And you are correct, sir. Studies have shown no link. The definitive studies were conducted in Canada and the Netherlands (where thimerosal has been absent from vaccines for over 10 years).
Mercury, in the form of thimerosal, is no longer in vaccines here in the US.
Autism continues to be diagnosed at the same rate as it was when thimerosal was in the vaccines.
Therefore, mercury has no link to autism.
If mercury poisoning were the cause of autism, the entire nervous system would be affected. Autistic children do not exhibit the movement disorders and peripheral nerve damage characteristic of mercury poisoning.
Furthermore, mercury is found in the earth's crust and is ubiquitous in the environment. Thus, even without vaccinations (or amalgam fillings), everyone has small but measurable blood and urine levels.
Funny. The woomeisters never mention that point!
Deborah Ray is an Antivax Hysteric®. And therefore full of beans.
ABE: Autism rates went up in the Netherlands after the removal of thimerosal.
Mobiogirl, if Deborah Ray is full of beans so are the clinical studies which she cites regularly on her shows.
If you would be so kind as to provide the cites, I would be more than happy to look into these clinical studies.
However, since you have not chosen to share these mysterious cites in other threads, I'm not gonna hold my breath.
That said, I'm willing to bet big $$$ that these "studies" were published in "journals" like The Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.
Wanna put your money where your mouth is?
They both also agree with content within the above link that autism has mushroomed in the US. Whitaker claims that autism in children has increased from around one in 120 to about 1 in 2500 presently.
The rate of autism is somewhere between 1:86 and 1:727.
In November 2002, a study reported a lower incidence of autism in Denmark than in the US and other countries. An incidence of 1 in 727 (738 out of 537,303) was reported, compared with up to 1 in 86 among primary school children in the United Kingdom and around 1 in 150 children in the USA. Danish authorities also reported a continued increase in the incidence of autism after 1992 after withdrawal of thiomersal-containing vaccines. Data presented in 2003 shows a clear increase in incidence between 1990 and 1995 (before the criteria changed). Thus, the increased incidence of autism after the removal of thiomersal was not a measurement artefact.
You really need to check the info you get from quacks like Deborah Ray against the published data.
Buz is most emphatically wrong. There is no link between autism and vaccinations.
Epidemiologic studies have shown no relationship between MMR vaccination in children and development of autism:
* In 1997, the National Childhood Encephalopathy Study (NCES) was examined to see if there was any link between measles vaccine and neurological events. The researchers found no indication that measles vaccine contributes to the development of long-term neurological damage, including educational and behavioral deficits (Miller et al., 1997).
* A study by Gillberg and Heijbel (1998) examined the prevalence of autism in children born in Sweden from 1975-1984. There was no difference in the prevalence of autism among children born before the introduction of the MMR vaccine in Sweden and those born after the vaccine was introduced.
* In 1999, the British Committee on Safety of Medicines convened a "Working Party on MMR Vaccine" to conduct a systematic review of reports of autism, gastrointestinal disease, and similar disorders after receipt of MMR or measles/rubella vaccine. It was concluded that the available information did not support the posited associations between MMR and autism and other disorders.
* Taylor and colleagues (1999) studied 498 children with autism in the UK and found the age at which they were diagnosed was the same regardless of whether they received the MMR vaccine before or after 18 months of age or whether they were never vaccinated. Importantly, the first signs or diagnoses of autism were not more likely to occur within time periods following MMR vaccination than during other time periods. Also, there was no sudden increase in cases of autism after the introduction of MMR vaccine in the UK. Such a jump would have been expected if MMR vaccine was causing a substantial increase in autism.
* Kaye and colleagues (2001) assessed the relationship between the risk of autism among children in the UK and MMR vaccine. Among a subgroup of boys aged 2-5 years, the risk of autism increased almost 4 fold from 1988 to 1993, while MMR vaccination coverage remained constant at approximately 95% over these same years.
* Researchers in the U.S. found that among children born between 1980 and 1994 and enrolled in California kindergartens, there was a 373% relative increase in autism cases, though the relative increase in MMR vaccine coverage by the age of 24 months was only 14% (Dales et al., 2001).
