This information is contained in Professor Boyd Haley's video on this website.

1) Online Investigative Report by WXYZ News in Detroit (click here for broadband) on Vaccines and Thimerosal - This 3 part series aired December 2003 and has received critical acclaim as a well researched investigation into this problem. An updated report was released on WXYZ on February 12, 2004 providing an overview of the February 9, 2004 IOM meeting in Washington. This report can be viewed online here.

2) The University of Calgary video - This is a teaching video based upon Leong and Syed's publication in NeuroReport Volume 12, number 4, 733-737 (Click here to see online abstract). This seven-minute video is an incredible instructional tool that is actually a summary of the article.

3) Dr. Boyd Haley is Chairman and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky and is one of the world's premier experts on mercury toxicity. When time is available to you (one hour), please watch Dr. Haley's online streaming video lecture on Mercury and Autism/Alzheimer's disease. He developed the process of radio-nucleotide photo affinity labeling some years ago. The presentation is set up to view in small time allotments if needed. Slides and video can be navigated by mouse clicks. This lecture will definitely change your thinking on the relationship of mercury to autism and our rapidly increasing epidemic of neurodegenerative disorders in adults.

4) Another excellent investigative news story was by Melissa Ross of First Coast News, titled CDC Knew of Potential Link Between Vaccines, Autism which aired in February 2004 on WJXX-TV & WTLV-TV, Jacksonville, Florida

5) One of the first in-depth investigative news reports came from Valeri Williams of WFAA-TV in Dallas, Texas. This two part series aired in May 2002 and explores Mercury in Childhood Vaccines: What did the Government Know?

Background on Thimerosal
(courtesy of SafeMinds)

Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative developed by Eli Lilly back in the 1930 and has been used in as many as 50 vaccines. In the Federal Register 1982, an expert panel at FDA reviewed Thimerosal and found it toxic, caused cell death and called for its removal in over the counter products.

In 1999, the FDA stated that mercury exposure from vaccines exceeded Federal Safety Guidelines. Government officials admitted they were "asleep at the switch" when they failed to add up the cumulative exposure levels when new vaccines were added to the early infant vaccination schedule in the early1990’s.

The rate of autism a decade ago was 1 in 10,000. CDC research indicates that 1 in 150 children are autistic today

The dramatic rise in autism rates correlates with the increase in mercury doses. Thimerosal was first marketed in the mid 1930's and autism was first described as a new never before seen disorder in 1943, in children born in the 1930's.

Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism have similar symptoms to those of mercury poisoning.

Thousands of families have reported their normally-developing children changed after receiving mercury containing vaccines and began displaying symptoms that lead to a diagnosis of autism. The symptoms of autism not only mimic those of mercury poisoning, but children with autism have been found to have 500% the amount of mercury in their bodies compared to typically-developing children.

In March, 2001, the FDA issued a statement warning pregnant women and young children not to eat fish containing high levels of mercury for fear of causing neurological problems in children. Yet, the CDC's National Immunization Program has continued to allow these same sensitive populations to be exposed to mercury from routinely administered flu shots which contain more mercury than seafood.

EPA recently closed down schools when it was discovered that air mercury levels were at 30mcg/m. (EPA's action level in the air is 1mcg/m) Yet infants injected with multiple mercury containing vaccines in the 1990s received up to 187 mcg the first 6 months of life. A typical dose received by a 2 month old who received 3 mercury vaccines was 125 times EPA's daily allowable exposure levels.

In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated it is "biologically plausible" that ethyl mercury Thimerosal in vaccines caused neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism.

Although there are several thousand articles in the medical literature documenting the toxicity of Thimerosal (49.6% ethyl mercury), one of the more recent studies to show this problem was presented at the North American Congress of Toxicology in September 1998 by Dr. Gregory V. Stajich, a pharmacologist at Mercer University in Atlanta. As you can see from this peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Pediatrics in May 2000, this was an eye-opening study which showed that post-vaccination mercury levels were significantly higher in preterm infants as compared with term infants in regard to the Hepatitis B injections at birth.

Then, Dr. Pichichero and colleagues at the University of Rochester published a toxicology study on infants given Thimerosal. It must be noted that Dr. Pichichero is a pediatric immunologist and is not a toxicologist by training. According to this study, administration of vaccines containing Thimerosal did not seem to raise blood concentrations of mercury above assumed safe values in infants. They concluded that ethyl mercury seems to be eliminated from blood rapidly via the stools after parenteral administration of Thimerosal in vaccines.

