Vaccine findings confirm fears - mercury levels were too high

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Vaccine findings confirm fears

Some parents long suspected mercury levels were too high.

By Marisa Lagos

Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, February 10, 2005 10:05 AM PST

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Parents of children with autism said this week's revelation that at

least one pharmaceutical company knew of the high levels of mercury in

vaccinations years before disclosing it further supports their

suspicions that the poison causes neurodevelopmental disorders.

Many parents have long been suspicious of the effects of vaccines

containing thimerosal, a compound used to guard against contamination

and which is almost 50 percent ethyl mercury. Until recently, the

neurotoxin was used in many pediatric vaccines; public health officials

first acknowledged the high levels of mercury in those shots in 1999.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times uncovered a 1991 memo from a Merck &

Co. vaccinologist -- written to the president of the company's vaccine

division -- warning that infants who get their shots on time could

receive up to 87 times the recommended daily amount of mercury from fish.

Parents such as Kim Garrison of San Francisco and Hoffiz of

Danville link that heightened amount of mercury to the problems their

children have had, although many doctors say no reputable studies

reinforce their claim.

Hoffiz has two children, now 8 and 5. Her daughter, , is

learning-impaired and her son, , has severe autism. She believes

both suffer from mercury poisoning.

" My kids are a perfect example of the least amount of damage mercury can

cause to the greatest, " said Hoffiz, who runs the Sensory Center in

Pleasanton, a program meant to help patients dealing with autism, other

neurological disorders and brain injuries through " brain exercises. "

Garrison's 12-year-old son, Tod, was diagnosed when he was three. She

says no one in their family was autistic, and he was developing normally

until he received a combination MMR shot -- for measles, mumps and

rubella -- when he was a little over 1 year old.

" I think there is very strongly compelling evidence that my son was

poisoned, " Garrison said. " If somebody can argue the other way, I would

be more than happy to believe them. ... I get angry sometimes that I did

what the doctors told me, because I didn't want him to get ill, but I

think I could have poisoned my son. "

That thinking is common in parents whose children are autistic,

according to Bryna Siegel, the director of the Pervasive Developmental

Disorders Clinic at UC San Francisco. Siegel, who has acted as an expert

witness for pharmaceutical companies being sued by parents, sees no

correlation between the vaccinations and autism, pointing toward

numerous studies that have found just that.

" You have to balance emotion and science, " said Siegel, adding that

studies before the vaccines showed autistic children developing

normally, then losing skills -- such as language -- at the onset, much

like Tod did. " I really worry about people going without vaccines for

their kids -- people forget how deadly the diseases are you're preventing. "

Email: mlagos@... <mailto:mlagos@...>

*

Vaccine findings confirm fears

Some parents long suspected mercury levels were too high.

By Marisa Lagos

Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, February 10, 2005 10:05 AM PST

<http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/10/news/20050210_ne04_vaccine.eml>ht\

tp://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/10/news/20050210_ne04_vaccine.txt

<http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2005/02/10/news/20050210_ne04_vaccine.prt>

Parents of children with autism said this week's revelation that at

least one pharmaceutical company knew of the high levels of mercury in

vaccinations years before disclosing it further supports their

suspicions that the poison causes neurodevelopmental disorders.

Many parents have long been suspicious of the effects of vaccines

containing thimerosal, a compound used to guard against contamination

and which is almost 50 percent ethyl mercury. Until recently, the

neurotoxin was used in many pediatric vaccines; public health officials

first acknowledged the high levels of mercury in those shots in 1999.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times uncovered a 1991 memo from a Merck &

Co. vaccinologist -- written to the president of the company's vaccine

division -- warning that infants who get their shots on time could

receive up to 87 times the recommended daily amount of mercury from fish.

Parents such as Kim Garrison of San Francisco and Hoffiz of

Danville link that heightened amount of mercury to the problems their

children have had, although many doctors say no reputable studies

reinforce their claim.

Hoffiz has two children, now 8 and 5. Her daughter, , is

learning-impaired and her son, , has severe autism. She believes

both suffer from mercury poisoning.

" My kids are a perfect example of the least amount of damage mercury can

cause to the greatest, " said Hoffiz, who runs the Sensory Center in

Pleasanton, a program meant to help patients dealing with autism, other

neurological disorders and brain injuries through " brain exercises. "

Garrison's 12-year-old son, Tod, was diagnosed when he was three. She

says no one in their family was autistic, and he was developing normally

until he received a combination MMR shot -- for measles, mumps and

rubella -- when he was a little over 1 year old.

" I think there is very strongly compelling evidence that my son was

poisoned, " Garrison said. " If somebody can argue the other way, I would

be more than happy to believe them. ... I get angry sometimes that I did

what the doctors told me, because I didn't want him to get ill, but I

think I could have poisoned my son. "

That thinking is common in parents whose children are autistic,

according to Bryna Siegel, the director of the Pervasive Developmental

Disorders Clinic at UC San Francisco. Siegel, who has acted as an expert

witness for pharmaceutical companies being sued by parents, sees no

correlation between the vaccinations and autism, pointing toward

numerous studies that have found just that.

" You have to balance emotion and science, " said Siegel, adding that

studies before the vaccines showed autistic children developing

normally, then losing skills -- such as language -- at the onset, much

like Tod did. " I really worry about people going without vaccines for

their kids -- people forget how deadly the diseases are you're preventing. "

Email: mlagos@... <mailto:mlagos@...>