Re: Re: Rep Dan Burton's testimony about autism with Congress ~ Mercury Vaccines

[Guest guest]

And then God hits you on the head with a sledge hammer and says " It

would be so much easier if you just listened! " Someday soon I think the

sledgehammer will fall and we will have a huge sigh of relief at our

house and a big hug for Representative Burton. .....T

>

>

> :Rep. Dan Burton Addresses the House of Representatives – Says Mercury

> in Vaccines Causes Autism More Info

>

> Cites New Research Showing Mercury Causes Autism

>

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> Rep. Dan Burton Addresses Congress on Mercury

>

> Cites New Evidence Showing Mercury Connection to Autism

>

> For Links To Rep. Burton's Letter to Vacine Court and To Read the

> DeSoto Study Click Here : _http://a-_ (http://a-/)

> champ.org/vaccinecochamp.org/vchamp.org/vac

>

> BLOOD LEVELS OF MERCURY ARE RELATED TO DIAGNOSIS OF AUTISM -- (House

> of Representatives - December 11, 2007)

> The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the

> gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.

>

> Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, it's late at night here in the

> Capitol, and most of my colleagues are in their offices or have gone

> home. But I want to talk about an issue that's very, very important

> that we've been talking about now for the last 8 years.

>

> I was chairman of the Government Reform Committee for 6 years, and

> during that time, my grandson became autistic; and we checked to find

> out what was the cause, trying to find out, because my daughter and

> her husband were just extremely upset about it, as we were as

> grandparents. And we found that he had received nine shots in one

> day, seven of which had a product called themarasol, a preservative,

> in it. And the themarasol was 50 percent ethylmercury. And so I

> decided to have hearings to try to find out if the ethylmercury in

> those vaccines had anything to do with the autistic problem my

> grandson had. And we found, by having many, many hearings over a 4-

> year period, we found that scientists from all over the world and

> leading doctors and educators here that work with autistic children,

> that the mercury in the vaccines did contribute to the autistic

> epidemic that we had.

>

> We used to have one in 10,000 children that were diagnosed as being

> autistic. One in 10,000. Today the Centers for Disease Control will

> tell you it's one out of 150. It's an absolute epidemic in this

> country. And we have been fighting and fighting and fighting to make

> sure that those families who have been damaged and those children who

> have been damaged by autism get some kind of compensation. And that's

> why, and I think in 1986 we passed what was called the Vaccine Injury

> Compensation Fund, and it took some of the money from the

> pharmaceutical companies when they sold their vaccine products to put

> into this fund to take care of people who are damaged by vaccines.

> And one of the reasons we did that was because of the issue of

> autism, although at that time I didn't know much about it.

>

> In any event, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund has about $3

> billion in it, and the people who's children have been adversely

> affected by mercury and have autism have not been able to get

> anything out of that. They have to go through a process and see a

> special master, and he has to judge whether or not the information

> that he has and the information they have lead them to believe that

> the mercury in the vaccines caused autism. And so far the special

> masters have not been able to ascertain, according to them, that the

> mercury in the vaccines does cause autism.

>

> Well, last week, 2 years ago, let's see, 4 years ago there was a

> report, 2004, that said that there was definitely no connection

> between the mercury and the vaccinations and the children getting

> autism. Well, this past November, just last month, two doctors, Dr.

> DeSoto and Dr. T. Hitlan, both very renowned doctors

> across this country, they have Ph.D.s in medicine, they wrote an

> article in the Journal of Child Neurology. And you can't discount

> this. What they're saying is fact. I want to read to you the summary

> of what they said. They said: ``The question of what is leading to

> the apparent increase in autism is of great importance. Like the link

> between aspirin and heart attack, even a small effect can have a

> major health implication. If there is any link between autism and

> mercury, it is absolutely crucial that the first reports of the

> question are not falsely stated and that no link occurs.''

>

> Now, get this: ``We have reanalyzed the data set forth originally

> reported in 2004 and have found that the original P value was in

> error and that a significant relation does exist between the blood

> levels of mercury and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder.

> Moreover, the hair sample analysis results offer some support for the

> idea that persons with autism may be less efficient and more variable

> at eliminating mercury from the blood.''

>

> The fact of the matter is the mercury in the vaccines causes autism.

> It's not the only cause of autism. But now we have scientific

> evidence by two leading doctors in the Journal of Child Neurology

> that says without doubt, the mercury in the vaccines does cause

> autism, is a major contributing factor.

>

> Well, I've written, contacted Congressman Kucinich, who's chairman of

> the subcommittee that deals with this in the Capitol, and I've also

> contacted the special masters that decide these cases and have urged

> them to re-evaluate all of these cases where people who have autistic

> children have found that the mercury in the vaccines may have been a

> major cause.