Unfortunately, the half life studies in this report are totally invalid based upon standard toxicological analysis according to Dr. Mark Geier (personal communication. A stunning review of the flaws in this study is presented here by SafeMinds. Also, keep in mind that a short half life does not mean a substance is safe (e.g., cyanide has a very short half-life). Missouri State Representative Roy Holand, M.D., chairman of the House Heath Care Policy Committee in 2004, gave perhaps the best summation of a primary weakness in the Pichichero study during the committee hearing held on February 4, 2004 by pointing out the damage to the neurofibrils occurs within the first 30 minutes after the introduction of mercury to the brain cells as evidenced by The University of Calgary video.

Acrodynia is probably the most widely recognized form of mercury poisoning. Its symptoms have been documented as early as 1931 by Bancroft, Grant, Tanner, et al (Journal Lancet 71:56, 1931) and studied more extensively in the 1950's by Warkany and Hubbard. In fact, a statement in some of their earlier work is almost eerily predictive of the symptoms we are seeing today since the iatrogenic exposure to mercury was increased significantly by the rapidly expanded immunization schedule beginning around the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Acrodynia is the model of mercury poisoning which closely mimics the changes seen in autism and autism spectrum disorders. Indeed, Bernard, Enayati, Redwood, Roger, McGinnis and Binstock published a review article in Medical Hypothesis in 2001 detailing the similarities between classical mercury poisoning and regressive autism. While this review article is a compelling glance into the mercury/autism correlation, it pales in comparison to their comprehensive report examining this hypothesis.

Dr. David Baskin, a highly respected neurosurgeon, along with his colleagues at the Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, published a very important peer-reviewed paper in late May of 2003 detailing the toxic effects of Thimerosal against neuronal and fibroblastic tissue.

Jeff Bradstreet, M.D., a family physician in Florida who has an autistic child, has published and researched extensively on the causal link between Thimerosal and autism. This paper, published Summer 2003 in the Journal of Physicians and Surgeons, is an excellent overview of the current research on this relationship.

If you have watched the WXYZ news video from the above links, you will recall Mark Geier, M.D., Ph.D. (an obstetrical geneticist) and his son, David, who both recently published this article, evaluating the doses of mercury from Thimerosal-containing childhood immunizations in comparison to US Federal Safety Guidelines and the effects of increasing doses of mercury on the incidence of neurodevelopment disorders and heart disease.

Dr. Geier showed that children received mercury from this source in excess of the Federal Safety Guidelines for the oral ingestion of mercury. Additionally, the analyses showed increasing relative risks for neurodevelopment disorders and heart disease with increasing doses of mercury.

In early February 2004, Dr. Richard Deth of Northeastern University and his colleagues at University of Nebraska, Tufts and Johns Hopkins University published a study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. They outlined a novel growth factor signaling pathway that regulates methionine synthase activity and thereby modulates methylation reactions, including DNA methylation. The potent inhibition of this pathway by ethanol, lead, mercury, aluminum and particularly Thimerosal suggests that it may be an important target of neurodevelopmental toxins.

Researchers are not the only ones probing into the possibility of a connection between the preservative and neurological damage to children. In the January 3, 2004 issue of the prestigious National Journal, Neil Munro wrote a telling exposé on this issue titled "Missing the Mercury Menace" However, this was certainly not the first journalistic examination of the potential harmful side effects of certain vaccines. In 1996, Andrea Rock's article "The Lethal Dangers of the Billion-Dollar Vaccine Business" published in Money Magazine cast an unflattering shadow over the vaccine industry. Although there have been numerous articles written surrounding the Thimerosal controversy in particular, a few are noteworthy for their in-depth inquiries into the mercury/autism connection.

By November 2002 when an article by Arthur Allen appeared in the NY Times Magazine called "The Not-So-Crackpot Autism Theory" some health officials sensed the public relations nightmare they feared since 1999 was on the horizon . That highly visible article was followed by "Vaccines May Fuel Autism" by Kelly O'Meara in the June 24, 2003 issue of Insight on the News. Even Mark Benjamin, the award-winning investigations editor at United Press International conducted a four month investigation which culminated into the July 21, 2003 article entitled "UPI Investigates: The Vaccine Conflict" . Unfortunately for the CDC and FDA, the public relations nightmare did not end there because other investigative journalists were also exploring this issue as seen in "Autism in a Needle" and "Eli Lilly and Thimerosal" by Annette Fuentes published in the November 2003 issue of In These Times. This was followed by yet another article by Kelly O'Meara in the December 23, 2003 issue of Insight on the News titled "CDC Study Raises Suspicion". Just after the Institute of Medicine's Immunization Safety Committee meeting in Washington, DC in February 2004, Andrea Rock published another extensively researched exposé in Mother Jones' magazine entitled "Toxic Tipping Point" in the March/April 2004 issue. The intense scrutiny generated by Andrea Rock's article was barely waning when Seed Magazine published "The Rise Against Mercury" by Sarah Bridges. Many parents and researchers are now experts on this subject. Extensive use of this expertise has been made possible by Autism One in their online radio broadcasts available here.

