Mercury Study Released Early to Help AAP Bash ABC

Mercury Study Released Early to Help AAP Bash ABC

by Barbara Loe Fisher

The AAP leadership is just not going to give up insisting that it is a very, very good thing to inject mercury into infants and children. They are going to twist themselves into pretzels trying to defend the indefensible premise that a known neurotoxin belongs in childhood vaccines, as evidenced by today's early release of a methodologically questionable "study" by Michael Pichichero, M.D. purporting to exonerate the mercury-based vaccine preservative, thimerosal, from any responsibility for children developing vaccine- associated autism. http://www.pharmali ve.com/News/index.cfm? articleid=510116&categoryid=40

The study, originally scheduled to be published Feb. 4 in the AAP journal, Pediatrics, was released "early" in an effort to blunt the impact of tonight's broadcast of a fictional drama on ABC-TV that highlights the ordeal of a family whose son developed autism after receiving mercury-containing vaccines. http://www.forbe s.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2008/01/30/hsco ut612206.html

Here is what all the fuss is about (for today at least): Pichichero claims his study of about 200 babies and children, who were injected with vaccines containing ethyl mercury (thimerosal), showed that measurable mercury levels in the blood of the children were gone within 3.7 days. This, says Pichichero, is much quicker than the average 44 days it takes for methyl mercury (found in fish) to be undetectable in the blood. Ergo, he says, exposure to thimerosal does not cause brain damage or autism!

Not so fast, says Thomsas Brubacher, M.D., a scientist who studies the biological effects of ethyl mercury on primates. "Just because it came out of the blood doesn't mean it is excreted from the body. It could have gone to the brain. In primates, you actually get more mercury in the brain after exposure to ethyl mercury than with methyl mercury - it has an easier time crossing the blood brain barrier." http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/2008 0130/vaccine-mercury-leaves-blood-fast

Now, whether you think that all or part of the autism epidemic has been caused by children getting too many mercury containing vaccines or whether you think that a subset of children suffering with autism have been affected by mercury containing vaccines or you believe mercury containing vaccines do not play any role at all in the autism epidemic:

MERCURY IN ANY FORM DOES NOT BELONG IN VACCINES OR ANY OTHER PRODUCT CONSUMED BY HUMANS.

News Flash for the AAP and pediatricians everywhere: there is no mother on this planet who would, willingly, ask you to inject her baby with mercury. It does not matter if ethyl mercury has been "proven" or "not proven" to be the cause of the autism epidemic. It is simple from a parent's perspective:

WHEN IN DOUBT, TAKE IT OUT.

The AAP leadership and doctors inside and outside of government, who have become apologists for unsafe vaccines and one-size-fits-all vaccine policies, are dancing like clowns as they threaten freedom of the press and attempt to cover-up vaccine injuries and deaths not only potentially caused by thimerosal - but also potentially caused by many other biological mechanisms involved in vaccine induced brain and immune system dysfunction, including autism. The dance would be almost comical if their stubborn defense of mercury in vaccines did not reveal so much more about a cavalier disregard for scientific truth and human life.



***********************************************************

"The latest chapter in the debate over whether childhood vaccines can cause autism was written Wednesday with release of a study that showed the controversial mercury-containing preservative thimerosal is rapidly excreted from babies' bodies and can't build up to toxic levels....."Though it's reassuring to affirm that these immunizations have always been safe, our findings really have greater implications for world health," Pichichero said. "Replacing the thimerosal in vaccines globally would put these vaccines beyond what the world community could afford for its children." The study findings were to be released Monday in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics. But they were released early by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is requesting that the ABC network cancel the premiere episode of a new show Thursday dealing with the thimerosal-autism controversy...... Still, at least one vaccine critic worries that inoculations are making children prone to autism, a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, communication problems, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests. And if it's not thimerosal, then it must be some other vaccine-related interaction, said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center. "There are many biological mechanisms involved in vaccine-induced brain and immune system changes that could quite well lead to autism," she said. "Mercury doesn't belong in any product," Fisher added. "Mercury doesn't belong in vaccines whether it's proven or not proven that mercury is a problem in vaccines." - Forbes (HealthDay News) January 30, 2008
http://www.for bes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2008/01/30/hs cout612206.html

"One of the few researchers who studies the effects of ethyl mercury is Thomas Burbacher, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and director of the infant primate research lab at the National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle. Burbacher's studies of ethyl mercury and thimerosal in primates are cited by both sides of the thimerosal debate. Burbacher says that just because ethyl mercury is gone from an infant's blood soon after it receives a dose of thimerosal -- a half-life of just 3.7 days in the Pichichero study -- doesn't mean it's gone from the body. "Just because it came out of the blood doesn't mean it is excreted from the body. It could have gone to the brain," Burbacher tells WebMD. "In primates, you actually get more mercury in the brain after exposure to ethyl mercury than with methyl mercury -- it has an easier time crossing the blood-brain barrier." Sallie Bernard is co-founder and executive director of SafeMinds, an organization that advocates "sensible action for ending mercury-induced neurological disorders." Bernard says the Pichichero study is valuable because it makes it clear that the body handles ethyl mercury very differently from the way it handles methyl mercury. "That is why we need real safety studies to look at the effects of ethyl mercury," Bernard tells WebMD. "We need not look at blood levels and excretion times, but at what goes on in the brain and what any ethyl mercury-induced changes in the brain are doing to children." - Daniel DeNoon, Web MD (January 30, 2008) http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/2008 0130/vaccine-mercury-leaves-blood-fast

Mercury in Childhood Vaccines Excreted Quickly Forbes (HealthDay News) January 30, 2008 Click here for the URL: WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- The latest chapter in the debate over whether childhood vaccines can cause autism was written Wednesday with release of a study that showed the controversial mercury-containing preservative thimerosal is rapidly excreted from babies' bodies and can't build up to toxic levels. "Thimerosal has been used for decades, but the surge in vaccinations caused fear that possible accumulations of ethyl mercury, the kind in thimerosal, might exceed safe levels -- at least, when based on the stringent risk guidelines applied to its better- understood chemical cousin, methyl mercury, which is associated with eating fish," lead researcher Dr. Michael Pichichero, professor of microbiology/immunology, pediatrics and medicine at the University of Rochester, said in a prepared statement. "One of the unanswered questions when this first popped up as a controversy was, when you got thimerosal as an injection, how long would it stay in your blood," co-author Dr. John Treanor, a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said in an interview. The new research, he added, showed that "the levels of thimerosal don't go very high and they go down right away. By the time it's time for the next dose of vaccine, the levels are right back to where they were at the beginning." For their study, Pichichero's team tracked 216 infants from R. Gutierrez Children's Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where thimerosal is still routinely used in vaccines. Use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines was discontinued in the United States after a joint decision in 1999 by U.S. health officials, pediatricians and vaccine manufacturers. The infants in the study were put into three age groups and their blood-mercury levels were tested both before and after vaccinations were given to newborns, and at their two- and six-month checkups. Pichichero's group found that for all three age groups, the half-life of ethyl mercury in the blood -- the time it takes for the body to get rid of half the mercury, and then another half, and so on -- was 3.7 days. That's significantly less than the half-life of methyl mercury, the kind found in fish, at 44 days. "Until recently, that longer half-life was assumed to be the rule for both types of mercury. Now it's obvious that ethyl mercury's short half-life prevents toxic build-up from occurring. It's just gone too fast," Pichichero said. "If you thought thimerosal was responsible for autism, you would be looking at mercury levels that were far below anything anyone's previously thought as being toxic," Treanor added. "Though it's reassuring to affirm that these immunizations have always been safe, our findings really have greater implications for world health," Pichichero said. "Replacing the thimerosal in vaccines globally would put these vaccines beyond what the world community could afford for its children." " The study findings were to be released Monday in the February issue of the journal Pediatrics. But they were released early by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is requesting that the ABC network cancel the premiere episode of a new show Thursday dealing with the thimerosal-autism controversy. The new findings also follow a recent report from the California Department of Health that rates of autism continue to climb there even after thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines. And they follow a series of studies, including a large-scale U.S. Institute of Medicine review in 2004, that failed to uncover a link between childhood vaccines and autism. The first report of a possible connection appeared in British study in the late 1990s and has since been discredited. Current estimates by the U.S. National Institutes of Health say that one American child in 150 has been diagnosed with autism, although experts wonder if that increase owes to better diagnoses and a broader definition of the disorder. Still, at least one vaccine critic worries that inoculations are making children prone to autism, a developmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, communication problems, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests. And if it's not thimerosal, then it must be some other vaccine-related interaction, said Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center. "There are many biological mechanisms involved in vaccine-induced brain and immune system changes that could quite well lead to autism," she said. "Mercury doesn't belong in any product," Fisher added. "Mercury doesn't belong in vaccines whether it's proven or not proven that mercury is a problem in vaccines." In ABC's new TV series Eli Stone, the premiere Thursday focuses on a lawyer arguing that a vaccine caused a child's autism. While the show includes statements that science has refuted a link between autism and vaccines, the program reinforces the connection as the jury awards the mother $5.2 million, according to the AAP. "If parents watch this program and choose to deny their children immunizations, ABC will share in the responsibility for the suffering and deaths that occur as a result. The consequences of a decline in immunization rates could be devastating to the health of our nation's children," AAP President Dr. Renee R. Jenkins said in a prepared statement.

