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March 21, 2003

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www.aapsonline.org

Study: Childhood Vaccines Exceed Federal Guidelines for Mercury & Link

with

Neurological Disorders & Heart Disease in Children

Complete Ban Could Prevent Autism, Speech Disorders

Washington - A new study of mercury in childhood vaccines demonstrates

that the doses

are in excess of the Federal Safety Guidelines, and shows alarming

evidence for a link

between these excessive doses of mercury from thimerasol-containing

vaccines and

neurodevelopment disorders such as autism and speech disorders, as well as

heart disease

Those are the findings of the study published in the current issue of the

peer-reviewed

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JP & S), authored by Mark

Geier, M.D.,

Ph.D, President of The Genetic Centers of America, and Geier.

The authors also conclude that the U.S. should ban the use of thimerosal

in all vaccines. " It is

to be hoped that complete removal of thimerosal from all childhood

vaccines will help to

stem the tragic, apparently iatrogenic epidemic of autism and speech

disorders that the

United States is now facing, " write the authors.

The authors point to exploding rates of autism since introduction of

thimerosal in vaccines. In

less than 20 years, the rate increased by more than 800 percent, from one

in about 2,500

children in the mid-1980s to one in about 300 children in 1996.

" Many in the scientific community have, initially, been highly skeptical

that thimerosal, an

ethylmercury preservative in childhood vaccines, could be associated with

neurodevelopment disorders, " write the Geiers.

BACKGROUND: In 2001, the Institute of Medicine concluded that exposure to

mercury

in vaccines and neurodevelopment disorders could not be linked because of

indirect and

incomplete information, but that the link was biologically possible.

This study now confirms that, showing that there was a 2 to 6-fold

increased incidence of

neurodevelopment disorders following an additional 75-100 microgram dosage

of mercury

from thimerosal-containing vaccines compared to thimerosal-free vaccines.

METHODOLGY: The study consists of two parts. In the first, the authors

evaluated the

doses of mercury that children received from thimerosal-containing

vaccines, as part of

routine US childhood immunization schedule. Those doses were compared to

the US

Federal Safety Guidelines for the oral ingestion of methylmercury.

Secondly, in order to analyze the effects of thimerosal in vaccine

recipients, they analyzed

the incidence rates of neurodevelopment disorders and heart disease

reported following

thimerosal-containing vaccines in comparison to thimerosal-free vaccines.

The data used

was from the government's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS).

Vaccines

compared were Diptheria-Tetanus-whole-cell-Pertussis and

Diptheria-Tetanus-acellur-Pertussis.

Also, the authors analyzed data from the US Department of Education on the

number of

children of various ages in US schools who were reported with various

types of disabilities

in comparison to the mercury dose that children received from thimerosal

in their childhood

vaccines.

CONCLUSION: " In light of voluminous literature supporting the biologic

mechanisms for

mercury-induced adverse reactions, the presence of amounts of mercury in

thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines exceeding Federal Safety

Guidelines for the oral

ingestion of mercury, and previous epidemiological studies showing adverse

reactions to

such vaccines, a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing

childhood vaccines and

neurodevelopment disorders and heart disease appears to be confirmed, "

write the authors.

The AAPS, a professional non-partisan association, was established in 1943

to protect

the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship from third-party

interference.