Now we have seen public scrutiny intensifying as parents and physicians struggle with the alarming rise in children with neurodevelopmental problems. How embarrassing it must be for the Thimerosal-advocates at the CDC and other other institutions as child-advocate parents and researchers demonstrate how easy it would have been to prevent these diseases by removing Thimerosal in the 90's when they first discovered its damaging effects.

The CDC and Simpsonwood

Most of us, when first presented with this information, are bemused as to how and why such a problem could be kept from public knowledge. While we cannot speak for their motives, we can present the actual timeline...and this is where is gets interesting.

Congress mandated the FDA and other health agencies under its purview to establish levels of mercury in pharmaceutical agents in the 1997 FDA Modernization Act. The FDA and CDC were then obliged to study the issue of Thimerosal toxicity. Their troubling findings were discussed at a meeting in June 2000 at the Simpsonwood Resort in Norcross, Georgia. The transcript of the Simpsonwood meeting, obtained by SafeMinds under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a disturbing look behind the closed door meeting and the subsequent actions of public health officials colluding with vaccine manufacturers to do damage control. If you have listened to the WXYZ report online, you are already familiar with some of the startling quotes contained within.

While this 286 page transcript is anything but light reading, the very telling comments reported by the Detroit news (WXYZ) have been distilled into a short form here along with other pertinent highlights of this landmark meeting.

During this time period, the CDC continued to do their epidemiological studies on Thimerosal toxicity from vaccines in children.
Their first reported analysis obtained by SafeMinds under the Freedom of Information Act must have been, as documented in the Simpsonwood transcript, terribly disturbing to them. It showed a 2.48% increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children who had received the mercury laced vaccines (see graph 3 at the top of page 15 of the above report).

These results were so disquieting to the CDC they apparently felt the need to revise the data by including younger infants (not yet diagnosed) and pulled in data from a financially faltering Massachusetts HMO that dramatically under reported autism rates (due to a poorly designed database) and used these "new" calculations in the second and third drafts of this report. Internal e-mails from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, obtained by SafeMinds under FOIA, appear to confirm this suspicion.

All of these numerical permutations dramatically increased the signal noise for the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. Unfortunately for millions of children, this was the final published analysis of the VSD (Vaccine Safety Datalink) data that was used by other authors in several publications over the next few years.

Even more troubling than the first reported analysis of February 2000 by Dr. Verstraten and the CDC is the initial analysis which has been dubbed "Generation Zero" and was never compiled into a formal report. In this analysis, done in November and December of 1999, CDC researchers found a relative risk of 11.35 for autism for those infants with >25 mcg exposure at one month. In other words, children exposed to thimerosal levels as low as those found in the flu vaccine of today were over 11 times more likely to acquire a neurodevelopmental disorder.

Congressman David Weldon, M.D. (R-Fla) has detailed his concerns about the credibility of the these studies and suspected statistical cover-ups in his letter to Judy Geberding, M.D., Director of the Centers for Disease Control, in his letter to her dated October 31, 2003. (Click here to read this letter).

In late 2003, Dr. Mark Geier and his researcher son, David were allowed (after considerable efforts in time and paperwork) to view the VSD database in the CDC computers housed in Maryland. As mentioned by Dr. Geier in the WXYZ report, their analysis revealed a 27 fold relative risk increase in autism in the data set that received DTP containing Thimerosal versus a similar subset of the DTP Thimerosal free version. Their paper on this analysis is awaiting publication.

However, Dr. Geier has published information (Neurodevelopmental Disorders after Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines: A Brief Communication) showing the positive association of Thimerosal containing vaccines and autism using the database known as the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). Specifically, he found that the VAERS database showed statistical increases in the incidence rate of autism (relative risk [RR] = 6.0), mental retardation (RR = 6.1), and speech disorders (RR = 2.2) after Thimerosal containing diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccines in comparison with Thimerosal-free DTaP vaccines.

In the pro-Thimerosal camp, Stehr-Green, et al published "Autism and Thimerosal-containing vaccines: lack of consistent evidence for an association" in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in August of 2003. There are four major defects in this analysis (click here). The authors relied heavily on shifting data sources and an incomplete time series in their epidemiological analysis. It is our opinion that primary research is the answer to this question, not vague epidemiology and statistical permutations.

The World Health Organization initially issued a policy calling for the reduction and removal of thiomersal (as spelled in Europe) similar to the joint statement of the US Public Health Service and American Academy of Pediatrics. However, there has been a dramatic push since 2002 to rapidly publish data to exonerate Thimerosal and even the presence of an autism epidemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), CDC, pharmaceutical industry and others with a financial stake in vaccines, such as researchers and universities who are paid to study vaccines and often hold patents to vaccines. Evidence indicates vaccine manufacturers where largely behind this dramatic reversal of policy. That impact is being felt worldwide in medicine and research.