* Researchers in the UK (Frombonne & Chakrabarti, 2001) conducted a study to test the idea that a new form, or "new variant," of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) exists. This new variant IBD has been described as a combination of developmental regression and gastrointestinal symptoms occurring shortly after MMR immunization. Information on 96 children (95 immunized with MMR) who were born between 1992 and 1995 and were diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder were compared with data from 2 groups of autistic patients (one group of 98 born before MMR was ever used and one group of 68 who were likely to have received MMR vaccine). No evidence was found to support a new syndrome of MMR-induced IBD/autism. For instance, the researchers found that there were no differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups with regard to when their parents first became concerned about their child’s development. Similarly, the rate of developmental regression reported in the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups was not different; therefore, there was no suggestion that developmental regression had increased in frequency since MMR was introduced. Of the 96 children in the first group, no inflammatory bowel disorder was reported. Furthermore, there was no association found between developmental regression and gastrointestinal symptoms.
* Another group of researchers in the UK (Taylor et al., 2002) also examined whether MMR vaccination is associated with bowel problems and developmental regression in children with autism, looking for evidence of a "new variant" form of IBD/autism. The study included 278 cases of children with autism and 195 with atypical autism (cases with many of the features of childhood autism but not quite meeting the required criteria for that diagnosis, or with atypical features such as onset of symptoms after the age of 3 years). The cases included in this study were born between 1979 and 1998. The proportion of children with developmental regression or bowel symptoms did not change significantly from 1979 to 1988, a period which included the introduction of MMR vaccination in the UK in 1988. No significant difference was found in rates of bowel problems or regression in children who received the MMR vaccine before their parents became concerned about their development, compared with those who received it only after such concern and those who had not received the MMR vaccine. The findings provide no support for an MMR associated "new variant" form of autism and further evidence against involvement of MMR vaccine in autism.
* Madsen et al. (2002) conducted a study of all children born in Denmark from January 1991 through December 1998. There were a total of 537,303 children in the study; 440,655 of the children were vaccinated with MMR and 96,648 were not. The researchers did not find a higher risk of autism in the vaccinated than in the unvaccinated group of children. Furthermore, there was no association between the age at time of vaccination, the amount of time that had passed since vaccination, or the date of vaccination and the development of any autistic disorder. Though there were many more vaccinated than unvaccinated children in the study group, the sample was large enough to contain more statistical power than other MMR and autism studies. Therefore, this study provides strong evidence against the hypothesis that MMR vaccination causes autism.
* DeStefano et al. (2004) conducted a study to see if there was a difference in the age at which children with autism and without autism received their first MMR vaccination. The study's findings showed that children with autism received their first MMR vaccination at similar ages as children without autism. More information about this study can be found on the CDC's research on vaccines and autism web page.
4. Are there studies that suggest there might be a connection between autism and MMR vaccine?
The existing studies that suggest a causal relationship between MMR vaccine and autism have generated media attention. However, these studies have significant weaknesses and are far outweighed by the epidemiologic studies described above that have consistently failed to show a causal relationship between MMR vaccine and autism.
* The MMR-autism theory is based on the idea that intestinal problems, like Crohn’s disease, are the result of viral infection and can contribute to the development of autism. The theory has its origins in research by Wakefield and colleagues (1989; 1990) which suggested that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is linked to persistent viral infection.
* In 1993, Wakefield and colleagues reported isolating measles virus in the intestinal tissue of persons with IBD. However, the validity of this finding was later called into question when it could not be reproduced by other researchers (Afzal, 1998; Iizuka et al., 2000).
* Thompson and colleagues (1995) suggested in a retrospective cohort study that MMR vaccine might be a risk factor for Crohn's disease. However, the selection and recall biases and the differences in data collection in this study were so substantial as to cast doubt on the validity of the findings.
* Two studies out of Sweden linked measles infection in utero to the development of IBD (Ekbom et al., 1994; Ekbom et al., 1996). However, these studies involved a very small number of cases and when researchers identified the persons to be included in the 1996 study, they had prior knowledge that cases of Crohn’s disease had occurred in the offspring of two women who were infected with measles during pregnancy. This is called "selection bias" and limits the strength of the study.
