Kirby questions role of mercury in causing disorder

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Yeah ! http://www.syracuse.com/business/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1155719770202510.xml & coll=1 Author probes vaccines, autism Kirby, speaking here Saturday, questions role of mercury in causing disorder. Wednesday, August 16, 2006By T. Mulder Staff writer When journalist Kirby first heard the theory that mercury in vaccines was triggering a wave of autism in U.S. children, it sounded far-fetched to him. But he started having second thoughts in November 2002. That's when the

news media reported a last-minute provision had been secretly inserted into the federal Homeland Security Bill that would dismiss all lawsuits filed by parents against drug companies for allegedly allowing dangerous levels of mercury in their children's vaccines. Few members of Congress knew about the provision. "Why would people go to such great lengths in secrecy to protect companies from liability for a product if there was no way this product could be associated with this disorder?" Kirby said. "My journalistic hackles got up." Kirby dug into the issue and wrote a book, "Evidence of Harm Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy," that was published last year. The book made the New York Times best-seller list and received the Investigative Reporters and Editors 2005 Award for outstanding investigative

reporting in a book. Movie rights have been optioned by the same Hollywood company that produced "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's documentary about global warming. Kirby will be in Syracuse Saturday. He's speaking at 10 a.m. at Storer Auditorium at Onondaga Community College. His talk is being sponsored by It's About Childhood & Family Inc., a nonprofit group based in ville. Kirby says he strongly suspects there is a link between mercury in vaccines and the dramatic rise in the number of cases of autism, attention deficit disorder and other neurological problems in U.S. children. "Mercury is really bad for kids, and the smaller you are and younger you are, the worse it is," he said. Unborn babies are particularly sensitive to mercury and other

chemicals. Mercury, which occurs naturally in the environment and exists in several forms, is a highly toxic substance that can destroy cells in the brain and nervous system. Thimerosal, a preservative widely used in children's vaccines until recently, is 49.6 percent mercury by weight. Starting in 1999, Thimerosal was removed from most routine vaccinations given to children after the federal government disclosed some infants may have been exposed to mercury levels in vaccines that exceeded federal safety limits. Thimerosal is still found in the majority of flu shots which the federal government recommends for pregnant women and children. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it is safe for women and children to get these vaccines. The FDA, however, is encouraging drug

makers to increase the manufacture of thimerosal-free flu shots. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine issued a report that said the bulk of evidence "favors rejection of a causal relationship" between thimerosal and autism. The federal Centers for Disease Control has also said it has found "no evidence of harm" from thimerosal in vaccines. Kirby, however, says the jury is out. Public health officials have not definitively proven mercury-laden vaccines are safe. He says there's plenty of compelling evidence gathered by researchers at Columbia, Harvard and other universities and medical schools supporting the mercury-autism connection. In his book, Kirby says public health officials allowed mercury exposures from childhood vaccines to more than double between 1988 and 1992 without

bothering to calculate potential risks. At the same time, there was a spike in autism cases from 1 in 10,000 cases in the 1980s, to 1 in 500 in the late 1990s, to 1 in 166 today. Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by repetitive behaviors, impairments in communication skills and social interactions. Mercury poisoning is characterized by similar symptoms, according to Kirby. The mercury-vaccine theory is controversial because many public health officials fear it will scare people away from getting their children vaccinated, opening the door to a rise in childhood diseases, according to Kirby. Dr. Steve Cochi, acting director of the CDC's national immunization program, is one of the harshest critics of the mercury-autism theory. In his book, Kirby quoted Cochi as calling the theory "junk science and disinformation" concocted by "charlatans" seeking to stir up "unfounded fears" among the public. Kirby says he's pro-immunization, but believes public health officials need to level with Americans. "If they came out and said, 'We made a terrible mistake. Mercury should not have been in there.' That would build trust," he said. In his book, Kirby documented numerous instances of stonewalling and cover-ups by federal regulators, medical groups and the pharmaceutical industry. FDA and CDC officials refused to be interviewed for the book. Kirby said the federal government has spent a lot of time and tax dollars trying to

disprove the mercury-autism link, but relatively little on pinpointing the cause of the autism epidemic. "If one of 166 kids were going blind or being kidnapped, we would have National Guard troops in the streets and it would be the number one public emergency," he said. "Imagine if kids were disappearing off the streets. To some of these parents, this is what it feels like. All we see is complacency and silence." You can reach T. Mulder at 470-2245 or jmulder@... __________________________________________________