Really? Who are all these people, and how can I get in on that money? To date, no US drug manufacturer has been forced to pay out a class-action settlement in a mercury-based lawsuit. So where is this money being made?
I thought the article was excellent- it asked a lot of hard-hitting questions and gave a real-world example of the damage this stuff is causing.
One thing I have to wonder, though, is why so many people are so hot to defend thimerosal. I won't stoop so low as to imply that there's money involved here, but it is a bit odd to me. It's a bit like defending lead paint when there's mounting evidence against it.
What if, just hypothetically, a terrorist organization had infiltrated our water supply and poisoned it with a substance containing 50% mercury by weight, say, if they dumped a ton of thimerosal in a reservoir? What would happen then? Woud the government test the water and decide that since it's a FDA-approved preservative that there's no danger? I seriously doubt it. But that's exactly what we're being asked to believe in the case of thimerosal and vaccines. Cases of autism have risen from 1 in 100,000 in the 1950's to 1 in 166 today. The only real correlation is the increasing incidence of environmental, industrial, and medical mercury.
The only thing 'egregiously bad' in this case is the government's handling of the problem. Instead of honest research we get coverups and back-door, under-the-table deals with drug companies under the cover of 'national security'.
Al Qaeda couldn't have done more damage to us than Merck, Ely Lilly and every other company manufacturing this garbage have already done.
There's a large "alternative medicine" industry built around mercury. For example, see a Google of homeopath mercury.
One direct example: there are numerous dentists who've made a lot of money by replacing amalgam (mercury-containing) fillings. (See, e.g., this Quackwatch article -- I can't verify the author's medical claims, but no matter -- the monetary aspects are at issue here.)
Anecdotally, my cousin recently described to me some sort of witch-doctor-sounding "mercury test" administered by her naturopath. It apparently consisted of waving a bottle of mercury in front of her belly and looking for, well, something....
Again, I stand by my initial assessment. The article itself is egregiously bad.