They go so far as to formulate "working groups" such as Intercluster Vaccine Research Initiative (IVR) under the auspices of the World Health Organization. Their inaugural meeting was held June 16-18, 1999. One of the missions is settling controversies whereby they determined that “WHO should coordinate studies to address consumer fears regarding the safety of vaccines and assess the risk of adverse events and evaluate risk-benefit relation”.

Evidence from the June 14, 2001 meeting of WHO SAGE (Strategic Group of Experts) indicates that in early 2001 vaccine manufacturers began pressuring the World Health Organization, the United States and others to continue the use of thimerosal by intimating it could threaten the production and availability. The quote below is taken directly from that meeting report.

“WHO was extremely anxious to preserve the production and availability of vaccines.
Industry was expecting clear signals from WHO on the thiomersal issue, as had been
confirmed by informal consultations with some manufacturers during the first half of 2001.”

US Centers for Disease Control – Dr. Claire Broome (voting member); Dr. Walter Orenstein; Dr. Steve Cochi
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (CDC) – Dr. Myron Levine
US Food & Drug Administration (CBER) – Dr. Kathryn Zoon (voting member)
National Institutes of Health (NIAID) – Dr. John LaMontagne (voting member); Dr. George Curlin; Dr. Mark Miller

By 2002, the vaccine manufacturers had applied enough pressure to get what they wanted and at an informal meeting with vaccine manufacturers ; high ranking vaccine officials from WHO, CDC, FDA, EMEA (UK's version of the FDA) and other countries formalized the intent whereupon they decided on May 21, 2002, largely for financial reasons to:

Although the WHO memo from May 21, 2002 appears to be the first time they solidified their intent to have a “strong advocacy campaign” for thimerosal, obviously the manufacturers had been pursuing the issue earlier. Some vaccine manufacturing executives, such as Dr. Ann-Marie Georges of GlaxoSmithKline, were so proud of that accomplishment, they were willing to brag about it in trade magazine interviews. Dr. Georges stated:

"So it was not an easy situation to resolve, but manufacturers addressed the issue and it has ceased to be a problem."

As recent events in the news have revealed, the behavior and decisions of pharmaceutical companies, FDA and CDC officials are not always in the best interest of the public; rather the priority for a number of years has been profits and cronyism. So it is not surprising to learn that medical journals, medical societies and researchers have been heavily and negatively influenced by pharmaceutical money as outlined in an article in the UK Telegraph where testimony in the House of Commons recently revealed the pharmaceutical industry routinely bribes doctors and "ghostwrites" articles about drugs in major medical journals. The article when on to state that Professor David Healy, of the University of Wales, told the Commons health select committee that as many as half the articles published in journals such as the British Medical Journal and The Lancet were written by members of the industry who had a vested interest in selling the drugs involved. One of the most distressing comments in the article was by a spokesman for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry by claiming there was "nothing wrong" with articles in major medical journals being written up for a clinician by a company "as long as the person has seen the article and signed it off".

Many physicians and health care workers are aware of what has become known as the "Denmark study" published in October 2003 Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), which led many to believe the vaccine-autism association was finally disproved to everyone's satisfaction. Unfortunately, the study (which incidentally was funded and produced by a Danish vaccine manufacturer) was severely flawed. Two recent letters to the editor by Dr. Bernard Rimland and Sallie Bernard in the January 14, 2004 issue of JAMA document these troubling analytical flaws. Because this study is the one most frequently quoted by well-meaning physicians and public health officials to allay parents questions about the mercury-autism association, it is essential to understand the serious errors:

1) The entire findings of Hviid et al were based on finding fewer older children (born from 1990-1992) exposed to Thimerosal than younger children (born 1992-1996).

2) A significant number of autism cases (predominately in older children) were dropped from this registry every year (e.g., twenty-three percent of the autism-diagnosed 1995 cohort were lost in the 2000 registry analysis).

3) Questions about author bias began to surface when it was discovered that the authors did not disclose that they worked for a for-profit company that did about $120 million/year in vaccine revenues, which included exports of Thimerosal laden vaccines to the United States and serve as the sole contract vaccine manufacturer for the Danish government.

Please click here for a more in-depth analysis of the Denmark study and the numerous conflicts of interest and dataset manipulations.