>

> Now we know that it is a cause of autism, and those people who have

> suffered, and those kids who have suffered need to be compensated out

> of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund.

>

> So I'd like to say to my colleagues, I hope you will join me in

> making sure that the information I just read gets out to everybody.

> These kids are going to live to be 50, 60, 70 years old, and unless

> there's some help for them, they're going to be a real burden on the

> taxpayers and on society. We have an obligation to make sure they're

> taken care of.

>

> I hope all of my colleagues will read this statement tonight and help

> us to change the attitude of our health agencies and the special

> masters dealing with this problem.

>

> In November 2007, the well-respected scientific journal, the Journal

> of Child Neurology, published an article authored by Drs. M.

> DeSoto and T. Hiltlan (PhDs), detailing their

> findings on the relationship between mercury and autism spectrum

> disorders. The article was entitled ``Blood Levels of Mercury are

> Related to Diagnosis of Autism: A Reanalysis of an Important Data

> Set.''

>

> To summarize the article, Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlan reanalyzed a data

> set the subject of a 2004 study that found no relationship between

> mercury and autism. By reexamining the data set, Drs. DeSoto and

> Hiltlan determined that the conclusions of the 2004 study were wrong,

>

> and that a relation does exist between the blood levels of mercury

> and diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder.

> As Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlan noted in their article, there has been a

> marked increase in the diagnosis of autism in this country over the

> last 20 years. In fact we have gone from an autism rate of 1 in

> 10,000 to 1 in 150. So, answering the question of what is (and is

> not) a possible contributing cause of autism is crucial, not only to

> the millions of American families currently affected by autism but to

> future generations.

>

> We simply cannot dismiss or downplay scientific research, which has

> the potential to unlock the mysteries surrounding what is causing our

> Nation's autism crisis. We owe it

>

> to the thousands of families living with autism to follow the science

> wherever it may lead.

>

> That's why in late November, I wrote to the Chairman of the House

> Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, Representative Dennis Kucinich; and

> the Special Masters assigned to the Congressionally-the Special Maste

> Vaccine Program within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, alerting

> them to the findings in Drs. DeSoto and Hiltlan's latest research.

>

> Specifically, I asked the Special Masters to take Drs. DeSoto and

> Hiltlan's latest findings into consideration as they carry out their

> mandate of managing and adjudicating childhood vaccine claims. I

> asked Chairman Kucinich to hold a hearing on the environmental risks

> of mercury in childhood vaccines before the 110th Congress ends.

>

> Given the high stakes involved, scientific reports discussing a

> connection between blood mercury levels and autism deserve serious

> consideration and review by the medical and scientific community.

>

> During my tenure as Chairman of the House Committee on Government and

> Reform, I spent 6 years researching and hearing testimony from the

> autism advocacy and scientific communities about the autism epidemic

> sweeping our country. Over and over again, questions of causation,

> namely the use of thimerosal--namely the use of thimerosal--<WBR>the men

> in childhood vaccines were raised.

>

> Here's what I learned:

>

> A number of credible national and international scientists testified

> before the Committee that mercury in vaccines is a contributing

> factor in developing neurological disorders, including, but not

> limited to, modest declines in intelligent quotient, autism, and

> Alzheimer's disease. And the body of evidence to support that

> conclusion gets larger everyday.

>

> Experience tells us that, as with any other epidemic, while there may

> be underlying genetic susceptibilities, there usually is also some

> type of environmental trigger as well--be it exposure to a virus,

> fungus, heavy metal, or pollutant. There has never, to the best of my

> knowledge, been a purely genetic epidemic.

>

> Genetics alone cannot explain how we went from 1 in 10,000 children

> with autism spectrum disorders 20 years ago to 1 in 150 today. The

> increase happened far too quickly for a genetic shift.

>

> As mercury is a known bio-accumulative neurotoxin, it is biologically

> plausible that it is a contributing factor to our Nation's autism

> epidemic.

>

> Autism has no cure, and while it is a life-changing condition, it is

> not a life-threatening disease. This means that the autistic children

> of today will be the autistic adults and autistic seniors, 20, 30,

> 50, even 70 years from now. Our Nation is ill prepared to deal with

> the complex educational, financial, housing, and health care

> challenges posed by a generation of autistic individuals.

>

> My only grandson is autistic, so this is an issue that is very close

> to my heart; and for the last several years I have fought hard to

> raise awareness of this disease, and increase research into the

> causes of autism, as well as new treatments for those suffering with

> autism.

>

> As a Nation, I believe, we have a collective responsibility to do

> everything we can to not only stop the further spread of this disease

> but to help the millions of children, adults and families afflicted

> with it.

>

> --END--

>

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