OPINION
Autism: 'There's this wonderful treatment -- but you can't have it'
30 June 2005
… Even when the diagnosis is finally made, often years after the best intervention can be provided, parents are faced with a bewildering array of choices. They are shown a laundry list of treatments, and assured that this is a matter for them to decide as parents. "No treatment has been shown to be superior to any other" is a commonly heard refrain.
The situation has been compared to being told that your child has cancer, and you're being asked to choose between chemotherapy, black coffee enemas, and having the child take long rides on horseback. All of these options, you're assured, will be equally valuable in treating the cancer. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth…
Full article available at:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=650549
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Bush Administration Supports Montgomery Schools in Lawsuit
Supreme Court to Review Case Involving Special-Ed Options
By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; Page A04
The Bush administration has sided with school systems in a special education dispute between a disabled student's parents and the Montgomery County public schools that is before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The lawsuit centers on who has the burden of proof when a student's special education plan is under challenge: the person who objects to the plan, or the school officials who devised it. At stake in the case are questions about individual student rights and public school funding priorities.
Full article available at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062701617.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; Page A04
The Bush administration has sided with school systems in a special education dispute between a disabled student's parents and the Montgomery County public schools that is before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The lawsuit centers on who has the burden of proof when a student's special education plan is under challenge: the person who objects to the plan, or the school officials who devised it. At stake in the case are questions about individual student rights and public school funding priorities.
Full article available at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062701617.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
FDA Probing ADHD Drugs for Side Effects
Associated Press
June 29, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The government is planning to strengthen warnings about possible psychiatric side effects from Concerta and related treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity, and is probing whether other ADHD drugs need updating, too.
Concerta is a long-acting form of methylphenidate, sold generically and under the brand name Ritalin. For years, those drugs' labels have listed possible psychiatric side effects, such as agitation, psychosis or transient depression.
Full article available at:
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-attention-deficit-drugs,0,5084531,print.story
For more information and resources on autism, go to: http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
June 29, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The government is planning to strengthen warnings about possible psychiatric side effects from Concerta and related treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity, and is probing whether other ADHD drugs need updating, too.
Concerta is a long-acting form of methylphenidate, sold generically and under the brand name Ritalin. For years, those drugs' labels have listed possible psychiatric side effects, such as agitation, psychosis or transient depression.
Full article available at:
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-attention-deficit-drugs,0,5084531,print.story
For more information and resources on autism, go to: http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Study confirms high, but stable, child autism rate
"Although it is reassuring that autism is not on the rise, this study also shows that one in 165 children is affected with a pervasive development disorder, which has strong implicationson services."
Dr. Eric Fombonne, study co-author, Dir. of Department of Psychiatry at the Montreal Children's Hospital, Division Head of Child Psychiatry at McGill University.
Medical article available at:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2005/29/c7056.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Dr. Eric Fombonne, study co-author, Dir. of Department of Psychiatry at the Montreal Children's Hospital, Division Head of Child Psychiatry at McGill University.
Medical article available at:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2005/29/c7056.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Diagnosis HYPE
Is California’s so-called autism outbreak just a case of junk science?
By Chris Bushnell
If you live in Northern California, you already have plenty to be scared about: Terrorists, earthquakes, gangbangers, partially-hydrogenated oils, child molesters, auto emissions, fast food restaurants, bio-engineered tomatoes and the stem cells of foreign workers who have been cloned to take away your job, for starters.
But pick up the newspaper, flip on the radio or tune in to the evening news and you’ll hear about a much more mysterious and sinister danger sweeping the nation, and Silicon Valley in particular: Autism.
Full article available at: http://tinyurl.com/dn4ok and
http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=25361
Note: Dr. Paul Offit is a vaccine expert whose career has taken a major hit (e.g. Rotavirus). He is not an expert on autism or mercury.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
By Chris Bushnell
If you live in Northern California, you already have plenty to be scared about: Terrorists, earthquakes, gangbangers, partially-hydrogenated oils, child molesters, auto emissions, fast food restaurants, bio-engineered tomatoes and the stem cells of foreign workers who have been cloned to take away your job, for starters.
But pick up the newspaper, flip on the radio or tune in to the evening news and you’ll hear about a much more mysterious and sinister danger sweeping the nation, and Silicon Valley in particular: Autism.
Full article available at: http://tinyurl.com/dn4ok and
http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=25361
Note: Dr. Paul Offit is a vaccine expert whose career has taken a major hit (e.g. Rotavirus). He is not an expert on autism or mercury.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
The Got Mercury? Calculator
Ever wondered how much mercury may be in your seafood?