In the November 5, 2003 issue of Pediatrics, Verstraeten, et al again published data based upon the manipulated figures from the VSD study as discussed at the now infamous Simpsonwood meeting. Ironically, even Neal Halsey, M.D., a staunch supporter of the National Vaccine Program, and former Chairman of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), raised credibility issues as evidenced in his December 17, 2003 letter to Pediatrics. Safe Minds also did an in-depth analysis of this data and all of the "generations" of this "numerical evolution". Beginning about page 20 of this critique, one can easily see the progression of how the original data was altered. The datasets morphed over 4 generations of reports all based upon the original (and correctly done report) from Feb 2000 that was presented at the Simpsonwood meeting. The original autism risk was 2.48 and data "changes" brought it down to 1.69 using a type of numerical "black box" method known as "Cox Model adjusted". For an in-depth analysis of these numerical generations, click here.

In February 2004, Geier and Geier published a letter to the editor in Pediatrics which detailed the serious errors in the Verstraeten study.

Most telling is the letter from Dr. Verstraeten himself to Pediatrics about the allegation that his study "cleared" thimerosal.

Unfortunately, much of this published data is simply a re-statement of the erroneous numbers from the older studies previously mentioned. In some cases, some information from within these articles actually makes the anti-thimerosal case stronger. For example the recent study by Mandell, DeStefano et al in the journal Psychiatric Services (56;56-65. 2005). They basically were looking at discharge rates from psychiatric institutions for the diagnosis codes of autism and ADHD (among others) and came to the conclusion that the reason for the increase in the numbers of these disorders was that there have been changes in diagnostic practices over time, increases in community prevalence of these disorders, and increased likelihood of hospitalizations for different mental disorders. We can certainly agree with the increase in community "presence". But one comment from the study in particular is also quite telling of the real story. DeStefano and colleagues remark,

"diagnosis of autism and ADHD followed a very different pattern, with peaks in rates at ages 7 and 12.”

for the study period 1989 to 2000. The dissected data when presented in graphical form clearly demonstrates a "bump" in autism rates at ages 7 and 12 (click picture on the right for a larger view)

and the relationship to the routine childhood immunization schedules. It is interesting to note between the ages of 4 and 6 and again between the ages of 11 and 12, children received multiple immunization boosters including thimerosal-containing vaccines. Similar bumps were seen for ADHD. How fascinating that these rapid rises in diagnosis tend to coincide with the immunization schedules.

Special thanks to Dr. Richard Deth for his generosity in preparing the slides and allowing us to share them with you.

Why does mercury toxicity at levels found in vaccines only affect a subgroup of children (predominantly males)? Actually the same target subgroup was noted in the early 20th Century during the epidemic of Pink's Disease (Acrodynia) that was determined to be caused by mercury in teething powders given to children. About 1 in 500 children were afflicted, and some died as a result of this toxic insult.

Pink's Disease is still seen today, albeit less well recognized. I suspect that the clinical symptoms (pink, desquamating rash on the hands and feet after mercury exposure) is not even thought of by most clinicians. I can vouch that in the early 70's it was never taught in pathology or clinical pediatrics; I suspect it would be difficult to even find a clinician who would place the diagnosis on a roster of suspects (the "differential diagnosis"). When Pink's Disease is finally recognized clinically, it makes it into a case report in a medical journal. It is our belief that during the last decade, the concerned parents of a child with pink rash on the hands and feet after a Thimerosal-laden vaccine were most likely given phone advice (Tylenol, “reassurance”, or "see a dermatologist").

“It is interesting that not a single case of Acrodynia has been reported from exposure to vaccines
despite the propensity of thimerosal to produce this syndrome when given in sufficient amounts.”

That's interesting in the face of many parental reports of just such a rash occurring in their child after a bolus of Thimerosal-laden vaccines in the 1990's. Pink's Disease then has been under-reported due primarily to lack of training and in the rush to lump these children into psychiatric DSM-IV Autistic Spectrum Disorders - a no-man's land where biochemical and toxicological causation has been set adrift in the sea of ignorance and/or expediency.

In our present vaccinated population of children, the rate of autism is now about 1 in 166 according to the CDC. Indeed, the incidence of developmental disorders and behavioral problems in children has now been documented in the Autism A.L.A.R.M. by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC to be at an unprecedented incidence of 1 out of every 6 children.

This recent report was issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics' National Center of Medical Home Initiatives for Children with Special Needs in conjunction with the CDC and US Public Health & Human Services Department. If you clicked on this last link, you will note that the link to that site no longer exists. It was taken down after parents began sending the Autism A.L.A.R.M. to their Congressmen and Senators calling for an investigation into the possibility of a connection between Thimerosal and 1 in 6 children having neurodevelopmental disorders. One can only guess why was it taken down? Here is a cached copy of this page (courtesy of Google) to prove its existence.

