Wisconsin chemist says mercury linked to autism spike - Mike Wagnitz, autism parent

[Guest guest]

Chemist says mercury linked to autism spike

By Rob Zaleski

December 16, 2005

His detractors call him an alarmist.

http://www.madison.com/tct/news//index.php?ntid=65414 & ntpid=2

" They hate me, " Mike Wagnitz acknowledged in an interview this week.

But if that's what it takes to get people's attention, hey, call him an

alarmist or anything else you want, Wagnitz said with a laugh.

A senior state chemist, Wagnitz is making health experts uneasy because

of his public statements urging people to think twice before getting a

flu shot this season. He thinks the shots are especially risky for

pregnant women and young kids.

Why? Because about 95 percent of the doses being distributed this winter

contain thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative that Wagnitz and

others believe is responsible for the startling increase in autism cases

in the United States since the early 1990s.

The federal government says that's hokum, noting that despite years of

study there's no scientific evidence that mercury in vaccines causes

autism. However, as a precaution, the U.S. Public Health Service in the

late 1990s asked manufacturers to start phasing thimerosal out of

childhood vaccines.

In fact, both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention say flu shots are absolutely essential

for pregnant women and infants 6 to 23 months old. As for potential

risks, they claim that the amount of thimerosal in a child's dose is so

tiny it poses virtually no risk at all - a claim Wagnitz says is " pure

propaganda. "

Still, health experts admit they have more questions than answers about

autism. As the National Institute of Mental Health noted in its 2005

annual report on autism to Congress, " There are no effective means to

prevent the disorder, no fully effective treatment and no cure. "

Wagnitz, 52, has been speaking out about the possible link between

vaccines and autism for several years now, ever since his daughter

Josie, now 8, was diagnosed with autism in 2001.

To say he was shocked would be a colossal understatement, says Wagnitz,

" because, frankly, I'd never even heard of autism before that. I was

this trusting person who just did what the doctor told me to do. "

Then he began doing some research, and the deeper he dug, the more

troubled he became. After doing " some simple fifth-grade math, " Wagnitz

says he figured out that the amount of mercury in flu shots - 50,000

micrograms per liter in the multi-dose vials - is 250 times the amount

that's considered safe for liquid hazardous waste.

That's when he got mad and began started asking some very pointed

questions. So have a lot of other people - including Kennedy Jr.

who, like Wagnitz, believes that all vaccines should be thimerosal-free

despite the higher costs involved.

They want to know why, according to some scientists, the estimated

number of cases of autism has increased a mind-boggling 1,500 percent

since 1991, when the number of childhood vaccinations doubled.

And they want to know why one in every 166 children has autism today

compared to one in every 2,500 in 1991.

" The government says they're just doing a better job of noticing it, "

says Wagnitz. But anyone who's been around autistic kids and knows how

loud and disruptive they can be finds that extremely hard to believe, he

says.

" I mean, like Kennedy Jr. said, 'Missing a kid with autism is

like missing a train wreck.' So when they say they're doing a better job

of finding them, I say, 'Then where are all the 30-year-olds and

40-year-olds with autism?' "

Though he certainly doesn't relish the criticism, Wagnitz says his skin

is " thicker than leather right now " and that he'll continue to speak out

until all vaccines are thimerosal-free.

" No one wants to talk about my message. All they want to do is destroy

the messenger, " he says. " I mean, liquid waste needs to go to a

hazardous waste site if it contains more than 200 parts per billion of

mercury. So anyone with common sense would say you don't want to be

injecting people with 250 times more mercury than hazardous waste.

" What more do you need to know? "

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