* The MMR-autism theory came to the forefront when, in 1998, Wakefield and colleagues reviewed reports of children with bowel disease and regressive developmental disorders, mostly autism. The researchers suggested that MMR vaccination led to intestinal abnormalities, resulting in impaired intestinal function and developmental regression within 24 hours to a few weeks of vaccination. This hypothesis was based on 12 children. In 9 of the cases, the child's parents or pediatrician speculated that the MMR vaccine had contributed to the behavioral problems of the children in the study. There are a number of limitations in the Wakefield et al. (1998) study:
1. The study used too few cases to make any generalizations about the causes of autism; only 12 children were included in the study. Further, the cases were referred to the researchers and may not be a representative sample of cases of autism. 2. There were no healthy control children for comparison. As a result, it is difficult to determine whether the bowel changes seen in the 12 children included in the study were similar to changes in normal children, or to determine if the rate of vaccination in autistic children was higher than in the general population. 3. The study did not identify the time period during which the cases were identified. 4. In at least 4 of the 12 cases, behavioral problems appeared before the onset of symptoms of bowel disease; that is, the effect preceded the proposed cause. It is unlikely, therefore, that bowel disease or the MMR vaccine triggered the autism.
In 2004, 10 of the 13 authors of the study retracted the paper's interpretation, stating that the data were insufficient to establish a causal link between MMR vaccine and autism (Murch et al., 2004)
* In another study that generated media attention and raised public concern in the UK (Uhlmann et al, 2002), researchers found measles virus fragments in the intestines of children with "new variant" IBD (children with both IBD and developmental disorder). Scientists looked for the presence of measles virus in the intestinal tissue of 91 children with new variant IBD and 70 "controls" (children without this type of IBD). The researchers found measles virus fragments in 75 out of the 91 children with "new variant" IBD, and in only 5 of the 70 controls. While this provides evidence for an association between the presence of measles virus and IBD in children with developmental disorder, it does not mean that the measles component of the MMR vaccine causes IBD or developmental disorder. As a commentary published with the article asserts, the data could just as easily be interpreted as indicating that the IBD or the developmental disorder cause the persistence of measles in the intestines (Morris & Aldulaimi, 2002). In addition, the researchers did not compare the virus found in the intestines of patients with the virus used in the MMR vaccine; nor did they provide information regarding whether or not the children in the study had been previously vaccinated with MMR or had previously contracted measles disease.
I'd like to add that Wakefield was financed by a lawyer looking to sue vaccine makers.
In December of 2006, the Sunday Times further reported that in addition to the money given to the Royal Free Hospital, Wakefield had also been personally paid £400,000 which had not been previously disclosed by the attorneys responsible for the MMR lawsuit.
In February of 2004, controversy resurfaced when Wakefield was accused of a conflict of interest. The London Sunday Times reported that some of the parents of the twelve children in the Lancet study were recruited via a UK attorney preparing a lawsuit against MMR manufacturers, and that the Royal Free Hospital had received £55,000 from the UK's Legal Aid Board (now the Legal Services Commission) to pay for the research. Previously, in October 2003, the board had cut off public funding for the litigation against MMR manufacturers. Following an investigation of The Sunday Times allegations by the UK General Medical Council, Wakefield was charged with serious professional misconduct, including dishonesty. The GMC opened the hearings in the summer of 2007 but, after the prosecution case was presented, suspended the proceedings and defense presentation until March, 2008.
In Boston, Jim Adams, a chemical engineer at Arizona State University in Tempe who has an autistic daughter and believes that mercury causes many cases of autism, presented results supporting Holmes's theory. He found that children with autism have up to three times as much mercury as normal in their baby teeth, yet lower levels in their hair.
A study published in 2002 of infants who were 6 months of age or younger compared the levels of mercury in the blood, hair, urine, and stool of 40 who received vaccines containing thimerosal and 20 who received vaccines without thimerosal. The study found:
Mercury levels in blood and urine were low in all infants studied and in many cases too small to measure. There was no observed dose-dependent relationship between the level of thimerosal received through vaccination and the level of mercury in the body.
