press release on thimerosal lawsuit

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http://www.wiselawfirm.com/mercury.htm

Press Release

Waters & Kraus Release Regarding Thimerosal

An announcement was made today by the law firm of Waters & Kraus, the

firm filed the first known lawsuit alleging that a mercury

preservative in children's vaccines caused neurological damage to an

infant ultimately diagnosed with autism. Waters & Krause is leading a

consortium of ten firms in as many states that are actively

prosecuting cases of this nature (firms listed below). Andy Waters,

the lead attorney in the cases, announced that his firm is now in

possession of a previously unreleased confidential report authored by

Centers for Disease Control scientists which studied autism as a

potential neurological injury caused by mercury in children's

vaccines.

A different version of the report was made public and has been cited

by the recent Institute of Medicine study as inconclusive on the

issue

of whether the mercury-based vaccine preservative known as thimerosal

has contributed to cause a nationwide epidemic of regressive autism

and other neurological disorders in small children. The confidential

version of the study, however, clearly demonstrated that an exposure

to more than 62.5 micrograms of mercury within the first three months

of life significantly increased a child's risk of developing autism.

Specifically, the study found a 2.48 times increased risk of autism –

that is to say, children with the exposure were more than twice as

likely to develop autism as children not exposed.

In the United States, courts of law have generally held that a

relative increased risk of 2.0 or higher is sufficient to

substantiate

that a given exposure caused disease. As but one example, in the case

of Cook v. United States, 545 F.Supp. 306, at 308 (Northern

District –

California 1982) the Court stated that, " in a vaccine case, a

relative

risk greater than 2.0 establishes that there is a greater than 50%

chance that the injury was caused by the vaccine. "

Waters indicated that, in many of the cases his firm has evaluated,

including the case filed in a Texas state court on behalf of the

Counter family, the affected child received more than 62.5 micrograms

of mercury through pediatric vaccines in the first three months of

life.

The confidential report, which was obtained by the SAFEMINDS support

and advocacy group, states: " As for the exposure evaluated at 3

months

of age, we found increasing risks of 'neurological developmental

disorders' with increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal

within

the group of 'developmental disorders'

for the sub-group called

'specific delays,' and within this sub-group for the specific

disorder

'developmental speech disorder,' and for 'autism,' 'stuttering' and

'attention deficit disorder.' "

Waters pointed out that the confidentiality study's lead author,

Verstraeten, has since left the Centers for Disease Control

and

is now employed by GlaxoKline, a manufacturer of

thimerosal-containing vaccines for many years that is defendant in

numerous suits pending nationwide. " We have asked GlaxoKline to

provide Mr. Verstraeten's deposition in order to understand if

conflict of interest issues may have played a role in the CDC's

decision to keep this report confidential, and specifically, their

failure to reveal it to the Institute of Medicine. "

Waters called the report's contents and the fact that it was kept

from

the public as " shocking, but unfortunately not surprising, given the

political influence of pharmaceutical companies and the tremendous

liability they face if they are forced to compensate thousands of

families for the costs of care that these children require. " Waters

added that " no amount of money can give these children back the

potential that they were born with, and no amount of money will

comfort the parents that watched helplessly as their children

literally just slipped away. " The purpose of the lawsuits his firm is

currently prosecuting, said Waters, is " to bring to the surface the

truth on this issue, a truth that government agencies seem unwilling

to admit, perhaps for fear that parents will stop vaccinating their

children, and to force the companies that profited from this

disastrous mistake to shoulder the responsibility that so many

families now bear on their own, often without even the aid of health

insurance benefits. "

Media inquiries should be directed to Miles at

Client inquiries should be directed to Gibson at

, or to the firms listed below.

Other firms working with Waters & Kraus to prosecute individual cases

involving thimerosal exposure are:

Evert & Weathersby, L.L.C

3405 Piedmont Road, Suite 225

Atlanta, GA 30305-1764

Tel.

Doran & , LLP

1234 Deleware Avenue

Buffalo, NY 14209

Tel.

Dogan & Wilkinson

726 Delmas Avenue

Pascagoula, MS 39567

Tel.

O'Connell & O'Sullivan

217 N. McLean Blvd., Suite 2C

Elgin, IL 60123

Tel.

Hendrickson & Long

214 Capital Street

P.O. Box 11070

ton, WV 25339

Tel.

& Kriger, APLC

40925 County Center Drive, Suite 210

Temecula, CA 92591

Tel.

Wallace & Graham

525 N. Main Street

Salisbury, NC 28144

Tel.

Wise & n PC

3555 College Avenue

Alton, IL 62002

Tel.

Martzell & Bickford

338 Lafayette Street

New Orleans, LA 70130

Tel.

Nance, Cacciatore, and Hamilton

525 North Harbor Blvd.

Melbourne, FL 32935

Tel.

Ferraro & Associates, P.A.

First Union Financial Center

200 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 3800

Miami, FL 33131

Tel.

Cantor, Arkema, and Edmonds P.C.

First National Bank Building

823 East Main Street

P.O. Box 561

Richmond, VA 23218-0561

Tel.

son, Gilbert, Cook & Maguire LC

715 North

P.O. Box 1180

Cape Girardueau, MO 63702-1180

Tel.