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The decade-long debate over what has caused this country's frightening spike of childhood autism once again is exploding… Reigniting the debate is the much-publicized book "Evidence of Harm" by David Kirby, as well as the report titled "Deadly Immunity" by environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In brief, Kirby and Kennedy argue that federal health officials, with the help of vaccine-makers and some in Congress, have deliberately downplayed, even covered up, evidence that thimerosal - a preservative containing mercury - in childhood vaccines is the prime trigger behind the explosion of autism in U.S. children the last 15 years. Although...

Can a Blood Test Predict Your Child's Autism Risk?   Autism is an epidemic brain disorder that affects an estimated two to five out of every 1,000 children. Usually seen as children become toddlers, telltale symptoms include difficulty with social interaction and repetitive behaviors. While no one knows exactly what causes autism -- though some studies have linked its occurrence with childhood vaccines -- determining autism with a blood test may be a possibility. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, reported children with autism show different immune system responses from children without the disorder, and these might be...

FDA should take closer look at Thimerosal When you think of the Food and Drug Administration, what image comes to mind? For some, it is a bloated bureaucracy that tries to regulate every substance entering our bodies. For others, it is a necessary administration that keeps us safe and healthy. Taking the latter into consideration, did you know that the FDA has issued 87 product recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts since January? Almost daily, some food or drug is either mandated or voluntarily recalled by the FDA, often without a single case of a health problem. The FDA just...

Radio shock jock Don Imus (search) is on a rampage about the vaccine preservative thimerosal (search) allegedly causing autism (search). A closer look at the facts, however, reveals that while thimerosal is safe, Imus unfortunately appears to be suffering from a case of Charlie McCarthy Syndrome, with his eco-crusader wife as the ventriloquist. Since the beginning of March, Imus has been ranting about thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination from fungi and bacteria in countless vaccines administered to adults and children since the 1930s. But in 1999, frenzied and junk science-fueled activists goaded wobbly-kneed pharmaceutical companies, federal public...

Study: Mercury damage to babies costs billions Saturday, March 5, 2005 6:38 PM CST  WASHINGTON (AP) - Lower IQ levels linked to mercury exposure in the womb costs the United States $8.7 billion a year in lost earnings potential, according to a study released Monday by researchers at a New York hospital.   The Mount Sinai Center for Children's Health and the Environment combined a number of previous studies to determine hundreds of thousands of babies are born every year with lower IQ associated with mercury exposure.   Using work examining the effects of lead exposure on IQ, researchers determined...

For Immediate Release: Contact: Jaillene Hunter, (202) 225-3671; (202)-577-5285 February 17, 2005 Jaillene.Hunter@mail.house.gov Weldon/Maloney Introduce Legislation Banning Mercury From Vaccines Legislation Eliminates This Exposure For Children and Pregnant Women (Washington, D.C.) - U.S. Reps. Dave Weldon, M.D. (R-FL) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) reintroduced H.R. 881 today eliminating mercury from vaccines. Given increasing concerns about mercury exposures and the body's ability to eliminate mercury, this bill will virtually eliminate the mercury exposure from vaccines. In 1999 the Public Health Service and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended removal of thimerosal from child vaccines. Five years later, thimerosal (50% mercury) remains in...

Hi Everyone, I am the father of a 3 year old, recovering autistic son. We got the diagnosis at 18 months and in the time since I have dedicated myself to understanding this disorder and recovering my son from it. I have learned that autism is really mercury poisoning. The epidemic we are seeing now is the result of the mercury preservative in vaccines. This is not to say that autism cannot occur in other ways. It can. But the explosion we are seeing today is directly linked to the increase in mercury given to our children in the early...

Panel Says More Research on Possible Connection May Not Be Worthwhile 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. The conclusion came in an 81-page report requested by two federal agencies to address the doubts raised by a small but vocal group of parents who question the safety of childhood vaccines. A 14-person panel of experts urged more research on autism but said further pursuit of possible links between vaccines and the devastating...

An examination of scientific studies worldwide has found no convincing evidence that vaccines cause autism, according to a committee of experts appointed by the Institute of Medicine. In particular, no link was found between autism and the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine or vaccines that contain a mercury preservative called thimerosal. The committee released its eighth and final report yesterday in Washington. Some parents of autistic children immediately protested. Mark Blaxill, the father of an 8-year-old girl with autism, said the committee's conclusions were premature. Studies are under way that should not be dismissed, said Mr. Blaxill, who is a director of the...

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37874 Saturday, April 3, 2004 Feds won't warn parents about vaccineContains mercury eliminated from other shots due to health concerns Posted: April 3, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The government has decided not to warn parents a mercury-laced preservative virtually eliminated from other vaccines because of health concerns will be included in flu shots given to hundreds of thousands of infants and toddlers this fall. The decision by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend the shots with the preservative...

CDC Vaccine Data Leads Scientists to Shocking DiscoveryMonday February 9, 9:20 am ET CHILDREN 27-TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DEVELOP AUTISM WITH EXPOSURE TO MERCURY- CONTAINING VACCINES, FINDINGS REVIEWED AT TODAY'S IOM MEETING IN DC WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Institute of Medicine will hold a one-day meeting to review important new research on the link between thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in vaccines, and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. One of the larger studies under review comes from the CDC's own Vaccine Safety Datalink. Under independent investigation, CDC's data concludes children are 27-times more likely to develop autism...

<p>In the spring of 2001, thimerosal (an ethylmercury-containing preservative) was removed from all routinely recommended vaccines given to young infants. As a consequence, lawsuits claiming that vaccines cause neurological damage, specifically autism, are now quietly amassing across the country. Soon, judges and jurors may decide whether thimerosal in vaccines caused harm.</p>

<p>In the spring of 2001, thimerosal (an ethylmercury-containing preservative) was removed from all routinely recommended vaccines given to young infants. As a consequence, lawsuits claiming that vaccines cause neurological damage, specifically autism, are now quietly amassing across the country. Soon, judges and jurors may decide whether thimerosal in vaccines caused harm.</p>

<p>Everyone in our business learns to take a punch, but even we've been surprised by the furious response to an editorial we ran a few weeks ago about vaccines. The subject deserves further attention, not least because the goal of our antagonists appears to be to shut down public debate on the matter.</p>

A new study from Denmark tends to discount widely held fears that a mercury-based preservative formerly used in childhood vaccines may be responsible for the rapid rise in diagnoses of autism. In the study, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, a team of Danish doctors counted all the diagnoses of autism in the country from 1971 to 2000. They found no decrease after 1992, when Denmark became the first country in the world to ban the preservative, thimerosal. Rather, autism diagnoses continued to skyrocket on the same trajectory that began in the late 1980's, rising from less than one...

<p>If being a "moderate" in today's Washington means going out of your way to thwart the will of current federal law, send a vital industry into bankruptcy and hold the health of America's children hostage, someone may have to redefine the term.</p>