Mercury levels in blood did not exceed, at any time, the blood levels that correspond to Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for exposure.
Mercury levels in the stool of infants receiving vaccines containing thimerosal were relatively high compared to mercury levels in the stool of infants who were not exposed to thimerosal, providing evidence that mercury from thimerosal is eliminated in the stool of infants.
The researchers concluded that, "Administration of vaccines containing thiomersal does not seem to raise blood concentrations of mercury above safe values in infants."
Pichichero ME and others. Mercury concentrations and metabolism in infants receiving vaccines containing thimerosal: a descriptive study. Lancet 360:1737-1741, 2002.
You're right that there may be a genetic component.
KAISER FOUNDATION RESEARCH INSTITUTE 1800 Harrison Street Oakland, CA 94162
February 25, 2004
Mark Geier, MD Principal Investigator The Genetic Centers of America 14 Redgate Court Silver Springs, MD 20905
Re: A Series of Studies to Analyze the Vaccine Safety Database
Dear Dr. Geier:
On February 19, 2004, the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) Institutional Review Board (IRB) suspended your research project pending the following:
* Submission of a response from you to the attached letter, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently sent to the IRB notifying it of reports received from the technical monitors who accompanied you on visits to the CDC Research Data Center (RDC)
Please note: The ITB views with great concern the reported attempt to breach confidentiality and your attempts to merge data and conduct analyses which were not in accord with CDC procedures.
Also note: as a result of this suspension, you and your co-investigator are prohibited, until notified otherwise, from accessing VSD data derived from Colorado Kaiser Permanente and Northern California Kaiser Permanente institutional officials.
Federal regulations and KPNC/IRB policy prohibit conduct of research that has been suspended by the IRB. The IRB is required to report, and will proceed to report, the suspension of this study to the CDC and Kaiser Permanente institutional officials.
The following actions are required:
* You must immediately cease all activities which involve Kaiser Permanente data, as it is required by federal regulations and KPNC IRB policy. * You must inform the IRB of any research-related activity continued beyond this notification of study suspension, providing the reason(s) for continuation. * You must provide written notification of study suspension and the required cessation of all research activities to the co- and sub- investigators, if any, participating in this research within five business days of receiving this notification.
The IRB requires that you provide your response to the CDC's letter to KFRI via e-mail to KPNC IRB on Lotus Notes, or KPNC.IRB@kp.org, or by U.S. Mail by noon on March 8, 2004, for review at the March 18, 2004 IRM meeting.
Leigh Pruneau, PhD, RN KPNC/IRB Administrator
Furthermore, Geier's son is a lawyer who's business is suing vaccine makers.
Mark R. Geier, M.D., Ph.D., is president of Genetic Centers of America. He has been a consultant and expert witness in many cases presented to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and in civil litigation. In publications and testimony, he suggests that the thimerosal in vaccines is a cause of autism. His son David A. Geier is president of MedCon, a medical–legal consulting firm that helps vaccine injury claimants to try to obtain funds from both the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and through civil litigation.
In 2003, a special master who presided over a case of alleged vaccine injury issued a report that severely criticized Dr. Geier's analysis of a case. The ruling is especially noteworthy because the special master referred to him as "a professional witness in areas for which he has no training, expertise, and experience" and listed nine other cases in which Geier's expert testimony was given "no weight."
The data in this study are supplied by the CDDS. This relies on the change between quarterly reports to calculate new cases. Unfortunately the CDDS has a document that states the changes between quarters can not be counted as new cases (DDS, 2005). The persons may have already been in the CDDS and receiving services under a different category or their paper work may have taken a while to collect and process, even though they were already receiving services. When such uncontrolled data are employed they contain errors of random and systematic error (Friis & Sellers, 2004).
Your second reference is superfluous. It just uses your first reference as a source.
I did find it interesting that the number of vaccinations have increased for children.
MEDICAL JOURNAL: POLITICAL CORRECTNESS PREVENTS WOMEN FROM LEARNING ABOUT ABORTION RISKS Politics Trumps Science in Abortion – Breast Cancer Link
Two Japanese studies showed a positive association between induced abortion and breast cancer: a 1957 study reported a statistically significant relative risk of 2.61, and a 1968 study found a relative risk of 1.51.