As previously mentioned, the work by Waly, Deth et al regarding the alteration in methylation pathways in mercury poisoning details part of the answer to "why only some children. Furthermore, in the subgroup of children who have a genetic deficiency in the enzyme MTHFR (methyltetrahydrofolate reductase), it has been established that they are unable to regenerate the needed co-factors for methylation reactions. This was eloquently presented by Dr. Jeff Bradstreet at the February 9, 2004 Institute of Medicine Vaccine Safety Committee hearing in Washington, DC.

In June 2004, a study by Hornig, Chian and Lipkin published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry showed for the first time that autistic symptoms could be duplicated in the mouse model. Using a strain of immunologically suppressed mice (much like our children were after their vaccines containing mercury), Dr. Hornig duplicated the thimerosal dosing schedule of the 1990s and reproduced a host of abnormal behaviors in the experimental animals. The mice showed growth delay, reduced locomotion, and exaggerated response to novelty, just to name a few. Brain sections of these animals revealed densely packed, hyperchromic hippocampal neurons with altered glutamate receptors and transporters. In short - the autistic model was replicated based upon the premise of mercury-induced neuronal damage!

In December 2003, former Food and Drug Administration senior research scientist, Dr. Jill James published a landmark study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition titled "Metabolic biomarkers of increased oxidative stress and impaired methylation capacity in children with autism" which detailed the actual levels of these biochemical deficiencies in autistic children. She and her colleagues set out to evaluate plasmaconcentrations of metabolites in the methionine transmethylationand transsulfuration pathways in children with autism. Not surprisingly, these children had significantly lower baseline plasma concentrations of methionine, SAM, homocysteine, cystathionine, cysteine, andtotal glutathione and significantly higher concentrations ofSAH, adenosine, and oxidized glutathione. In other words, they found a metabolic profilethat is consistent with impaired capacity for methylation (shown by the significantlylower ratio of SAM to SAH) and increased oxidative stress (significantlylower redox ratio of reduced glutathione to oxidized glutathione). Even more interesting was that supplementation with methyl B12 and folinic acid normalized these biochemical markers. The next step, of course, is to document the clinical improvement in these children based upon such intervention. Many parents already know the answer to this one.

The work of Dr. James along with the rapidly mounting clinical, toxicological and pharmacokinetic evidence mounting against Thimerosal prompted the powerful Washington, D.C. environmental group, EWG to issue a white paper titled "Overloaded? New science, new insights about mercury and autism in susceptible children" and to hold a press conference releasing its findings and conclusions after an 18 month investigation.

If Thimerosal is ineffective as a antibacterial and has a questionable safety record, it begs the question: why has the general public not been better informed? After all, if mercury is a potential factor in the causation of autism and Alzheimer's disease (just to name a few neurodegenerative conditions under suspicion), shouldn't the health care provider or the patient be made aware of the choice between mercury and non-mercury containing vaccines? My attempts to alert local and State health departments on this issue have been unsuccessful, particularly during the 2003 flu season where the public was admonished to obtain a vaccine laced with 25 micrograms of mercury and not told of a much safer alternative containing only 0.5 micrograms of mercury from the same company. In the 2004-2005 flu season, the CDC was so worried about not having a record-selling flu vaccine season, they came up with the "Recipe" for an effective flu campaign. (Note: this file is also available locally here). An overview of the 2004-2005 flu season debacle is available here.

Has Congress been asleep at the proverbial switch on this issue? Not completely. Congressman Dan Burton (R-Indiana), Chairman of the Committee on Government Reform initiated an investigation into Federal vaccine policy in August of 1999. The investigation led to the numerous congressional hearings and a staff report. The Majority Staff report of August 2000, on the conflicts of interest in vaccine policy making is quite informative.

Over the course of three years, the Committee would hold almost a dozen hearings regarding vaccines and vaccine policy. We have made available within this document a few of the hearings dealing with Thimerosal. The following documents are quite voluminous but well worth the time invested to read them:

Among the statements from the "Mercury in Medicine - Are We Taking Unnecessary Risks?" hearing held on July 18, 2000 are these by respected toxicologist Dr. H. Vasken Aposhian:

"There are other compounds that could be used as preservatives. And everything we know about childhood susceptibility, neurotoxicity of mercury at the fetus and at the infant level, points out that we should not have these fetuses and infants exposed to mercury. There's no need of it in the vaccines."

A summary report prepared by the staff of the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness, Committee on Government Reform, United States House of Representatives was published in The Congressional Record of May 21, 2003 detailing the results of the three year investigation. This report and its conclusions are most troubling:

"...However, the Committee, upon a thorough review of the scientific literature and internal documents
from government and industry, did find evidence that thimerosal did pose a risk."

"Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines in likely related to the autism epidemic."

"This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA
not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal
and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin."

"Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection
and misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."

On February 9, 2004, the Institute of Medicine's Immunization Safety Review Committee held a hearing on the issue of vaccine safety, specifically in regards to the link between Thimerosal and autism. The authors of this document attended that meeting and testified during the public comment period at the end. Some observations from that meeting:

1) The scientific evidence presented by many respected physicians, scientists and researchers (biochemical, clinical, molecular and toxicological) was overwhelming in regards to the causality of mercury poisoning and autism/neurodevelopmental disorders.

2) Epidemiological studies presented by Hviid, DeStefano of the CDC, Kumanan Wilson, M.D. of the Toronto General Research Institute, Dr. Elizabeth Miller of the UK Immunization Division, and Robert Davis, M.D. of the University of Washington were essentially the same ones mentioned above (with the same design flaws, questionable datasets and conflicts of interest).

3) In our opinion, the bias towards the pro-Thimerosal forces by several members of the Immunization Safety Committee was palpable.

4) Several of the press reports (e.g. Wall Street Journal, Washington Post) made little or no mention of the pro-vaccine safety research which convincingly linked Thimerosal to neurodevelopmental disorders in children.

A television news report of the meeting, and follow-up to his previous investigation, was done by Steve Wilson at WXYZ.

When their report was release in May 2004, it was clear the IOM ignored all the documented clinical and toxicological evidence against the thimerosal-autism link; and their final published report remains as an indictment against them. Let's take a closer look at what really transpired and why the findings in the report are suspect.

What if the austere Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Committee had known about the research of Dr. Mady Hornig or the research of Dr. David Baskin, Dr. Boyd Haley or Dr. Vas Aposhian during their February 9, 2004 meeting? Certainly this would have driven the final nail in the coffin for doubters of thimerosal toxicity. Well, Dr. Hornig was the first presenter of that meeting and detailed her soon-to-be published findings in the preceding paragraph. If you are on-line, click here to view the IOM website and you will note that Dr. Hornig's presentation is listed (and linked) in the 8:30 am time slot. And, yes, she did present to the full committee. As did Dr. Baskin, Dr. Haley, Dr. Aposhian and Dr. Geier. We were present at that meeting and the evidence was voluminous and compelling.

How did the IOM explain away Dr. Hornig's findings in their report or the other toxicological, biochemical and pharmacokinetic evidence? They stated that the rodent model in this instance was "theoretical". In our opinion, "theoretical" is better applied as a descriptive term for the poorly done and hurriedly published mathematical models from the hands of the vaccine manufacturers' own researchers.

The epidemiological flaws in the studies the IOM relied upon, as outlined above, are among the reasons, according to Dr. David Baskin in his comments at the February 9, 2004 IOM Vaccine Committee, that the relationship of neural tube defects and folic acid deficiency were initially missed. Nonetheless, there is ample good epidemiological data that does show the increased risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. In February 2004, Geier and Geier published this article which found there were statistically significant odds ratios for the development of autism following increasing doses of mercury from Thimerosal-containing vaccines (birth cohorts: 1985 and 1990–1995) in comparison to a baseline measurement (birth cohort: 1984). This article, which appeared in the Medical Science Monitor.

We are not the only ones to believe it is not prudent to reply upon or give due weight to epidemiological studies in rejecting a causal link between Thimerosal and Autism. Although, this is exactly what the Immunization Safety Review Committee did in their May 2004 IOM report because its conclusions (page 36 of the report) are based, by their own admission, on epidemiological studies alone.

"Epidemiological studies examining thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism, including three controlled observational studies (Hviid et al., 2003; Verstraeten et al., 2003; Miller, 2004) and two uncontrolled observational studies (Madsen et al., 2003; Stehr-Green et al., 2003), consistently provided evidence of no association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism, despite the fact that these studies utilized different methods and examined different populations (in Sweden, Denmark, the United States, and the United Kingdom) (see Table 9). …"

"… Thus, based on this body of evidence, the committee concludes that the evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism."

Remember, Dr. Verstraeten wrote to Pediatrics to specifically state that his study could not be used to exonerate Thimerosal.

Even one of the most ardent supporters of vaccines and defenders of Thimerosal, such as Dr. John Clements, admit that epidemiology will not prove that Thimerosal is safe. If you read the Simpsonwood meeting minutes, you will recall the statements of John Clements, M.D. and his admonishment to the others that the results of Verstraeten's early analysis of the Vaccine Safety DataLink regarding Thimerosal and Neurodevelopmental Disorders could have been predicted. As you will see in his paper published in Vaccine 22 (2004) 1854–1861 where he attempts to say Thimerosal is not dangerous at levels found in vaccines but finally admits the following:

1n 1997, the Mercury Review Subcommittee, a scientific advisory board, made an important report to Congress known as the "SAB report." In Section 5.6 of this report, found on page 111, the reviewers succinctly qualified the problem with doing epidemiological studies on a population subgroup of affected individuals with mercury toxicity. The report summarized these thoughts on page 114 with this paragraph:

"All of these factors notwithstanding, the data regarding effect modification in human epidemiologic studies
of mercury poisoning are currently too meager to base separate estimates of human health risks
or establish different RFD’s for various subpopulations."

