F Kennedy Jr writes on thimerosal

[Guest guest]

Playing politics at kids' expense

Bill would insulate pharmaceutical firms from liability

06:42 PM PDT on Sunday, April 10, 2005

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/syndicated/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_11_a\

utism.f42d.html

Knight Ridder

By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has buried a provision in the

" Protecting America in the War on Terror Act " to insulate the

pharmaceutical industry from liability for venal actions that may have

poisoned an entire generation of Americans.

Mounting evidence suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative

in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of

autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays and other childhood

neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.

Prior to 1989, American infants generally received three vaccinations.

In the early 1990s, public-health officials dramatically increased the

number of Thimerosal-containing vaccinations without considering the

cumulative impact of the mercury load on developing brains.

AP photo

Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be

responsible for the exponential growth of autism.

Warning Issued

In a 1991 memo, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's

vaccination programs, warned the president of the company's vaccination

division that 6-month-old children administered the shots on schedule

would suffer mercury exposures 87 times the government safety standard

(400 times the current U.S. government's safe level). He recommended

that Thimerosal be discontinued, " especially when used on infants and

children. "

Merck ignored Hilleman's warning and, for eight years, government

officials added seven additional shots for children containing Thimerosal.

Mercury is a known brain poison, and autism rates began rising

dramatically in children who were administered the new vaccine regimens.

A decade ago the American Academy of Pediatrics estimated the autism

rate among American children to be 1 in 2,500. Today, the CDC places the

autism rate at 1 in 166, or one in 80 boys. Additionally, one in every

six children is now diagnosed with a related neurological disorder.

In 1998 the CDC's lead Thimerosal researcher, Dr. Verstraeten,

complained to his colleagues in a secret memo that, despite rerunning

and rethinking the research, the links between Thimerosal and autism

" just won't go away. "

Secret Meeting

In 2000, CDC, FDA and pharmaceutical companies called a secret meeting

to review Verstraeten's findings. According to transcripts, participants

were alarmed about the undeniable link between the mercury preservative

and autism. Dr. Bill Weil told the group, " You can play with (the

results) all you want. They are statistically significant. "

Dr. ston acknowledged he feared his grandchild getting

vaccinated. But the group was most concerned with keeping the findings

secret.

Numerous animal, DNA, epidemiological and other studies point to

Thimerosal as the culprit in America's epidemic of neurological disorders.

Autistic children have been shown to have higher mercury loads than

nonautistics, and there have been reports of significant improvements in

some brain-injured children by removing mercury from their bodies.

Most of the symptoms of autism are similar to the symptoms of mercury

poisoning. Recently, scientists have been able to induce autism in

certain mice by exposing them to Thimerosal.

In a recent study, former FDA scientist Dr. Jill uncovered a

scientific link that helps explain why Thimerosal injures some children

and not others. That study found that many autistic children are

genetically deficient in their capacity to produce glutathione, an

antioxidant generated in the brain that helps remove mercury from the

body, a harmless difference until the child is exposed to large

quantities of mercury.

Porter Bridges' experience is typical. In 1993, this healthy 4-month-old

slipped into a coma hours after receiving his vaccines.

Today, 11-year-old Porter is autistic, hyperactive and severely brain

damaged. He requires minute-to-minute supervision, is frequently

afflicted with violent seizures and is not yet toilet-trained.

After a seven-year legal fight, the U.S. government acknowledged that

Porter was damaged by his vaccines. There are now 520,000 autistics in

the United States with 40,000 new cases each year.

High Cost of Care

The cost of caring for autistic children is conservatively $40,000

annually. Families with children with autism and other neurological

diseases have filed more than 4,200 claims in the special federal

" Vaccine Court. " Some plaintiffs have also filed in trial courts.

Some Drug Makers Act

Thimerosal defendants include Merck, GlaxoKline, Aventis, Weyeth

and Eli Lilly. Frist's newly proposed " anti-terror " legislation would

create insurmountable burdens of proof for plaintiffs in these cases and

forbid states from banning Thimerosal.

Drug makers wary of liability have reduced Thimerosal in children's

vaccines in recent years, with the exception of Chiron and Aventis'

pediatric flu vaccine. Mercury-laced vaccine stocks were given to

children until the end of 2003.

Thimerosal's inventor, Eli Lilly, donated $226,000 to Frist's national

Republican Senate Campaign Committee in 2002 and bought 5,000 copies of

Frist's book on bioterrorism. Congress will vote on Frist's bill in the

near future.

Instead of demanding the immediate removal of Thimerosal from all

vaccines, and making the drug industry help defray the public and

private costs of caring for injured children, Frist's bill would give

the industry a free ride at public expense.

F. Kennedy Jr. is the chief prosecuting attorney for Riverkeeper

and a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

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