[NVIC] Telling Lies About Mercury

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National Vaccine Information Center Newsletter

e-NEWS

October 25, 2006

" Parents of the 100 children who attended Kiddie Kollege say some suffer

from seizures, peeling skin from fingers and feet, hyperactivity, and other

symptoms that could be associated with mercury exposure, which can cause

neurological and kidney problems. Though tests showed that the day care had

27 times the acceptable level of mercury vapors, health officials said the

children's exposure levels were not extreme after urine tests were

conducted. The officials say the children should not suffer adverse health

affects. " - Jan Hefler, Philadelphia Inquirer

" Only a small number of licensed and approved products still contain

thimerosal, and the available evidence supports FDA's conclusion that all

currently licensed vaccines and other pharmaceutical drug products

containing thimerosal are safe, " Dr. Shuren, the FDA's assistant

commissioner for policy, wrote in denying the petition. " - Bridge,

Associated Press

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

The obsessive need to protect the reputation of mercury appears to be a

contagious disease among U.S. government health officials. Whether it is

dismissing the potentially toxic effects of little children breathing in

mercury vapors or promoting the injection of mercury into the bloodstreams

of children via vaccines, public health officials just canonot bring

themselves to admit there is potential for harm and take action to prevent

it.

When the history of mercury poisoning of children is written - long after

those who are protecting the right of adults to expose children to mercury

are no longer in positions of power - the tragic legacy will live on in a

nation unprepared to deal with the human and economic costs of the mercury

policy.

Telling the people it is OK for humans to breathe, eat, use and be injected

with mercury is a lie. And that lie, along with many others told in the

name of the " greater good " is what will eventually bring down a public

health system and a profession that has lost its way.

N.J. official: Owners saw mercury warnings

At a hearing, she said representatives for the day-care building had

reviewed files.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

October 19, 2006

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/15794228.htm

By Jan Hefler

Inquirer Staff Writer

The state environmental commissioner said yesterday that the owners of the

Kiddie Kollege building must have known that the day- care site was tainted

with mercury because their own representatives had reviewed documents in

her office saying just that. The review took place before Kiddie Kollege

opened in a former thermometer factory in 2004.

" At that time, the building was on the known contaminated sites list, " said

Commissioner , adding that the building file would have

included letters and records indicating the property had never been cleaned

up..

made the statements during a special Assembly environmental

committee hearing in linville to examine how the day care was allowed

to open on the site of a former thermometer factory tainted with mercury.

Also at the hearing, which stretched more than five hours and drew about

100 people, said she had made changes in ranking the 16,000

contaminated sites that the Department of Environmental Protection oversees

so that the worst get cleaned up first.

She also noted that the DEP was investigating the state's registered 4,300

day-care centers to make sure no others are on or near a toxic site. But

she acknowledged that " it's most likely we'll find some. "

Absent from the hearing were Jim Sullivan Jr., the owner of the Kiddie

Kollege building, and his son, Jim Sullivan III, a real estate broker who

initially acquired the property in a tax foreclosure after the thermometer

business, Accutherm Inc., went bankrupt.

Neither the Sullivans nor their attorney returned calls for comment

yesterday. But state documents show that when DEP inspectors discovered

Kiddie Kollege operating on the toxic site in April, Sullivan III told them

he thought the site had been cleaned up. He showed them a 1996 U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency report that he interpreted as saying that

contamination levels were so low they would not be a threat to anyone's

health.

Yesterday, scoffed at that notion. She said the EPA report says the

building was not a health threat while it was secure and vacant.

" Everyone who works in real estate knows you need a 'no further action'

letter to clear a [contaminated] property for development, " the

commissioner said, referring to a standard document issued whenever a toxic

site is remediated and ready to be reused.

She also said that Target Environmental Inc., an Egg Harbor firm hired by

the Sullivans, had filed a request in 2003 to review environmental

documents pertaining to the building and then came to her office to do so.

The file would have had appropriate documentation that the property had not

been cleaned up, she said.

The state has launched a criminal investigation examining how a day care

could have opened on a toxic site.

Three Gloucester County legislators - Sen. Fred Madden and Assemblymen

Mayer and Moriarity - had been deputized to join the panel at

the hearing, which did not have subpoena powers to force witnesses to appear.

The lawmakers plan to introduce a bill today that would require day-care

operators to obtain environmental assessments and approvals before they

apply for permits. The bill, expected to be pushed quickly through the

Legislature, would double the penalties, to $50,000 a day, for owners of

contaminated sites who fail to obey cleanup orders.