Looks like the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons has the same set of standards that you have, LL. 1957! 1968!
Let's take a closer look at this "journal".
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a politically conservative association of physicians, medical professionals and students, patients and others, founded in 1943.
The group had approximately 4,000 members in 2005.
Oh my goodness. 4000 members. What's that? .005% of the doctors in the U.S.?
Currently, the organization opposes mandatory vaccination, universal health care and government intervention in healthcare. ... AAPS opposes abortion and over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.
In 2006 the group called attention to (AAPS') sham peer review.
23. Lawrence R. Huntoon (May 9, 2006). Sham Peer Review: A National Epidemic.
Articles published in the journal have argued that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are unconstitutional, that "humanists" have conspired to replace the "creation religion of Jehovah" with evolution,  that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not caused global warming,  that HIV does not cause AIDS, and that the "gay male lifestyle" shortens life expectancy by 20 years. A series of articles by pro-life authors also claimed a link between abortion and breast cancer; such a link has been rejected by the National Cancer Institute.
The journal is not listed in the major literature databases of MEDLINE/PubMed nor the Web of Science.
Investigative journalist Brian Deer wrote that the journal is the "house magazine of a right-wing American fringe group [AAPS]" and "is barely credible as an independent forum."
Yep, it’s the same Jim Adams who’s working on the chelation study (that I thought we’d have seen by now). Although he’s an ASU professor, the chelation study (went) through the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, after being rejected by ASU’s IRB.
The full-text of the “baby teeth” article contains statements that should have raised red flags for anyone with expertise in this field, in my opinion. Additionally, although it’s fine that Adams et al. cites what appears to be outdated science, the authors should have equally cited more recent works, which, in many cases, throughly refute the older publications. Was the full spectrum of the published literature cited? If not, why not? Let’s have a look at some of the statements and older science.
A thorough review by Bernard et al. (2001) reported that all of the major symptoms reported in the literature for autism were also reported for cases of infantile mercury poisoning, including especially language/communication problems and social withdrawal.
A thorough refutation of this paper was published in Pediatrics in 2003, and concluded in part, with the following:
“Nonspecific symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and irrational fears may occur both in mercury poisoning and in children with autism, but overall the clinical picture of mercurism—from any known form, dose, duration, or age of exposure—does not mimic that of autism”
Adams et al. states the following about oral antibiotic usage among ASD children:
Further, two studies (Konstantareas & Homatidis, 1987; Adams et al., 2003) found that children with autism had much higher usage of oral antibiotics, which (in rats) resulted in a near-total loss of the ability to excrete mercury (Rowland et al., 1980, 1984).
So one small study (42 children) from 20 years ago claims a higher rate of infection based on parental reports (I’m not sure what it says or can say about actual oral antibiotic usage). And, another is not a “study” at all, but appears to cite a DAN! Conference. That’s right if you read the references in the paper, you’ll see the the Adams et al., 2003 refers to a DAN! conference. But what really is the credibility of a small 20 year old study based on parental reports and a DAN! Conference report, compared to newer and better science that is now available?
In fact, a much larger study (more than 400 autistic children) published in Pediatrics earlier this year included the following:
“Children with subsequent diagnoses of autism do not have more overall infections in the first 2 years of life than children without autism.”
“Contrary to what we expected, these data suggest that children with ASD may have slightly lower rates of ear infections and URIs in the first 2 years of life than children without ASD. “
Adams et al. also states:
A decreased ability to excrete mercury is consistent with a recent study by Holmes et al. (2003), which found that children with autism had only one-eighth the normal amount of mercury in their baby hair (assuming that the level in hair is indicative of the level of ability to excrete mercury).
Firstly, the Adams et al. baby teeth paper appears to have seen what it wanted to with respect to the mercury found in the first baby haircuts of autistic children (Holmes et al.). The autistic children did not have one-eighth the “normal” amount of mercury in their baby hair. They had .47 (+/- .28) μg/g which is higher than the children in the NHANES study average (which included 838 children ages 1-5) who had .22 (+/- .04) μg/g. It was the “typical” children that had huge excesses of mercury in their hair samples in Holmes et al.
