NBC Backpeddles/censors Josh Shoemaker story

[Guest guest]

The link that once carried the transcript of the Shoemaker story on

NBC which aired last week has been radically altered. Instead of the

transcript, the report below appears instead. It is unclear whether

all the NBC affiliates who ran the story are doing this switch.

The original started like this:

Doctors Debate Using Chelation To Treat Autism

Froom WBAL TV, Baltimore affiliate, NBC.

http://www.sarnet.org/docche.htm

It's a treatment that's been around for decades -- it's called

chelation, and it's commonly used to treat lead poisoning.

But now some parents claim that chelation is bringing about dramatic

Change in their autistic children. And not without controversy.

Now almost four josh shoemaker is not his old self, his parents are

happy To say.

Angie Shoemaker, Josh's mother: " It's just not even comparable he's

just not the same child. "

Below is the revision.

Lenny

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A decades-old treatment commonly used for lead

poisoning may help autistic children.

But using the chelation treatments has not come without controversy.

The treatment involves a sulfur-based skin cream that doctors said

roots out toxins, like mercury, from the body.

" The sulfur grabs onto the mercury like a magnet. So, our body can

excrete it where it would never have the ability to do that on its own

without something like this, " said Dr. Phil DeMio, a doctor who

prescribes chelation for autism.

NBC News reported researchers have not reached a consensus about what

causes autism and most doctors see no place for chelation in dealing

with it.

Two years ago, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

commissioned a report that found no evidence of a link between mercury

and autism.

The federal Food and Drug Administration warns pregnant women to avoid

certain fish due to mercury's effects on children. The FDA also had a

mercury ingredient removed from most vaccines.

" As of now, mercury is not a cause of autism based on the studies we

know now, and chelation is not an acceptable form of treatment for

autism, " said Dr. Bill Goldman, a pediatrician.

Chelation is FDA approved, but only to treat lead poisoning. Federal

researchers are looking into whether it can help heart patients by

draining calcium from clogged arteries.