Vaccines Subject of Congressional Investigation

[Guest guest]

[From Metro West Daily News, Massachusetts]

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=124699 & format=\

graphic

*Vaccines the subject of new Congressional investigation*

By *Jon Brodkin*/ Daily News Staff

Friday, March 17, 2006

*C*ongress has asked for a new investigation into a potential link

between mercury-containing vaccines and autism, as some lawmakers claim

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has inadequately

researched the topic.

" If the federal government is going to have a study whose results

will be broadly accepted, such a study cannot be led by the CDC, " Sen.

ph Lieberman, D-Conn., and seven other members of Congress wrote in

a letter to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

A budget appropriation approved by Congress urges the NIEHS to

examine the Vaccine Safety Datalink, a CDC database that follows 7

million immunized children from 1990 to the present.

Some lawmakers believe a new review of this database may show a link

between autism and thimerosal -- a vaccine preservative containing mercury.

A local parent who said he believes his two autistic children were

harmed by vaccines applauded Congress for requesting a new

investigation. The parent, Hansen of Framingham, said he thinks

the CDC is reluctant to expose dangers of thimerosal because the agency

is responsible for ensuring public acceptance of its vaccination program.

" They've proven far more willing to overstate the risks of disease

and understate the danger of vaccination, " Hansen said. " No one in their

right mind can say that giving mercury intravenously is a smart thing to

do. "

Autism rates soared during the 1990s when thimerosal was most

heavily used in childhood vaccines. Levels of mercury injected into

infants were 120 times greater than federal safety limits for oral

ingestion of mercury, congressmen wrote to the NIEHS.

Government officials asked manufacturers in 1999 to remove the

mercury-based preservative from vaccines, but it is still used in flu

and tetanus shots.

CDC's research on the Vaccine Safety Datalink is flawed, Lieberman

and his colleagues wrote, because it " was based on data collected prior

to the removal of thimerosal and failed to explicitly compare the

outcome of children who received thimerosal-containing vaccines with

those who did not. "

The CDC refused to comment on the criticism of its research.

But Dr. Marie McCormick, a Harvard professor who chaired an

Institute of Medicine committee in 2004, said the group ran several

analyses of the CDC data and found no link between thimerosal and autism.

" Nothing you could do changed the results, " McCormick said. " The

results of the...study have been replicated in England. They found no

association between thimerosal and other neurodevelopmental disorders. "

In the letter to NIEHS, members of Congress criticized the IOM for

relying heavily on European data, even though American children were

exposed to mercury at levels 75 percent greater than in Europe.

The letter was not signed by any Massachusetts congressmen. But U.S.

Rep. Meehan, D-5th, said he agrees with its content and would

have signed on had he been aware it was being written.

" Mercury is known as a brain poison and in the 1990s a greater

number of children were being exposed to mercury (in vaccines), " Meehan

said. " I think this is a serious public health concern and we need more

research. "

A spokeswoman for the NIEHS could not be reached for comment.

(Jon Brodkin can be reached at 508-626-4424 or jbrodkin@....)