The current "meager" epidemiological analyses previously published using the altered Verstraeten dataset would certainly fall into this category. Perhaps the most accurate assessment of epidemiological studies was given on December 8, 2004 in the House of Lords at Parliament by Countess of Mar:

“When the pressure becomes too great, the Government and their advisers retreat
behind the curtain of epidemiological studies."

"Without concurrent clinical studies, I have concluded that they are
the medico-scientific equivalent of the parliamentary filibuster. ”

Of course, keep in mind the CDC contracted and paid the IOM for the study. The specifications on which the reports were to rely upon were established by the CDC per Task Order number 74 of their contract with the Institute of Medicine. The CDC indicated the IOM should rely solely on epidemiology and not clinical, toxicological or other studies. But why?

New evidence recently came to light that the CDC apparently pressured the IOM to deny a causal relationship between vaccines and autism regardless of the evidence in an attempt to exonerate themselves and the National Immunization Program from the thimerosal debacle. This evidence has been turned over to a U.S. District Court judge and will soon be made public.

In the meantime, listen to a brief exchange between Kathleen Stratton, Ph.D. and Andrew Wakefield, M.D. from the May 2004 Chicago Autism One conference. Dr. Stratton is the Study Director of the IOM Immunization Safety Review Committee and Dr. Wakefield is the British gastroenterologist who discovered the presence of vaccine strain measles virus in the guts of many autistic children. This audio file is a 9 minute and 46 second sound byte but the exchange becomes quite intense at 3 minutes and 19 seconds into this Windows Media sound file. It is our opinion this new information will cast shadows of doubt, deception, delusion over their previous conclusions for other vaccine issues examined by the IOM committee.

Even recent news articles indicate that many of the IOM Immunization Safety Review Committee members are backing away from the harsh recommendations in the report that call for no further research into the connection between vaccines and autism. Such a statement took the most of the medical and research community by surprise for it is the antithesis of all that medicine and research strives to promote...answers to questions and hypotheses.

Mercury-free vaccines

It is important to have mercury free (or at most trace amounts of mercury) alternatives available to the population in order to comply with any future legislation. This form will document that there are indeed mercury free and/or trace mercury vaccines available for the pediatric population. There are, however, still several adult vaccines that are not presently mercury free. Obviously, any legislation will need to consider this reality and simply require that once these adult vaccines are available in a mercury free or trace mercury formulation, that they be the preferred injectables for adults patients. Since not all vaccines are mercury free, some consideration will need to be included in the bill for a limited phase-in or short grace period to allow the manufacturers to produce a mercury free product. A provision to call for their removal when suitable replacements are available seems to be a prudent action as well.

Recent statements made by well-meaning state legislators saying that a bill to ban mercury is not needed because industry is moving towards its removal are, unfortunately, dead wrong. One need only to look at history to see why. Asbestos was banned in 1989 and everyone knows of its severe health consequences; however, a federal court overturned the ban on a technicality in 1991 and the ban was never re-filed. Consequently, asbestos is now in over 3,000 products in the US. Is there any reason to think that industry would treat the profitable compound, Thimerosal, any differently?

Conclusion

It is disheartening to realize the damage this fiasco will ultimately inflict on the integrity of many in our public health profession, especially those in critical policy-making positions. The loss of credibility in the area of research alone, both to scientists and institutions will reverberate through the profession for many years. It will place such an undue burden on a medical profession already laboring to meet the needs of patients in an era of cost containment, risk management and pre-certification.

How daunting it seems for a truly dedicated medical professional to endure a loss of confidence in the very profession you have devoted so much time and effort while trying to mitigate the damage caused by the unrelenting efforts of various regulatory agencies, insurance companies, hospital administrations and others whose sole purpose in life seems to be to destroy the sacred physician/patient relationship. To what end…for what purpose?

It is difficult to fathom the reasoning of those individuals who willingly expose children to a KNOWN neurotoxin, risking the health and welfare of millions of children while unrepentantly manipulating data and research that will sacrifice the integrity of the entire medical profession to further their own interests. Have they NO moral or social conscience?

If you still have doubts about the toxicity of Thimerosal, please take a moment to read the Thimerosal Material Safety Data Sheet from Sigma, a manufacturer of Thimerosal. Or view a vial of Thimerosal which features the international symbol for POISON (the skull and crossbones).

Is Thimerosal Dangerous?