Autism/Thimerosal Timeline 2000

Excerpt from Autism Facts.com

2000
A second announcement is made by the CDC, AAP and the U.S. Public Health Service to remove Thimerosal in all childhood vaccines.

The National Academy of Sciences publishes "Toxicological Effects of Methylmercury" stating that methylmercury is highly toxic, can be expressed in multiple organ systems throughout the life span, can cause damage to the renal system seen at exposures that also cause neurological effects, that the cardiovascular system is a target at very low exposures, that it may increase susceptibility to increased infectious disease and autoimmune disorders by damaging the immune system, and may adversely affect the reproductive system. Carcinogenic effects are inconclusive.

FDA scientist, William Slikker states in the "Journal of Neurotoxicology":

• "Thimerosal crosses the blood-brain and placental barriers and results in appreciable mercury content in tissues including brain."

Dr. Ben-Ozer states in a study that inorganic mercury is known to induce membrane and DNA damage.

Dr. Schurz states in a study that in cell culture conditions, inorganic mercury was shown to be mutagenic and generate DNA breaks in concentrations below 500 nanograms. 

The pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (Prevnar) is recommended for all young children but is not yet added to the childhood schedule.

The Hepatitis A vaccine is added to the childhood schedule for children between the ages of 2 and 12 in selected areas.

February 29, 2000
The CDC concludes its first constructed study called, "Thimerosal VSD Study, Phase 1". It has never been released to the public.

The study used new controls such as eliminating the non exposed group, adding in infants too young to be diagnosed with anything that would then dilute the study, counting children who had left the HMO and had no more data to evaluate, and began comparing low exposures to higher exposures instead of any exposure to Thimerosal compared to non-exposure, among other new controls. They also dropped all disorders found except for the first a child was diagnosed with which then lost all of the "mixes" and losing all ultimate outcomes in the study. The study risks found for disorders dropped and other disorders found to be at less risk earlier rose to the top.

Nonetheless, certain disorders were still found to carry risks at above the causal level. Those found to carry risks were Autism, Misery and Unhappiness Disorder, ADD, Stammering, and Night Terrors. Coordination Disorders was no longer listed at all anywhere on the study, not even as a negative finding. It was simply dropped altogether in the study.

March 2000
GlaxoSmithKline's Hepatitis B vaccine did not become Thimerosal-free until now and Thimerosal-containing vaccines on the shelves of doctor's offices around the country continued to be used in spite of the fact that Thimerosal-free versions were available.

April 2000
Federal agencies were estimating that autism affected 1 in 500 children in the United States.

Congress held its first hearing on the dramatic rise in autism. They reported that California has reported a 273 percent increase in children with autism since 1988. Florida has reported a 571 percent increase between 1993 and 1998. In 1999, there were 2,462 children ages 3 to 21 in Indiana diagnosed with autism. That is one-fourth of 1 percent of all the school children in Indiana, or 1 out of every 400.

Bernard, Enayati, Binstock, Roger, Redwood and McGinnis publish "Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning" in which they discuss the similarities between the amount of children who developed a form of mercury poisoning called acrodynia, or pink disease, with the use of mercury-containing teething powders and the amount of children being diagnosed with autism who have symptoms that are similar to mercury poisoning. They state:

• "The history of acrodynia illustrates that a severe disorder, afflicting a small but significant percentage of children, can arise fron a seemingly benign application of low doses of mercury."
• "This review establishes that Hg (mercury) may likewise be etiologically significant in ASD, with the HG (mercury) derived from thimerosal in vaccines rather than teething powders."
• "Due to the extensive parallels between autism and HgP (mercury poisoning), the likelihood of a causal relationship is great."

Tuesday, April 25, 2000 3:55 PM
E-mail by Coleen Boyle to Frank DeStefano Cc to Tom Sinks.
Subject: comments of analysis

Coleen Boyle made suggestions to them and noted some irregularities that needed to be explained. These were notable:

• "1. How consistent were findings by various subgroups--e.g. between HMOs, race groups, gender, etc."

   
The consistency between HMOs became the hallmark for dismissing the finding, even though the HMOs had different procedures for outpatient coverage and total exposure levels to Thimerosal.

• "2. Since most of the dx's are generally not picked up until the 2nd or 3rd year of life had you considered eligibility criteria of at least 18 months or 2 years?? What happens if you do this?"

   
This was already done but to an even more extreme. He had included infants to 5 years old. Over 40% of the children studied were 2 years old and younger. A total of 60% of the children were age 3 and younger. To answer what happened when he did this, it gave a total number of children studied at a much higher number to compare to those who developed a disorder, thereby widening the spread and causing the risks to drop dramatically.

• "5. For me, the big issue is the missed cases-and how this relates to exposure. Clearly there is gross underreporting--1.4% of the kids dx'ed with speech and language problem vs. 4-5% fro reported in national surveys; <1% with ADHD vs 3-10% reported previously; etc."

   
This point was significant. This study is grossly underreporting those disorders.
   
Spring analysis is done by Dr. Verstraeten and is presented at the Simpsonwood meeting. This analysis used new controls and newer methods to again lower the risks found.

May 2000
Dr. Gregory V. Stajich, a pharmacologist at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia, published his study, "Latrogenic Exposure to Mercury After Hepatitis B Vaccination in Preterm Infants" in the "Journal of Pediatrics" showing that post-vaccination mercury levels were significantly higher in preterm infants compared to term infants who received their Hep B vaccine at birth. This study proved to be disturbing to public health officials who were concerned about vaccination compliance rates.

June 7th and 8th, 2000
The CDC convened a closed meeting at the Simpsonwood Retreat to discuss research evidence that showed a connection between thimerosal in vaccines and neurological injury. Dr. Thomas Verstraeten found:

• "...a statistically significant positive correlation between the cumulative exposure at 2 months and unspecified developmental delay; the cumulative exposure at 3 months and tics; the cumulative exposure at 6 months and ADD...1, 3 and 6 months and language and speech delay...1, 3 and 6 months of age and neurodevelopmental delays in general."
•  "This analysis suggests that in our study population, the risk of tics, ADD, language and speech delays, and developmental delays in general may be increased by exposures to mercury through thimerosal-containing vaccines during the first 6 months of life."

   
Those people who attended the meeting were with the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, members of the American Academy of Pediatrics, The National Immunization Program, the Chief Medical Officer for the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, a representative with the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, a representative for the World Health Organization (WHO), the FDA, and representatives with HMO organization Northern California Kaiser, as well as pharmaceutical company representatives for SmithKline Beecham, Merck, North American Vaccine, Aventis Pasteur, and Wyeth.
   
No one in the autism community or with Autism Organizations were invited to attend. The meeting was not announced publicly in the Federal Register as it is required to be, nor was it open to the public. The discussions were on transcript.

Monday, June 12, 2000 1:21 PM
E-mail by Susan Chu to Paul Stehr-Green Cc to Walt Orenstein and Roger Bernier.
Subject: One comment on your draft summary report

In this e-mail, Susan Chu is stating what Walt Orenstein of the CDC wants said to the ACIP members concerning outside researchers having access to the VSD database. They are suggesting a change in the wording of the "recommendations" because it is not really a recommendation, but it is a concern to them to have an outside researcher into the database.
"Walt had one suggestion for page 3.

Instead of "...the participants specifically recommend that administrative datasets (like the VSD) not be analyzed for such associations..."

To "the participants did not think that the analysis of administrative datasets (like the VSD) would be productive for such associations because of the difficulty in discerning true causal associations..."

Because the recommendation not to do this kind of analysis was not really an explicit recommendation - but was expressed as a concern."

Monday, June 12, 2000 11.36 PM
E-mail by Paul Stehr-Green to Susan Chu in response to her e-mail and cc to Roger Bernier.
Subject: Re: One comment on your draft summary report (Importance: High)
"Thanks. That's a good suggestion (and, as Henry Kissinger once said "It has the added advantage of being the truth!"), and I'll make the appropriate change."

"At the least, we need to resolve the issue how/who will send this report out to the consultants, and when you need a final report for the ACIP meeting."

Tuesday, June 13, 2000 9:33 am
Susan Chu forwards a copy of these e-mail exchanges to CDC's Walt Orenstein through e-mail.

July 2000
The Congressional Investigation shows that it is estimated that 8,000 children a day were being exposed to mercury in vaccines that exceeded all federal guidelines.

During the Congressional investigation (date unknown) Captain Frank Schmuck, a decorated Gulf War Veteran, submitted numerous letters to the Committee. He was an Air Force pilot who suffered with serious symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome. After failing to have his medical issues resolved through the military or the Veterans Administration (VA) medical system, Captain Frank Schmuck became so ill that he was no longer able to fly. He sought medical treatment outside the military medical system and was tested for heavy metals and was found to have toxic levels of mercury in his system. He had received several Thimerosal-containing vaccines through the Air Force. After chelation therapy, he returned to good health and has resumed flying.

Dr. Stephanie Cave, a physician specializing in treating children with symptoms of autism, testifies to Congress:

• "I am in a family practice in Baton Rouge, LA...I am presently treating over 300 autistic children, with an additional 150 waiting to get in.
• We are treating children fro all over the United States and getting calls fro many places around the globe. This is truly an epidemic. If you have any idea that it is not, I invite you to sit in my office for 2 hours."

Congresswoman Helen Chenweth-Hage (R-ID) expressed the views and frustrations of many at the hearing, including members of congress, when she addressed members of the Federal government agencies who were still denying that all types of mercury are toxic and could cause harm:

• "You listened to the testimony just as I did, and you are willing to, with a straight face, tell us that you are eventually going to phase this out after we know that a small baby's body is slammed with 62 times the amount of mercury that it is supposed to have...It doesn't make sense. No wonder people are losing faith in their government. And to have one of the witnesses tell us it is because mothers eat too much fish? Come on. We expect you to get real. We heard devastating testimony in this hearing today, and we heard it last April. And this is the kind of response we get fro our government agencies?
• I am sorry. When I was a little girl, my daddy talked to me about something about a duck test. I would ask each one of you to read this very excellent work by Sallie Bernard and Albert Enayati, who testified here today. My daddy used to say if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and sounds like a duck, for Pete's sake it is a duck.
• I recommend that you read this, side-by-side, page after page of analysis of the symptoms of people who are affected with mercury poisoning compared to autism. This is the duck test, and you folks are trying to tell us that you can't take this off the market when 8,000 children are going to be injected tomorrow; 80 children may be coming down, beginning tomorrow, with autism? What if there was an E. coli scare? What if there was a problem with an automobile? The recall would be like that...
• Mr. Egan, [FDA] I will address this to you. You know, it was shown in the last panel that autistic symptoms emerge after vaccination. It was shown that vaccines contain toxic doses of mercury. It was shown that autism and mercury poisoning, the physiological comparison is striking. There is altered neurotransmitter activity, abnormal brain neuronal organization, immune system disturbance, EEG abnormalities. It goes on and on and on, the comparisons. That is why I say, I back up what the Chairman and the ranking member are all asking you, that we cannot wait until 2001 to have this pulled off.
• You know, if a jury were to look at this, the circumstantial evidence would be overwhelming. Let's do something before we see it in the courts."

Friday, July 14, 2000 10:42 AM
E-mail by Philippe Grandjean to Thomas Verstraeten, Thomas Chen. Robert (Bob) (NIP); Frank DeStefano, Robert Pless, Roger Bernier, Tom Clarkson, Pal Weihe.
Subject: RE: Thimerosal and neurologic outcomes
"Dear Dr. Verstraeten –
I have given your message priority and will respond below to the questions raised in your message. I shall look in detail at the documents you attached, but that will not be until next week when I'm back in Boston.
Best regards - Philippe Grandjean"

Philippe Grandjean is a researcher who's work on mercury exposures in the Faroe Islands, which was the most recent, is what led to the EPA safety exposure levels of mercury.

Friday, July 14, 2000 10:42 AM
E-mail by Thomas Verstraeten to Philippe Grandjean, Thomas Chen. Robert (Bob) (NIP); Frank DeStefano, Robert Pless, Roger Bernier, Tom Clarkson, Pal Weihe.
Subject: RE: Thimerosal and neurologic outcomes
"Dear Dr. Grandjean,

Thank you for a very rapid response: I apologize for dragging you into this nitty gritty discussion, which in Flemish we would call "muggeziften". I know much of this is very hypothetical and personally I would rather not drag the Faroe and Seychelles studies in this entire thimerosal debate, as I think they are as comparable to our issue as apples and pears at best. Unfortunately, I have witnessed how many experts, looking at this thimerosal issue, do not seem bothered to compare apples to pears and insist that if nothing is happening in these studies then nothing should be feared of thimerosal. I do not wish to be the advocate of the anti-vaccine lobby and sound like being convinced that thimerosal is or was harmful, but at least I feel we should use sound scientific argumentation and not let our standards be dictated by our desire to disprove an unpleasant theory.

Sincerely,
Tom Verstraeten"

July 18, 2000
Dr. H. Vasken Aposhian, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Pharmacology at the University of Arizona, testified to Congress:

• "The mercury amalgams in your mouth, the so-called silver fillings, contain 48 to 50 percent of elemental mercury. These fillings continuously emit mercury vapor, which will go to the brain and is converted to mercuric mercury...Certain fish contain methylmercury; again, very rapidly taken up fro the GI tract, transported quickly to the brain, and converted very slowly to mercuric mercury...thimerosal, which again will be taken up by the brain and quickly converted to mercuric mercury -- all three forms are neurotoxic."
• "By neurotoxic, we mean it will damage nerves and it will damage brain tissues."
• "Let me just say as a final statement that there is no need to have thimerosal in a vaccine."

Dr. H. Vasken Aposhian also stated to Congress:

• "There's no question that mercury does not belong in vaccines.
• There are other compounds that could be used as preservatives. And everything we know about childhood susceptibility, neurotoxicity of mercury at the fetus and at the infant level, points out that we should not have these fetuses and infants exposed to mercury. There's no need for it in the vaccines."

Dr. William Egan, Associate Director of the FDA's Office of Vaccine Research and Review, testified that:

• "...there are no guidelines established for ethylmercury, but experts agree that methylmercury guidelines are appropriate to use in this situation."

Congressional Chairman Dan Burton, in speaking of his grandson who regressed into autism, stated:

• "My grandson received vaccines for nine different diseases in one day. He may have been exposed to 62.5 micrograms of mercury in one day through his vaccines. According to his weight, the maximum safe level of mercury he should have been exposed to in one day is 1.5 micrograms, so that is 41 times the amount at which harm can be caused."

A doctor with Merck Pharmaceuticals had testified that mercury exposure safety rates had to be exceeded by 10 times the amount given to cause true concern. Congress determined that children received doses of Thimerosal that exceeded even ten times the safety level that the doctor with Merck Pharmaceuticals said would cause concern, not only with multiple vaccines, but with each individual vaccine.

When testifying before the Congressional Committee, Mrs. Lyn Redwood made the following observation regarding her son's bolus exposure to mercury through vaccinations:

• "According to the EPA criteria, his allowable dose was only 0.5 micrograms based on his weight. He had received 125 times his allowable exposure on that day. The large injected bolus exposures continued at two months, four months, 12 months, and 18 months to a total mercury exposure of 237.5 micrograms. I also discovered that the injections that I received during my pregnancy, the first and third trimesters, and hours after the delivery of my son to prevent RH blood incompatibility disease also contained mercury."

July 19, 2000
Dr. Jeffrey Bradstreet made the following observation at the July 19, 2002 hearing:

• "More concerning to me is in the Institute's treatment of mercury problems, was the almost complete absence of regard for compounding effect of thimerosal on preexisting mercury levels. The NHANES Study fro the CDC had already established that perhaps one in ten children in born to mothers with elevated mercury burden."

September 28, 2000
Republican Congressman Dave Weldon of Florida and Democrat Jerrod Nadler of New York introduced a Bill, H.R. 5327 & H.R. 5330 "To Amend the Vaccine Compensation Program and Other Purposes." The Bill called for changes in the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program making it easier for those injured by vaccines to receive compensation. This Bill has never made it to the floor for a vote.

October 17, 2000
President Clinton signs the Children's Health Act of 2000 which authorized the establishment of an interagency autism coordinating committee to coordinate research and other efforts with regard to autism within the Department of Health and Human Services.

December, 2000
The EPA announces that it will issue new regulations on the emissions of mercury by coal and oil-fired power plants because, "mercury has been identified as the toxic of greatest concern among all the air toxins emitted from power plants."

2001
Dr. Bernard Rimland's and the Autism Research Institute's database of information of questionnaires of parents of autistic children had built up to over 30,000 cases of autism around the world. He discovered that before the early 1980's, most parents reported their children showed signs of abnormal behavior at birth in the first year of life. But, after the mid-1980's, the number of parents who reported their child developed normally for the first 18 months of life and then suddenly became autistic doubled. He said the cases of onset after the age of 18 months now outnumbers cases of onset at birth by 2 to 1.

Leong reported that mercury ions markedly disrupted membrane structure and linear growth rates of imaged neurites in the brain in 77% of all nerve growth cones. The tubulin/microtubule structure disintegrated following mercury exposure. He concluded that mercury is a potential factor in neurodegeneration.

Albert-Jan van't Veen stated in his study, "Vaccines Without Thiomersal, Why So Necessary, Why So Long Coming":

• "...the very low thiomersal concentrations in pharmacological and biological products are relatively non-toxic, but probably not in utero and during the first 6 months of life. The developing brain of the fetus is most susceptible to thiomersal and, therefore, women of childbearing age, in particular, should not receive thiomersal-containing products."

Dr. Natalie Smith and colleagues examined the increase in autism in California and the MMR and published in "Jama". The percentage of children immunized with MMR between 1980 and 1994 was compared with autism during the same period. Although autism rose dramatically, the percentage of children receiving the MMR stayed the same.

A British Medical Paper by Dr. Hershel Jick examined the same in England between 1988 and 1993 and found the same results.
   
Criticisms of this paper are, again, that the combination of adding Thimerosal vaccines that would destroy the immune system was not accounted for in the body's inability to fight the live measles virus given to children.

Dr. Gilbert J. Fournie of the Institut National De la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in Toulouse, France published a study in the "Journal of Autoimmunity" and stated:

• "...compounds present in vaccines such as thiomersal ...can trigger autoimmune reactions through bystander effects."

Dr. Sanfeliu published a study in "Neurotoxicology" called, "Methylmercury Neurotoxicity in Cultures of Human Neurons, Astrocytes, Neuroblastoma Cells." The study implicates reactive oxygen species (ROS) and depletion of intracellular glutathione as major contributors to mercury-induced cytotoxicity.

Bernard, Enayati, Redwood, Roger, and Binstock published a review article, "Autism: A Novel Form Of Mercury Poisoning" in "Medical Hypothesis" detailing the similarities between classical mercury poisoning and regressive autism.

The makers of Rho-GAM, a drug given to Rh-Negative mothers during pregnancy and directly after giving birth, remove Thimerosal.

The CDC and its influential Advisory Committee for vaccines refuses to state a preference for Thimerosal-free vaccines, even after their public statement that all Thimerosal should be removed in vaccines as soon as possible. Most children continue to receive injections of the DTaP, Hib and Hepatitis B vaccine that contained mercury as expiration dates, according to the FDA, did not run out on thimerosal-containing vaccines until January 2003.

* Prevnar, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, is added to the childhood schedule to be given 4 times at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, and 12 to 15 months of age.

 

 

 

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