Keep track of the kinds of fish and amount of seafood you eat and calculate possible mercury exposure with the Got Mercury? calculator.
Available at: www.gotmercury.org.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Keep track of the kinds of fish and amount of seafood you eat and calculate possible mercury exposure with the Got Mercury? calculator.
Available at: www.gotmercury.org.
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Press Release - Wrong Debate on "Race Drug" (BiDil)
Although this article is not directly related to autism, it offers another side to an all-too-real health care crisis, disparities between blacks and whites.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2005
CONTACT:
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
323-296-6331
hutchinsonreport@aol.com
WRONG DEBATE ON "RACE DRUG"
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, BlackNews.com Columnist
Months before the FDA approved the controversial drug BiDil for sale to African-American heart patients, a furious debate raged. Black activists, academics, the New York Times, and some black medical practitioners denounced the FDA for approving the drug. They claimed that it reinforced dangerous and destructive racial stereotypes, made false race distinctions, the drug had not been thoroughly tested, and that it was a ploy by the drug's maker, NitroMed to make a quick buck. Black medical groups, the NAACP, and FDA officials hailed BiDil as a breakthrough in health care for blacks.
It's a misplaced debate. The real issue is the shameful gaping disparities in health care between blacks and whites, and the gross failure of the health care industry to provide adequate health care and treatment for blacks, especially poor blacks. Politicians, the government, insurers, and the health care industry have been virtually mute on that issue, and that didn't change in the debate over BiDil. That's a big reason that civil rights groups desperately snatched at BiDil as a wonder drug to cure black heart ailments.
The heath care crisis among blacks is severe and in some cases getting worse. The Center for Disease Control has repeatedly found that blacks have near double the rate of cancer, stroke, heart attacks, and diabetes than whites. The infant mortality rate gap between blacks and whites has actually worsened in the past three years. The racial disparities have had deadly consequences. In a study in the March/April issue of Health Affairs, former Surgeon General David Satcher estimated that 83,000 African-American deaths could be prevented each year if the disparities were eliminated. The chronic health disparity takes a terrible toll on the living as well. It decreases the quality of life, reduces worker productivity, drives up health care costs, and fuels suspicion among blacks that their lives are less important than that of whites.
The causes of the health disparities between blacks and whites are well known. They are poverty, the lack of access to affordable health care, the blatant discrimination by insurance companies against blacks, and the refusal of far too many doctors to aggressively provide the same quality health treatment to blacks as whites. Many in the medical profession are still loathe to finger racism and poverty as the prime causes of higher black disease and death rates, and worse, some blame blacks for their own poor health. Tossing the blame back on the victim absolves the government, insurers and the medical profession of any responsibility for the stubborn, and persistent disparities, and the need to do something about them. So far the solutions that government agencies and Congressional leaders have come with have been timid and ineffectual. The Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, established a work group to study the reasons for the disparities, and to monitor whatever progress is being made in eliminating the disparities. Republican Senate Majority leader Bill Frist has called for yet more study of the causes of the health disparities, and implored medical professionals to improve the quality of health care delivered. Congressional Democrats haven't done much better. Senator Ted Kennedy called for more study, and expanding Medicaid coverage. At a press conference, the week before the FDA approved BiDil, a legion of civil rights and medical groups praised the drug but made little mention of the gaping health disparities that make such a drug even necessary.
They also said nothing about the risk of drug manufacturers short cutting the rigorous, and time consuming testing, and costly process that the FDA normally requires before it approves a new drug for sale. That was the case with BiDil. NitroMed suspended tests when it appeared that the drug produced a heart cure for blacks. But two experts on the testing panel warned that race was not a substitute for genetic factors that could cause health problems, and that the drug should not be marketed exclusively for African-Americans. That admonition was lost in the rush to speed the drug to market.
If the company had followed the rules, and the FDA had stuck to its rules, NitroMed would have had to test the drug for the general public and that would have required much more testing. In that case, its patent would have expired in 2007. But by targeting the drug as a race specific drug, it extended the patent to 2020. Though the company immediately halted stock sales on word of the FDA approval of BiDil, its market value could jump, and sales will top $80 million when it markets the drug in September. Drug manufacturers will closely watch to see how the drug ultimately fares in the market, and if it works the wonders that the FDA expects, and civil rights groups hope, they almost certainly will clamor to get speedy FDA approval for other race drugs.
Time will tell whether BiDil significantly increases the life chances of black heart sufferers. In the meantime, the profit margin of NitroMed will climb. And so will the disparities in death and disease between blacks and whites.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a columnist for BlackNews.com, an author and political analyst.