I could go on, but I think this sampling should suffice.
Not only does Adams use old data, he doesn't even quote the data accurately!
And coined his own nifty little word, "excitotoxins". Kinda trips off the tongue, doesn't it?
Neuropharmacology as a Long-Range Strategic War Policy Russell L. Blaylock, MD http://www.haciendapub.com/blaylock3.html
I predict the widespread use of these drugs, many of which increase free radical generation and elicit excitotoxic reactions in the brain, will lead to a society filled with young people crippled by neurodegenerative diseases. They will be unable to work, think clearly, and will essentially become wards of the state, exactly what the Soviets wanted… a nefarious program created in the former Soviet Union that exceeds even the far-reaching imaginations of Hollywood writers… was designed to destroy a civilization for many generations to come; to create chaos, disease epidemics, violence, broken homes, ruined lives, and the eventual collapse of freedom itself… The old Soviet intelligence services have joined forces with the Russian Mafia in a quest to dominate the world economically and politically. ... Lenin recognized early on that Ivan Pavlov's research on conditioning held the secret to the eventual success of the communist system over the capitalist world. Toward the end of his life, Pavlov was "invited" to the Kremlin by Lenin and was told to write a summary of his life's work, especially tailored for use in humans. Lenin carefully analyzed the completed manuscript, some four hundred pages. Afterwards, he told Pavlov he had "saved the Revolution" and that his work had secured the world for communism. Lenin knew that communism (collectivism) demanded the control of the human mind, in essence, the creation of the new "Soviet man." In this paper, Pavlov dealt with the common human reaction to shocking information, in which people respond, "I don't believe it." He called this reaction "conditioned inhibition."
Edward Hunter, in his book Brainwashing: From Pavlov to Powers, states the longer this process of "conditioned inhibition" goes undetected, the more difficult it will be to recognize and counteract.(30) A neuropsychiatrist has referred to this as a national neurosis, primarily characterized as a loss of indignation over shocking national events. Those few alert to the problem speak of national apathy.
We have seen that documented evidence and direct eyewitness testimony has unveiled a nefarious program created in the former Soviet Union that exceeds even the far-reaching imaginations of Hollywood writers. It was a program that was designed to destroy a civilization for many generations to come; to create chaos, disease epidemics, violence, broken homes, ruined lives, and the eventual collapse of freedom itself.
Because of government and media unwillingness to expose this plot early on, most are now convinced that the drug problem in our world arose as a matter of natural social decay, and that no solution is in sight. As a result, whole countries are now falling to the drug lords and their handlers. Colombia has become the first narco-state. Mexico may not be far behind. Many of our cities are now helpless before the drug bosses and their henchmen. Illegal immigrants pour across our borders, many of whom are drug dealers and crime bosses. Not surprisingly, after spending billions on a war on drugs, officials are admitting defeat. We have, for the first time in our nation's history, been defeated by a foreign enemy on our own soil.
Here's a couple snippets from the latest issue of the AAPS "journal":
The Breast Cancer Epidemic: Modeling and Forecasts Based on Abortion and Other Risk Factors
Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ... A review of the research literature concerning the environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th and early 21st centuries have produced no deleterious effects upon Earth’s weather and climate.
Those are the only 2 articles in the latest issue. The rest is Commentaries and Editorials.
I'd also like to note that this "journal" is 20 pages long.
I'd also like to note the Baylock has been an editor of this "journal" for over 10 years. That's an awfully long time to serve as an editor of a "journal" whose positions you don't support.
Your response has nothing to do whatsoever with Baylock's assertions that the Soviet Union has infiltrated this country in order to disable its youth:
a nefarious program created in the former Soviet Union that exceeds even the far-reaching imaginations of Hollywood writers… was designed to destroy a civilization for many generations to come; to create chaos, disease epidemics, violence, broken homes, ruined lives, and the eventual collapse of freedom itself… The old Soviet intelligence services have joined forces with the Russian Mafia in a quest to dominate the world economically and politically.