The Following article was taken from the link below.
1. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/07/01/
autism_mercury_and_politics/
I thought you all might find it interesting. If they're willing to do this
to our children imagine what they are willing to do and still do to our
pets
every day!!
Some additional information on Thimerosal in veterinary vaccines. According
to several on-line sources which sell veterinary vaccines most of them
(vaccines) still contain Thimerosal even though it has been removed from
many human vaccines for use in the US. When questioned about mercury in
veterinary vaccines at least one of the vets didn't even know that
Thimerosal is a form of mercury. Need I say more?!
So on to the article as printed in The Boston Globe.
Autism, mercury, and politics
By Robert Kennedy Jr.
July 1, 2005
THE BOSTON GLOBE
MOUNTING EVIDENCE suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in
children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of
autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays, and other childhood
neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.
Prior to 1989, American infants generally received three vaccinations
(polio, measles-mumps-rubella, and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis). In the
early 1990s, public health officials dramatically increased the number of
Thimerosal-containing vaccinations without considering the cumulative impact
of the mercury load on developing brains.
In a 1991 memo, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's
vaccination programs, warned his bosses that 6-month-old children
administered the shots on schedule would suffer mercury exposures 87 times
the government safety standards. He recommended that Thimerosal be
discontinued and complained that the US Food and Drug Administration, which
has a notoriously close relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, could
not be counted on to take appropriate action as its European counterparts
had. Merck ignored Hilleman's warning, and for eight years government
officials added seven more shots for children containing Thimerosal.
Mercury is a known brain poison, and autism rates began rising dramatically
in children who were administered the new vaccine regimens. A decade ago the American Academy of Pediatrics estimated the autism rate among Americanchildren to be 1 in 2,500. Today, the CDC places the rate at 1 in 166, or 1
in 80 boys. Additionally, one in six children is now diagnosed with a
related neurological disorder.
In 2000, the CDC met with pharmaceutical companies and the FDA in secret to
review its findings linking Thimerosal with the dramatic rise in
neurological illnesses. According to transcripts, participants were alarmed
about the undeniable links between the Thimerosal and widespread brain
damage in children. Dr. Bill Weil told the group, ''You can play with [the
results] all you want. They are statistically significant." Dr. Richard
Johnston admitted he feared his grandchild getting a Thimerosal-containing
vaccine. But the group was most concerned with keeping the findings secret.
''Consider this embargoed information," said Dr. Roger Bernier, a senior
director at the National Immunization Program, at the meeting's close. The
CDC now says it has ''lost" the data that supported the crucial study and
has persistently defied congressional requests and federal law requiring it
to open up the federal Vaccine Safety Database to scientists and the public.
Numerous animal, DNA, epidemiological, and other studies point to Thimerosal
as a culprit in America's epidemic of neurological disorders. Autistic
children have been shown to have higher mercury loads than nonautistics, and
there have been reports of significant improvements in some brain-injured
children by removing mercury from their brains. Most of the symptoms of
autism are similar to the symptoms of mercury poisoning. Scientists have
been able to induce autism-like symptoms in mice by exposing them to
Thimerosal. A recent study by an FDA scientist, Dr. Jill James, found that
many autistic children are genetically deficient in their capacity to
produce glutathione, an antioxidant generated in the brain that helps remove
mercury from the body.
Government health agencies who green-lighted Thimerosal have turned a blind
eye to the hundreds of studies linking Thimerosal to a wide range of
neurological disorders and joined the pharmaceutical industry to gin up a
series of flawed European studies to exonerate Thimerosal. Those studies
examined children exposed to a tiny fraction of the Thimerosal given to
American kids and took advantage of the autism spike that resulted from
deceptive data-gathering in Scandinavia to argue that autism rates are
unrelated to Thimerosal use.
Drug makers wary of liability reduced Thimerosal in most children's vaccines
in recent years, but the preservative remains in flu shots, tetanus
boosters, and over-the-counter drugs. Mercury-laced vaccine stocks were
given to American children until the end of 2003.
Government officials who continue to champion Thimerosal should recognize
that this is not just a theoretical exercise in bureaucratic face-saving.
Their wrong-headed defense of Thimerosal safety in the face of overwhelmingscience is discouraging testing of promising treatments which may be
effective. They are depriving vulnerable populations from being identified
to avoid Thimerosal. They also cannot escape responsibility for their
failure to warn international health agencies and governments who, based
upon American assurances, are now injecting the developing world's children
with this brain-killing chemical.
Robert Kennedy Jr. is senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense
Council.
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