Mercury in Vaccines Leaves Blood Fast Study Shows Ethyl Mercury in Thimerosal Leaves Blood Quickly WebMD Medical News January 30, 2008 by Daniel J. DeNoon Click here for the URL: Ethyl mercury from the vaccine preservative thimerosal leaves the blood 10 times faster than methyl mercury, on which current risk assessments are based. Only trace levels of thimerosal can be found in U.S. vaccines, except in multi-dose vials of flu vaccine (single-dose flu vaccine has no thimerosal). But the inexpensive vaccines that allow poorer nations to afford to immunize their children still use thimerosal to prevent bacterial contamination. Major studies of children who received thimerosal-preserved vaccines fail to find a link between these vaccines and health problems. But because thimerosal's active ingredient is a kind of mercury -- and because mercury can be highly toxic -- there is a belief among many parents of autistic children that thimerosal caused their children's disease. Nearly everything known about the toxic effects of mercury is based on studies of a form of mercury called methyl mercury. That's the kind of mercury found in large ocean fish -- and the kind that causes developmental problems in children exposed to mercury through environmental disasters. But astonishingly little is known about the real risks of ethyl mercury itself. A new study by University of Rochester researcher Michael E. Pichichero, MD, and colleagues now sheds some light on this mystery. Pichichero's team studied ethyl mercury levels in the blood, urine, and stools of Argentinean newborns and infants before and after they received multiple childhood immunizations with thimerosal-preserved vaccines. "While our study is not a direct evaluation of neurological disorders and autism, it shows that mercury levels in infants' blood after vaccination with thimerosal-containing vaccines are 10 times lower -- and go away 10 times faster -- than if they'd received the same amount of methyl mercury," Pichichero tells WebMD. One of the few researchers who studies the effects of ethyl mercury is Thomas Burbacher, PhD, professor of environmental and occupational health sciences and director of the infant primate research lab at the National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle. Burbacher's studies of ethyl mercury and thimerosal in primates are cited by both sides of the thimerosal debate. Burbacher says that just because ethyl mercury is gone from an infant's blood soon after it receives a dose of thimerosal -- a half-life of just 3.7 days in the Pichichero study -- doesn't mean it's gone from the body. "Just because it came out of the blood doesn't mean it is excreted from the body. It could have gone to the brain," Burbacher tells WebMD. "In primates, you actually get more mercury in the brain after exposure to ethyl mercury than with methyl mercury -- it has an easier time crossing the blood-brain barrier." Pichichero agrees with Burbacher on this but he says the current findings are relevant to thimerosal risk. "There is a direct relationship between the amount of mercury in the blood -- and how long it stays in the blood -- and the ability of mercury to get into the brain to produce developmental problems," he says. "We did not prove there was not deposition of mercury in other parts of the body, but we prove that the half-life of ethyl mercury from thimerosal is low, excretion is high, and the kidneys -- an organ very sensitive to the effects of mercury -- were not damaged." Sallie Bernard is co-founder and executive director of SafeMinds, an organization that advocates "sensible action for ending mercury- induced neurological disorders." Bernard says the Pichichero study is valuable because it makes it clear that the body handles ethyl mercury very differently from the way it handles methyl mercury. "That is why we need real safety studies to look at the effects of ethyl mercury," Bernard tells WebMD. "We need not look at blood levels and excretion times, but at what goes on in the brain and what any ethyl mercury-induced changes in the brain are doing to children." The Pichichero study appears in the February online edition of the journal Pediatrics.

National Vaccine Information Center

NVIC E-News is a free service of the National Vaccine Information Center and is supported through donations. NVIC is funded through the financial support of its members and does not receive any government subsidies. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co- founder. Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed consent rights www.nvic.org