Chemist says mercury linked to autism spike

[Guest guest]

Way to go, Mike!! Let's all write a very nice letter to the editor (link

below)-and then forward this to our local papers.

http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/index.php?ntid=65414 & ntpid=2

Rob Zaleski: Chemist says mercury linked to autism spike

By Rob Zaleski

December 16, 2005

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Rob Zaleski is a 32-year veteran of the news business. His columns appear

every Monday and Wednesday in the Communities section.

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His detractors call him an alarmist.

" They hate me, " Mike Wagnitz acknowledged in an interview this week.

But if that's what it takes to get people's attention, hey, call him an

alarmist or anything else you want, Wagnitz said with a laugh.

A senior state chemist, Wagnitz is making health experts uneasy because of

his public statements urging people to think twice before getting a flu

shot this season. He thinks the shots are especially risky for pregnant

women and young kids.

Why? Because about 95 percent of the doses being distributed this winter

contain thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative that Wagnitz and others

believe is responsible for the startling increase in autism cases in the

United States since the early 1990s.

The federal government says that's hokum, noting that despite years of

study there's no scientific evidence that mercury in vaccines causes

autism. However, as a precaution, the U.S. Public Health Service in the

late 1990s asked manufacturers to start phasing thimerosal out of childhood

vaccines.

In fact, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention say flu shots are absolutely essential for

pregnant women and infants 6 to 23 months old. As for potential risks, they

claim that the amount of thimerosal in a child's dose is so tiny it poses

virtually no risk at all - a claim Wagnitz says is " pure propaganda. "

Still, health experts admit they have more questions than answers about

autism. As the National Institute of Mental Health noted in its 2005 annual

report on autism to Congress, " There are no effective means to prevent the

disorder, no fully effective treatment and no cure. "

Wagnitz, 52, has been speaking out about the possible link between vaccines

and autism for several years now, ever since his daughter Josie, now 8, was

diagnosed with autism in 2001.

To say he was shocked would be a colossal understatement, says Wagnitz,

" because, frankly, I'd never even heard of autism before that. I was this

trusting person who just did what the doctor told me to do. "

Then he began doing some research, and the deeper he dug, the more troubled

he became. After doing " some simple fifth-grade math, " Wagnitz says he

figured out that the amount of mercury in flu shots - 50,000 micrograms per

liter in the multi-dose vials - is 250 times the amount that's considered

safe for liquid hazardous waste.

That's when he got mad and began started asking some very pointed

questions. So have a lot of other people - including Kennedy Jr.

who, like Wagnitz, believes that all vaccines should be thimerosal-free

despite the higher costs involved.

They want to know why, according to some scientists, the estimated number

of cases of autism has increased a mind-boggling 1,500 percent since 1991,

when the number of childhood vaccinations doubled.

And they want to know why one in every 166 children has autism today

compared to one in every 2,500 in 1991.

" The government says they're just doing a better job of noticing it, " says

Wagnitz. But anyone who's been around autistic kids and knows how loud and

disruptive they can be finds that extremely hard to believe, he says.

" I mean, like Kennedy Jr. said, 'Missing a kid with autism is like

missing a train wreck.' So when they say they're doing a better job of

finding them, I say, 'Then where are all the 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds

with autism?' "

Though he certainly doesn't relish the criticism, Wagnitz says his skin is

" thicker than leather right now " and that he'll continue to speak out until

all vaccines are thimerosal-free.

" No one wants to talk about my message. All they want to do is destroy the

messenger, " he says. " I mean, liquid waste needs to go to a hazardous waste

site if it contains more than 200 parts per billion of mercury. So anyone

with common sense would say you don't want to be injecting people with 250

times more mercury than hazardous waste.

" What more do you need to know? "

E-mail: rzaleski@...

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

$$ Donations to help in the work - accepted by Paypal account

vaccineinfo@... voicemail US 530-740-0561

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ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL

OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE.

******

" Just look at us. Everything is backwards; everything is upside down.

Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy

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and religions destroy spirituality " .... Ellner