For media interviews, contact:Mr. Hutchinson at 323-296-6331 or hutchinsonreport@aol.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2005
CONTACT:
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
323-296-6331
hutchinsonreport@aol.com
WRONG DEBATE ON "RACE DRUG"
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, BlackNews.com Columnist
Months before the FDA approved the controversial drug BiDil for sale to African-American heart patients, a furious debate raged. Black activists, academics, the New York Times, and some black medical practitioners denounced the FDA for approving the drug. They claimed that it reinforced dangerous and destructive racial stereotypes, made false race distinctions, the drug had not been thoroughly tested, and that it was a ploy by the drug's maker, NitroMed to make a quick buck. Black medical groups, the NAACP, and FDA officials hailed BiDil as a breakthrough in health care for blacks.
It's a misplaced debate. The real issue is the shameful gaping disparities in health care between blacks and whites, and the gross failure of the health care industry to provide adequate health care and treatment for blacks, especially poor blacks. Politicians, the government, insurers, and the health care industry have been virtually mute on that issue, and that didn't change in the debate over BiDil. That's a big reason that civil rights groups desperately snatched at BiDil as a wonder drug to cure black heart ailments.
The heath care crisis among blacks is severe and in some cases getting worse. The Center for Disease Control has repeatedly found that blacks have near double the rate of cancer, stroke, heart attacks, and diabetes than whites. The infant mortality rate gap between blacks and whites has actually worsened in the past three years. The racial disparities have had deadly consequences. In a study in the March/April issue of Health Affairs, former Surgeon General David Satcher estimated that 83,000 African-American deaths could be prevented each year if the disparities were eliminated. The chronic health disparity takes a terrible toll on the living as well. It decreases the quality of life, reduces worker productivity, drives up health care costs, and fuels suspicion among blacks that their lives are less important than that of whites.
The causes of the health disparities between blacks and whites are well known. They are poverty, the lack of access to affordable health care, the blatant discrimination by insurance companies against blacks, and the refusal of far too many doctors to aggressively provide the same quality health treatment to blacks as whites. Many in the medical profession are still loathe to finger racism and poverty as the prime causes of higher black disease and death rates, and worse, some blame blacks for their own poor health. Tossing the blame back on the victim absolves the government, insurers and the medical profession of any responsibility for the stubborn, and persistent disparities, and the need to do something about them. So far the solutions that government agencies and Congressional leaders have come with have been timid and ineffectual. The Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, established a work group to study the reasons for the disparities, and to monitor whatever progress is being made in eliminating the disparities. Republican Senate Majority leader Bill Frist has called for yet more study of the causes of the health disparities, and implored medical professionals to improve the quality of health care delivered. Congressional Democrats haven't done much better. Senator Ted Kennedy called for more study, and expanding Medicaid coverage. At a press conference, the week before the FDA approved BiDil, a legion of civil rights and medical groups praised the drug but made little mention of the gaping health disparities that make such a drug even necessary.
They also said nothing about the risk of drug manufacturers short cutting the rigorous, and time consuming testing, and costly process that the FDA normally requires before it approves a new drug for sale. That was the case with BiDil. NitroMed suspended tests when it appeared that the drug produced a heart cure for blacks. But two experts on the testing panel warned that race was not a substitute for genetic factors that could cause health problems, and that the drug should not be marketed exclusively for African-Americans. That admonition was lost in the rush to speed the drug to market.
If the company had followed the rules, and the FDA had stuck to its rules, NitroMed would have had to test the drug for the general public and that would have required much more testing. In that case, its patent would have expired in 2007. But by targeting the drug as a race specific drug, it extended the patent to 2020. Though the company immediately halted stock sales on word of the FDA approval of BiDil, its market value could jump, and sales will top $80 million when it markets the drug in September. Drug manufacturers will closely watch to see how the drug ultimately fares in the market, and if it works the wonders that the FDA expects, and civil rights groups hope, they almost certainly will clamor to get speedy FDA approval for other race drugs.
Time will tell whether BiDil significantly increases the life chances of black heart sufferers. In the meantime, the profit margin of NitroMed will climb. And so will the disparities in death and disease between blacks and whites.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a columnist for BlackNews.com, an author and political analyst.
For media interviews, contact:Mr. Hutchinson at 323-296-6331 or hutchinsonreport@aol.com
Monday, June 27, 2005
Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning
The many similarities of mercury poisoning and common symptoms and characteristics of autism are nearly identical.
Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning
http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/vaccine/mercurylong.htm
Autism: A Unique Type of Mercury Poisoning
http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/vaccine/mercurylong.htm
Montel Williams, Fox18 News Talk About Autism/Vaccine Issue
There has been lots of news on the autism/vaccine issue in the media this week. Check out Lyn Redwood (SafeMinds) and David Kirby, author of a must-read book, 'Evidence of Harm' appearing on the Montel Williams Show.
Montel Williams Show
Tuesday June 21st
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
www.montelshow.com
Fox 18 News Interview
(Friday, June 10th 2005)
To download Montel Williams Show and Fox 18 News Interview go to:
http://www.quadcityautism.com/MediaCoverage.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Montel Williams Show
Tuesday June 21st
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
www.montelshow.com
Fox 18 News Interview
(Friday, June 10th 2005)
To download Montel Williams Show and Fox 18 News Interview go to:
http://www.quadcityautism.com/MediaCoverage.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
NAACP supports Watson-Burton bill to abolish Mercury fillings for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers
Update:
This message is dated July 21, 2004. I believe it is important that the autism community learn the position of African-American leaders and civil rights groups with respect to the mercury issue.
*Bruce Gordon is now President-Elect of the NAACP.
Message from Charlie Brown:
African-American leaders have rebuffed a heavily bankrolled effort by the American Dental Association to persuade the NAACP to back down from its support of the Watson-Burton bill. At its convention in Philadelphia, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization refused to consider an ADA-sponsored proposal to repeal its existing position on Mercury fillings.
Since 2002, the NAACP has supported the Watson-Burton bill -- to abolish Mercury fillings for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers immediately, and to phase out its use for everyone else. Long a stranger to the civil rights movement, the ADA began a heavy lobbying campaign feigning support for the organization’s causes. African-American leaders saw through the effort.
Dirck Hargraves, former president of the Alexandria Branch of the NAACP, represented Consumers for Dental Choice at the convention. NAACP leaders Willis Edwards, a board member; Alice Huffman, California state president; and Ophelia Averitt, president of the Akron branch, stymied the ADA lobbying machine.
In advance of this week’s victory, four people played the key roles in getting the NAACP resolution adopted and in devising a strategy to keep it there. We owe special gratitude to:
** Ed Hogan, a government relations professional in Columbus, initiatedour first inroads with the African-American leadership, advocating a strongposition adopted by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. Edcontinues to advise us on strategy.
** Emmitt Carlton, a lawyer in Washington, DC, and Alexandria, VA, secured the endorsement of the Alexandria Branch of the NAACP as a prelude to the national endorsement. Emmitt led the fight on the convention floor in 2002, testified before Congress in 2003, and helped strategize this victory in 2004.
** Dr. Ada Frazier, a Mercury-free dentist from Huntsville, AL, testified before the health committee and spoke personally with NAACP national president Kweisi Mfume.
** Once again, Congresswoman Diane Watson continued to maintain herleadership in the battle to abolish Mercury fillings. Her staffer Richard Butcher worked closely with the NAACP leadership to ensure that the Congresswoman’s views were strongly considered.
We will be sending a thank you note to NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and President Mfume.* We are noting the courageous efforts of African-American elected officials in standing up for children and against organized dentistry. In addition to Congresswoman Watson, they include Congressman Harold Ford Jr. of TN, Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald of CA, Congressman John Conyers of MI, State Representative John Rogers of AL, State Representative Leah Landrum Taylor of AZ, Assemblyman Jerome Horton of CA, State Representative Bob Holmes, Ph.D., of GA, and State Representative Neva Walker of MN.
The NAACP’s role in fighting to abolish Mercury fillings has been enormous. For example, in Arizona, Reverend Oscar Tillman, president of the Greater Phoenix Branch, has helped us eliminate Medicaid’s “Mercury fillings or no fillings” policy. We look forward to continued cooperation in our battle to abolish Mercury fillings. We will not accept the ADA’s two-tiered system of “Choice for the rich and Mercury for the poor.”
Charlie Brown
July 21, 2004
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/
This message is dated July 21, 2004. I believe it is important that the autism community learn the position of African-American leaders and civil rights groups with respect to the mercury issue.
*Bruce Gordon is now President-Elect of the NAACP.
Message from Charlie Brown:
African-American leaders have rebuffed a heavily bankrolled effort by the American Dental Association to persuade the NAACP to back down from its support of the Watson-Burton bill. At its convention in Philadelphia, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization refused to consider an ADA-sponsored proposal to repeal its existing position on Mercury fillings.
Since 2002, the NAACP has supported the Watson-Burton bill -- to abolish Mercury fillings for children, pregnant women, and nursing mothers immediately, and to phase out its use for everyone else. Long a stranger to the civil rights movement, the ADA began a heavy lobbying campaign feigning support for the organization’s causes. African-American leaders saw through the effort.
Dirck Hargraves, former president of the Alexandria Branch of the NAACP, represented Consumers for Dental Choice at the convention. NAACP leaders Willis Edwards, a board member; Alice Huffman, California state president; and Ophelia Averitt, president of the Akron branch, stymied the ADA lobbying machine.
In advance of this week’s victory, four people played the key roles in getting the NAACP resolution adopted and in devising a strategy to keep it there. We owe special gratitude to:
** Ed Hogan, a government relations professional in Columbus, initiatedour first inroads with the African-American leadership, advocating a strongposition adopted by the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. Edcontinues to advise us on strategy.
** Emmitt Carlton, a lawyer in Washington, DC, and Alexandria, VA, secured the endorsement of the Alexandria Branch of the NAACP as a prelude to the national endorsement. Emmitt led the fight on the convention floor in 2002, testified before Congress in 2003, and helped strategize this victory in 2004.
** Dr. Ada Frazier, a Mercury-free dentist from Huntsville, AL, testified before the health committee and spoke personally with NAACP national president Kweisi Mfume.
** Once again, Congresswoman Diane Watson continued to maintain herleadership in the battle to abolish Mercury fillings. Her staffer Richard Butcher worked closely with the NAACP leadership to ensure that the Congresswoman’s views were strongly considered.
We will be sending a thank you note to NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and President Mfume.* We are noting the courageous efforts of African-American elected officials in standing up for children and against organized dentistry. In addition to Congresswoman Watson, they include Congressman Harold Ford Jr. of TN, Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald of CA, Congressman John Conyers of MI, State Representative John Rogers of AL, State Representative Leah Landrum Taylor of AZ, Assemblyman Jerome Horton of CA, State Representative Bob Holmes, Ph.D., of GA, and State Representative Neva Walker of MN.
The NAACP’s role in fighting to abolish Mercury fillings has been enormous. For example, in Arizona, Reverend Oscar Tillman, president of the Greater Phoenix Branch, has helped us eliminate Medicaid’s “Mercury fillings or no fillings” policy. We look forward to continued cooperation in our battle to abolish Mercury fillings. We will not accept the ADA’s two-tiered system of “Choice for the rich and Mercury for the poor.”
Charlie Brown
July 21, 2004
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/
Vaccine Ingredients - Thimerosal isn't the only poison in vaccines.
Mercury Products Guide: The Hidden Dangers of Mercury
Resource Guide for Consumers about Mercury Products List and their Alternatives
http://www.nwf.org/nwfWebAdmin/binaryVault/mercuryproducts.pdf
FDA Report - Thimerosal in Vaccines
(List of Mercury in Plasma-Derived Products)
http'>http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm).">http
Check out this list below for a brief description of other 'bad stuff'.
From Dr. Stephanie Cave's book: What your doctor may not tell you about vaccines:
aluminum - to induce the production of antibodies
benzothonium chloride - preservative not proven for human consumption, it is added to the anthrax vax
ethylene glycol - main ingredient in antifreeze, used as a preservative in vax
formaldehyde - known carcinogen, used in fungicides, insecticides, manufacturer of explosives and fabrics. incompatible with many other substances, including phenol. In its formalin form, it is used to inactivate germs.
gelatin - known allergen, found in varicella and MMR
glutamate - stabilizer against heat, light and other environmental conditions.
antibiotics - to prevent germs from growing in the vax culture
phenol - coal tar derivative, poisonous, harms the immune system
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Resource Guide for Consumers about Mercury Products List and their Alternatives
http://www.nwf.org/nwfWebAdmin/binaryVault/mercuryproducts.pdf
FDA Report - Thimerosal in Vaccines
(List of Mercury in Plasma-Derived Products)
http'>http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm).">http
Check out this list below for a brief description of other 'bad stuff'.
From Dr. Stephanie Cave's book: What your doctor may not tell you about vaccines:
aluminum - to induce the production of antibodies
benzothonium chloride - preservative not proven for human consumption, it is added to the anthrax vax
ethylene glycol - main ingredient in antifreeze, used as a preservative in vax
formaldehyde - known carcinogen, used in fungicides, insecticides, manufacturer of explosives and fabrics. incompatible with many other substances, including phenol. In its formalin form, it is used to inactivate germs.
gelatin - known allergen, found in varicella and MMR
glutamate - stabilizer against heat, light and other environmental conditions.
antibiotics - to prevent germs from growing in the vax culture
phenol - coal tar derivative, poisonous, harms the immune system
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Resources & Information on Mercury, Treatment & Politics
Mercury Treatment
Autism Research Institute: http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/index.htm
Parent Treatment Support and Exchange:
Autism-Mercury@yahoogroups.com
Mercury Research and Information
NoMercury.org: http://www.nomercury.org
SafeMinds: http://www.safeminds.org/
Mercury Political Action
A-CHAMP www.a-champ.org
Autism Advocacy
National Autism Association http://nationalautismassociation.org/
Daily News Digest & Events via Email (no fee) Highly recommend ! Schafer Autism Report http://www.sarnet.org
The Autism Calendar http://www.sarnet.org/events
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Autism Research Institute: http://www.autismwebsite.com/ari/index.htm
Parent Treatment Support and Exchange:
Autism-Mercury@yahoogroups.com
Mercury Research and Information
NoMercury.org: http://www.nomercury.org
SafeMinds: http://www.safeminds.org/
Mercury Political Action
A-CHAMP www.a-champ.org
Autism Advocacy
National Autism Association http://nationalautismassociation.org/
Daily News Digest & Events via Email (no fee) Highly recommend ! Schafer Autism Report http://www.sarnet.org
The Autism Calendar http://www.sarnet.org/events
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Thimerosal & Autism - David Kirby's Book Evidence of Harm
by Evelyn Pringle
www.OpEdNews.com
David Kirby new book, "Evidence of Harm" is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the connection between autism and childhood vaccines containing the mercury based preservative Thimerosal.
The book examines the political and legal side of this travesty and presents information that cannot be disputed. The book is a result of a thorough investigation and is by no means an anti-vaccine campaign. But most importantly, its obvious that Kirby has no ax to grind.
Full article available at:
http://www.opednews.com/pringle_062705_therosal_autism.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
www.OpEdNews.com
David Kirby new book, "Evidence of Harm" is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the connection between autism and childhood vaccines containing the mercury based preservative Thimerosal.
The book examines the political and legal side of this travesty and presents information that cannot be disputed. The book is a result of a thorough investigation and is by no means an anti-vaccine campaign. But most importantly, its obvious that Kirby has no ax to grind.
Full article available at:
http://www.opednews.com/pringle_062705_therosal_autism.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Dr. F. Edward Yazbak investigates connection between CDC & Danish Autism Research
This report is a good opportunity for parents to learn more about the Denmark MMR and Thimerosal autism studies.
In a new investigative report, Dr. Yazbak carefully reviews the most recent Danish study (May 2005) and the historical connection between the CDC and Danish Autism Research.
Read the full report at:
http://taap.info/DanishStudy2005.pdf
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
In a new investigative report, Dr. Yazbak carefully reviews the most recent Danish study (May 2005) and the historical connection between the CDC and Danish Autism Research.
Read the full report at:
http://taap.info/DanishStudy2005.pdf
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Tobacco Science and the Thimerosal Scandal by RFK Jr.
Tobacco Science and the Thimerosal Scandal
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Here's another informative article by RFK Jr. regarding thimerosal.
Full article available at:
http://www.robertfkennedyjr.com/docs/AutismHgPolitics_6_23.pdf
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Here's another informative article by RFK Jr. regarding thimerosal.
Full article available at:
http://www.robertfkennedyjr.com/docs/AutismHgPolitics_6_23.pdf
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
NYS Senate Passes Legislation to Ban Mercury in Vaccines
SENATE PASSES LEGISLATION TO BAN MERCURY IN VACCINES
The New York Senate today (June 21st) passed legislation (S.2707-C), sponsored by Senator Dean Skelos (R, Rockville Center) that would prohibit the administration of any vaccine containing more than a trace amount of mercury to children under the age of three or pregnant women.
Thimerosal, which contains a form of mercury, has been used in vaccines for years as a preservative to help prevent life-threatening bacterial contamination. However, vaccine manufacturing technology has advanced in recent years, and it is no longer necessary to add preservatives containing mercury to vaccines.
Full report available at:
http://www.senatormarchi.com/senate_update.asp?id=696
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
The New York Senate today (June 21st) passed legislation (S.2707-C), sponsored by Senator Dean Skelos (R, Rockville Center) that would prohibit the administration of any vaccine containing more than a trace amount of mercury to children under the age of three or pregnant women.
Thimerosal, which contains a form of mercury, has been used in vaccines for years as a preservative to help prevent life-threatening bacterial contamination. However, vaccine manufacturing technology has advanced in recent years, and it is no longer necessary to add preservatives containing mercury to vaccines.
Full report available at:
http://www.senatormarchi.com/senate_update.asp?id=696
Important:
Remember to write or call your legislators to oppose Senate Bill 3. Should Senate Bill 3 ever pass as currently written, the bill will overturn all state thimerosal bans in the U.S.
To find a list of your U.S. senators and U.S. Representatives, their contact information and links to their websites, visit:
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Church calls on CDC, Doctors For Mercury-Free Vaccines
By Joy Buchanan
The Methodist group says vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative are not safe and raises concern about a link to autism in children.
The Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church is calling for political action to remove mercury from vaccines, saying that mercury causes autism and other neurological disorders in children.
Read full article at: http://tinyurl.com/b3fcb
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
The Methodist group says vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative are not safe and raises concern about a link to autism in children.
The Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church is calling for political action to remove mercury from vaccines, saying that mercury causes autism and other neurological disorders in children.
Read full article at: http://tinyurl.com/b3fcb
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Deadly Immunity by Robert J. Kennedy, Jr.
Deadly Immunity
When a study revealed that mercury in childhood vaccines may have caused autism in thousands of kids, the government rushed to conceal the data -- and to prevent parents from suing drug companies for their role in the epidemic.by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Read full article at URL:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0616-31.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
When a study revealed that mercury in childhood vaccines may have caused autism in thousands of kids, the government rushed to conceal the data -- and to prevent parents from suing drug companies for their role in the epidemic.by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Read full article at URL:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0616-31.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Prompt Seizure Therapy May Have No Long-Term Benefit
www.reutershealth.com/archive/2005/06/10/eline/links/20050610elin015.html
Reuters Health - After a seizure, early intervention with anticonvulsant drugs appears to have little effect on the long-term prognosis of epilepsy, British researchers report in the June 11th issue of The Lancet.
"When to begin treatment with antiepileptic drugs in patients with few or infrequent seizures is a difficult decision," study co-author Dr. David Chadwick, from the University of Liverpool, and his associates note. Doctors and patients must weigh the risk of seizure recurrence against the risk of medication side effects.
Full article available at: www.reutershealth.com/archive/2005/06/10/eline/links/20050610elin015.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Reuters Health - After a seizure, early intervention with anticonvulsant drugs appears to have little effect on the long-term prognosis of epilepsy, British researchers report in the June 11th issue of The Lancet.
"When to begin treatment with antiepileptic drugs in patients with few or infrequent seizures is a difficult decision," study co-author Dr. David Chadwick, from the University of Liverpool, and his associates note. Doctors and patients must weigh the risk of seizure recurrence against the risk of medication side effects.
Full article available at: www.reutershealth.com/archive/2005/06/10/eline/links/20050610elin015.html
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Autism + Vaccines = Tax Dollars
by Evelyn J. Pringle
www.dissidentvoice.org
June 14, 2005
We are on the verge of a welfare disaster in this country. Eighty percent of autistic children are under the age of 17. In a few short years, the states are going to be forced to provide support for an overwhelming number of disabled autistic adults. “The costs will be in the trillions,” according to Ann Dachel.
Ann should know. She is a special education teacher, a member of the National Autism Association, and the mother of a boy with autism and a daughter who developed epilepsy after receiving a Hepatitis B vaccine.
Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative that for many years was added to childhood vaccines to boost drug company profits. In the 1990s the CDC added more and more Thimerosal-containing vaccines to the mandatory vaccine schedule without adding up the cumulative amounts of mercury that children were receiving from the vaccines.
Finally, in 1999, after watching the dramatic autism and other neurological disorders, officials at the CDC and FDA realized that a fully vaccinated infant was receiving up to 125 times what the EPA considered safe for mercury exposure.
Because half the officials involved were on payrolls of the drug companies they were charged to regulate, they have never ordered the pharmaceutical industry to stop using Thimerosal. In fact, the product is still used in some vaccines. Last year's flu vaccine had a mercury content eight times the EPA safe limit and it was recommended for six-month-old babies and pregnant women.
The generation of children poisoned by vaccines during the 1990s is now reaching puberty and if the Bush administration is successful in blocking lawsuits against the vaccine makers that caused this epidemic of neurological disorders, taxpayers will be left holding the bag and a heavy bag it will be.
The theory of mercury toxicity and autism is not promoted by parents only. It’s been verified by such esteemed biochemists as Andrew Hall Cutler, PhD and Boyd Haley, the chemistry department chair at the University of Kentucky. A study by Bernard et al titled “Autism: a novel form of mercury poisoning” documents about 100 matching symptoms.