Before declaring bankruptcy, the owner of Accutherm Inc., Philip Giuliano,

had ignored such a DEP order and then moved to Virginia. He has not

returned phone calls for comment.

Mayer said the bill was needed to prevent another contamination such as

Kiddie Kollege suffered.

But Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club,

said the hearing was just another " dog and pony show. "

While his club supports the bill, he said it's a little late and there's a

lot more that needs to be done. " This is my sixth hearing on contaminated

sites this year, " Tittel said. " The bill is good, but it gets at a very

small piece of the problem; they still have to fix DEP. "

The real problem, he said, is that the DEP is too lax and ignores existing

laws that could have prevented the Kiddie Kollege situation.

Bill Wolfe, a former DEP staffer who now heads Public Employees for

Environmental Responsibility, agreed. He is upset that the DEP doesn't have

a timetable and deadlines for making sure contaminated sites are cleaned up.

" The commissioner did not disclose the fact that the DEP just eliminated

rules that would require them to adhere to a timetable. She is offering

them grace periods, " he said.

Parents of the 100 children who attended Kiddie Kollege say some suffer

from seizures, peeling skin from fingers and feet, hyperactivity, and other

symptoms that could be associated with mercury exposure, which can cause

neurological and kidney problems.

Though tests showed that the day care had 27 times the acceptable level of

mercury vapors, health officials said the children's exposure levels were

not extreme after urine tests were conducted. The officials say the

children should not suffer adverse health affects.

But parents who spoke at the hearing yesterday had their doubts. Carolyn

Tanguay said her 4-year-old daughter attended Kiddie Kollege for two years

and would come home " complaining her brain was broken. "

Tanguay and others want health officials to do lifetime testing to check

for long-term effects. " I would like to look my daughter in the eyes and

tell her everything will be OK, " Tanguay said.

Contact staff writer Jan Hefler at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@....

Government rejects vaccine petition

Seattle Post Intelligencer

ASSOCIATED PRESS

October 24, 2006

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/24/ap/health/mainD8KV83100.shtml

WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials won't put new restrictions on the

use of a mercury-based preservative in vaccines and other medicines,

denying a petition that sought the limits because of health concerns.

A group called the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs petitioned the Food and

Drug Administration in 2004 seeking the restrictions on thimerosal, citing

concerns that the preservative is linked to autism. In a reply dated Sept.

26 but made public only Tuesday, the FDA rejected the petition.

" Only a small number of licensed and approved products still contain

thimerosal, and the available evidence supports FDA's conclusion that all

currently licensed vaccines and other pharmaceutical drug products

containing thimerosal are safe, " Dr. Shuren, the FDA's assistant

commissioner for policy, wrote in denying the petition.

" We're not accepting that answer, " said Dr. Mark Geier, one of the

petitioners. The group now plans to seek a court order that would force the

FDA to withdraw thimerosal from all vaccines and medicines unless the

agency can show the preservative is safe, Geier said.

Thimerosal, about 50 percent mercury by weight, has been used since the

1930s to kill microbes in vaccines. There have been suspicions that

thimerosal causes autism. However, studies that tracked thousands of

children consistently have found no association between the brain disorder

and the mercury-based preservative. Critics contend the studies are flawed.

Since 2001, all vaccines given to children 6 and younger have been either

thimerosal-free or contained only trace amounts of the preservative.

Thimerosal has been phased out of some, but not all, adult vaccines as well.

Most doses of the flu vaccine still contain thimerosal, though

manufacturers produce versions free of the preservative for use in

children. The FDA said it was in discussions with those manufacturers to

increase the supply of thimerosal-free flu vaccine.

There also are minute amounts of mercury, as thimerosal or phenylmercuric

acetate, in roughly 45 eye ointments, nasal sprays and nasal solutions, the

FDA said. Various antivenoms for black widow and snake bites also contain

thimerosal.

On the Net:

Thimerosal petition and response:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dock ets/dockets/04p0349/04p0349.htm

Thimerosal in vaccines:

http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm

NVIC E-News is a free service of the National Vaccine Information Center

and is supported through membership donations.

NVIC is funded through the financial support of its members and does not

receive any government subsidies. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co-

founder.

Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed

consent rights at www.nvic.org

NVIC

NVIC

National Vaccine Information Center

email: news@...

phone: 703-938-dpt3

web: http://www.nvic.org

National Vaccine Information Center | 204 Mill St. | Suite B1 | Vienna | VA

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

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

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm