FDA Knew Dangers Of Thimerosal-Vaccines For 60 Years
In order to enroll in day care or attend public schools in this country, children are forced to participate in a mandatory vaccine program. According to a report by the General Accounting Office released in 1999, over the 1990s, an estimated 12 million vaccinations were given each year and more than 40 million children were vaccinated.
Since the 1930s, mercury-based Thimerosal has been added to vaccines as a preservative to boost drug company profits by allowing vaccine makers to package in bulk instead of individual doses.
According to newly discovered research, which was supported by a grant from the American Medical Association, government agencies have known for 60 years ago that Thimerosal was neither safe or effective, and that it should have been removed as a preservative in pharmaceutical products.
In 1948, Dr Morton of the Department of Bacteriology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr North of the Philadelphia General Hospital, and Mr Engley of Camp Detrick, published the results of their study in the Journal of the American Medical Association evaluating the use of mercurials in medicine.
The article, "The Bacteriostatic and Bactericidal Action of Some Mercurial Compounds on Hemolytic Streptococci: In Vivo and In Vitro Studies" explained that "Mercurial compounds have been employed as disinfectants since the beginning of bacteriology."
"Indeed, for a long period mercurial compounds, such as bichloride of mercury, headed the list of chemical which were thought to be effective in the killing of microorganisms," it said.
However, the authors basically state that Thimerosal as a preservative is useless, "It is not highly germicidal and especially does not possess high germicidal value in the presence of serum and other protein mediums. The loss of antibacterial activity of mercurials in the presence of serum proves their incompatibility with serum."
In addition, the researchers warned of the toxicity of Thimerosal. "The comparative in vitro studies of mercurochrome, metaphen and merthiolate [Thimerosal] on embryonic (developing) tissue cells and bacterial cells by Salle and Lazarus [Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology & Medicine, February 1935] cannot be ignored," they said.
These investigators found Thimerosal was 262 times more toxic for embryonic tissue cells than for Staphylococcus aureus.
More than 10 years before the results of the above study were published, Nye [Journal of the American Medical Association, January 1937] and Welch [from the Food and Drug Administration, Journal of Immunology 1939] also found the same mercurial compound more toxic. "Not only is there a direct toxic action of the mercurial compounds on the cellular and humoral components of the animal body, but there is also the possibility of sensitization," they said.
In addition, Mr Engley subsequently published an article in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1950, titled, "Evaluation of Mercurials as Antiseptics" in which he declared, "...mercurials are ineffective in vivo and may be more toxic for tissue cells than bacterial cells, as shown in mice (Nungester and Kempf, 1942) (Sarber, 1942) (Spaulding and Bondi, 1947) tissue culture (Salle and Catlin, 1947) and embryonic eggs (Witlin, 1942) (Green and Kirkeland, 1944), and with leucocytes (Welch and Hunter, 1940)."
Due to the FDA ignoring the scientific findings and warnings of its own researchers, Thimerosal remained in vaccines for the second half of the century and has now been linked to an epidemic in autism, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a wide range of other neurological problems.
The epidemic began as the number of vaccines added to the immunization schedule rose dramatically. American children born in 1948 were only required to show proof of a smallpox vaccination to enter school. By 1991 the number of mandated vaccines had increased from 9 to 21 and children born in 1998 were required by most states to receive 33 or 34 doses of nine or ten different vaccines to enter school.
Beginning in about 1987, as each new vaccine was added to the schedule, no one apparently thought to keep track of the cumulative amount of Thimerosal that would be injected into children with each new shot. As a direct result of the increased mercury, cases of autism began doubling every four years.
People who are still sitting on the fence over whether to believe that Thimerosal is the cause of the epidemic need only consider the staggering statistics. On February 15, 2005, the GAO, released a Report titled, "Special Education Children With Autism," that revealed the number of children ages 6 through 21 diagnosed with autism receiving special education services has increased more than 500% over the past 10 years.
Finally an article that is well researched and well written. Thank you for providing an article I can be proud of showing to others to explain the dilemma society is faced with.
by
Lori Karavolis (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Saturday, September 3, 2005 at 11:56:39 AM
I started reading your article and got to about the paragraph below and decided to quit. You clearly understand nothing about how one needs to think in order to adequately analyze what may be causing the increase in autism. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but your approach is probably causing us to NOT figure this out.
"People who are still sitting on the fence over whether to believe that Thimerosal is the cause of the epidemic need only consider the staggering statistics. On February 15, 2005, the GAO, released a Report titled, "Special Education Children With Autism," that revealed the number of children ages 6 through 21 diagnosed with autism receiving special education services has increased more than 500% over the past 10 years."
The above is a ridiculous statement. In fact, over the last 10 years, the use of cell phones, microwaves, computers, and cars has also increased. Additionally, the use of pesticides in growing food has also increased, as has the variety of chemicals we all are exposed to on a daily basis. The fact that there has been a jump in reported autism cases tells you nothing about whether Thimerosal caused autism.(In fact, the average number of flights per person has increased over the last 60 years; do you think this has also caused the increase in autism?)
Frankly, the nearsighted focus by some on Thimerosal is almost certainly only serving to keep people from discovering what really is responsible for the increase in reported cases of autism.
If you want to help discover the cause, start by learning how to think critically in a scientific manner. Also, read the article at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050815/drmarc . He makes some very good points.
I personally disagree with his calls for research into the effects of Thimerosal because research dollars are precious and Thimerosal has now been replaced in vaccines with other preservatives. Those other preservatives should be the focus of any research efforts, or else research funds can be directed to other areas.
I would say that I don't understand why Thimerosal continued to be used when other preservatives were available, not because I believe there is any connection with autism, but because adequate research had not been done, and we know that mercury has the potential to be very toxic - this does not amount to me saying that Thimerosal was toxic; I'm simply stating that perhaps we should have been more conservative and when alternative preservatives were developed, used them.
Furthermore, regarding your paragraphs as follows:
"With that in mind, officials make sure the media steadily repeats the mantra of a May 2004 Institute of Medicine report that claims there is no link between Thimerosal and autism. However, since that report was released, Steven Goodman, MD, MHS, Ph.D, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and member of the IOM panel, has backed off from the report's certainty and said:
"It was clear from the report that we were not giving thimerosal a clean bill of health. Mercury is definitely a neurotoxin. ... We only said that the evidence favored that there was not a connection between autism and thimerosal exposure," according to the Naples Sun Times on April 27, 2005."
Nothing in what you stated in these two paragraphs makes me believe that Dr. Goodman "backed off" anything -- read the quote of him you have which begins "It was clear from the report ..."
(I just happened to catch those two paragraphs as I quickly skimmed the rest of your article; I could probably comment on more but I fear it is hopeless to change your mind.)
I doubt if in 5 years the incidence of autism will have fallen, despite the fact that Thimerosal has been discontinued. (Even if it did, that would not be "proof" that Thimerosal caused autism, although it would be highly suggestive.)
If it doesn't fall, then we can be pretty certain that Thimerosal is not the cause of the increase in autism. I guess we'll just have to wait another 5 years or so, to see that autism incidences don't fall, and then all the narrow-minded Thimerosal people will finally be interested in figuring the cause. You'll only put us back 5 years or so in figuring out the cause - how many children will that delay affect?
by
Think Again (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Monday, September 5, 2005 at 6:55:25 PM
I started reading your article and got to about the paragraph below and decided to quit. You clearly understand nothing about how one needs to think in order to adequately analyze what may be causing the increase in autism. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but your approach is probably causing us to NOT figure this out.
'People who are still sitting on the fence over whether to believe that Thimerosal is the cause of the epidemic need only consider the staggering statistics. On February 15, 2005, the GAO, released a Report titled, 'Special Education Children With Autism,' that revealed the number of children ages 6 through 21 diagnosed with autism receiving special education services has increased more than 500% over the past 10 years.'
The above is a ridiculous statement. In fact, over the last 10 years, the use of cell phones, microwaves, computers, and cars has also increased. Additionally, the use of pesticides in growing food has also increased, as has the variety of chemicals we all are exposed to on a daily basis. The fact that there has been a jump in reported autism cases tells you nothing about whether Thimerosal caused autism.(In fact, the average number of flights per person has increased over the last 60 years; do you think this has also caused the increase in autism?)
Frankly, the nearsighted focus by some on Thimerosal is almost certainly only serving to keep people from discovering what really is responsible for the increase in reported cases of autism.
If you want to help discover the cause, start by learning how to think critically in a scientific manner. Also, read the article at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050815/drmarc . He makes some very good points.
I personally disagree with his calls for research into the effects of Thimerosal because research dollars are precious and Thimerosal has now been replaced in vaccines with other preservatives. Those other preservatives should be the focus of any research efforts, or else research funds can be directed to other areas.
I would say that I don't understand why Thimerosal continued to be used when other preservatives were available, not because I believe there is any connection with autism, but because adequate research had not been done, and we know that mercury has the potential to be very toxic - this does not amount to me saying that Thimerosal was toxic; I'm simply stating that perhaps we should have been more conservative and when alternative preservatives were developed, used them.
Furthermore, regarding your paragraphs as follows:
'With that in mind, officials make sure the media steadily repeats the mantra of a May 2004 Institute of Medicine report that claims there is no link between Thimerosal and autism. However, since that report was released, Steven Goodman, MD, MHS, Ph.D, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and member of the IOM panel, has backed off from the report's certainty and said:
'It was clear from the report that we were not giving thimerosal a clean bill of health. Mercury is definitely a neurotoxin. ... We only said that the evidence favored that there was not a connection between autism and thimerosal exposure,' according to the Naples Sun Times on April 27, 2005.'
Nothing in what you stated in these two paragraphs makes me believe that Dr. Goodman 'backed off' anything -- read the quote of him you have which begins 'It was clear from the report ...'
(I just happened to catch those two paragraphs as I quickly skimmed the rest of your article; I could probably comment on more but I fear it is hopeless to change your mind.)
I doubt if in 5 years the incidence of autism will have fallen, despite the fact that Thimerosal has been discontinued. (Even if it did, that would not be 'proof' that Thimerosal caused autism, although it would be highly suggestive.)
If it doesn't fall, then we can be pretty certain that Thimerosal is not the cause of the increase in autism. I guess we'll just have to wait another 5 years or so, to see that autism incidences don't fall, and then all the narrow-minded Thimerosal people will finally be interested in figuring the cause. You'll only put us back 5 years or so in figuring out the cause - how many children will that delay affect?
by
Think Again (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments)
on Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at 5:33:44 PM
