Err on the side of caution: Get mercury out of vaccines

By MN Rep. Laura Brod
Minneapolis Star Tribune
April 30, 2005

One side of an important debate was printed in the April 19 Star Tribune article, "Parents lobby against mercury." Contrary to what was presented, the bills in the Legislature to eliminate mercury in vaccines are about creating further confidence and public trust in our immunization program by assuring parents that the vaccines mandated for their children and available to family members are as safe as possible.

The Star Tribune article discussed an Institute of Medicine report that concluded there is no evidence of harm from mercury in vaccines.

However, the story failed to mention a key acknowledgment by the IOM: "the committee cannot rule out, based on the epidemiological evidence, the possibility that vaccines contribute to autism in some small subset or very unusual circumstance."

It is precisely this "small subset" of people that has been the focus of important biological studies that raise concern about mercury.

Dr. Mady Hornig of Columbia University found that giving mercury (thimerosal) to mice in the proportion given to infants in vaccines resulted in some strains of mice developing significant neurological symptoms. Dr. Jill James of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences found that autistic children have a severe deficiency in glutathione, the body's most important detoxifier of heavy metals such as mercury.

Dr. James Bradstreet, founder of the International Child Development Resource Center, tested autistic children with a substance that bonds with heavy metals and pulls them out of the body through the urine. He found that autistic children excrete six times as much mercury as healthy children.

These studies help us to understand that a "small subset" of people are more vulnerable to mercury because they can not detoxify it well. Some parents of autistic children are seeing great improvement in their children from treatment that helps them detoxify mercury.

An epidemiological study published by Dr. Mark Geier and David Geier this month used the federal VAERS database (Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System) and the CDC Vaccine Safety Datalink Database to compare children who had received mercury-free vaccines with children who had received vaccines containing mercury. They found higher incidences of neurodevelopmental disorders of all kinds in the children exposed to mercury in vaccines.

Rates of autism in our country started climbing in the early 1990s, after several mercury-containing vaccines were added to the immunization schedule. However, rates are now beginning to drop in some areas. In California, four out of the last five quarters noted a drop in new diagnoses of autism. Given scientists' hypothesis that the autism epidemic could be related to mercury in vaccines, this drop was predicted because many vaccines have had mercury completely or partially removed.

Proponents of removing mercury from vaccines are willing to participate in this scientific debate. However, while the scientists debate, our kids cannot wait. Through legislation, Minnesota would be making a public policy statement that, as much as possible, we should use vaccines without mercury. That is the common-sense approach.

Laura Brod, R-New Prague, is a state representative.