The transcript of a closed meeting in 1999 attended by officials from drug companies and the CDC and FDA, which was leaked to the press, reveals how the 52 vaccine policymakers at the meeting discussed ways to deal with statistics showing that children given mercury in vaccines had a much higher rate of autism, attention deficit and other disorders.
On August 18, 2003, Dr. Leonard G Horowitz warned members of the congressional committee at a Government Reform Hearing on Vaccines as a Risk Factor For Autism “the great and grave likelihood that disease prevention through vaccinations is violently backfiring -- dramatically increasing mortality and morbidity especially among America's youngest citizens.”
Horowitz cited the dangers of our nation's “most established, generally accepted, public health practice of vaccination, and its links to skyrocketing rates of autism and brain damage in children.”
This public health professional by training, and independent investigator with expertise in medical sociology and infectious disease research, told Congress, “I have unfortunately, over the past two decades, grown accustomed to instances of poor decision-making, gross negligence, and downright cover-ups in safety oversight and pharmaceutical industry control in the vaccine arena.”
In 2002, the research team of David and Mark Geier released a study based on tens of millions of doses of vaccines given to children in the US during the 1990s, that presented the first epidemiologic evidence that associated the increase in Thimerosal from vaccines with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Professor Lynn Adams, a speech-language pathologist at Radford University who specializes in autism, says a 1999 study determined that the average child received 33 doses of 10 different vaccines by the age of five. She claims the multiple shots could “flip a genetic switch” in children predisposed to autism.
Lisa Blakemore-Brown, a Psychologist in the UK, also maintains that Thimerosal is the cause of autism, and suspects it is also the culprit involved in a wide variety of other health problems showing up in children today.
According to Blakemore, the current autism epidemic did not occur earlier because children “were given single vaccines with single amounts of mercury…[B]ut with the introduction of triple vaccines the amount of mercury contained within the preservative was multiplied and the cumulative effects are only just now being discovered by the public.”
Parents Struggle With The Burden
Laura Bono is the mother of an autistic child and she wants the public to consider the latest research pointing to the mercury-vaccine link. For instance, researcher, Mady Hornig, recently announced the results of a study where mice were given Thimerosal at the level of the childhood immunization schedule and began exhibiting autistic behavior.
Bono cites a study where toxicologist Dr Jill James, a former FDA researcher, found a problem with autistic children's methylation that made it difficult for their bodies to rid themselves of mercury. Bono notes the findings of Dr. Richard Deth, that once in the body, Thimerosal shuts down the detoxifying methylation process.
Bono reveals how her son Jackson experienced a four-month regression beginning days after receiving shots. He received HiB (with 25 mcg. of mercury), DT (with 25 mcg. of mercury), Oral Polio, and Measles-Mumps-Rubella. All totaled, he received 50 mcg. of mercury, three dead viruses and four live viruses. The 50 mcg. of mercury was on top of the 75 mcg. of mercury he had already received in his first year of life through one DPT and two other DT shots. The 50 mcg. of mercury he received in one day was 44 times the EPA exposure limit. He would need to weigh 550 lbs. on that day to process that much mercury. He weighed just 25 lbs. The total amount of mercury he received from 2-months-old to 16 months was 139 times the recommended EPA exposure levels.
“My outgoing, social, verbal child was a shell of his old self,” Laura said. “Jackson’s body was still here. But his personality -- what made Jackson his smart, loving self -- was gone. The sick body replaced the well one. The sleeping child was replaced by one who would awake startled after a few hours and not go back to sleep all night. The one who had a healthy appetite was replaced by one who became picky and whittled his foods down to one or two. The happy child was replaced by an unhappy one. The child who at one time didn’t miss a thing and was the life of the room became distant and preferred to be alone. The one who was developmentally ahead of the crowd began making strange noises and exhibiting odd behaviors. The child God gave us was gone.”
Andrian Prokofiew of New Jersey has a son who was developing normally until he acquired autism at 17 months after receiving some 20 vaccines containing Thimerasol. Within weeks of the last three vaccinations given in the same visit, Prokofiew’s son, “lost all speech for 3 years, did not even look at me or know who I was. He screamed for two weeks, his ears turned red, his eyes dilated and he began to spin, flap his hands and bang his head,” she said.
It took more than 3 years to find out what happened to him medically and Andrian says she was horrified to find out the pharmaceutical companies gave bonus dollars for each vaccine given.
“Words alone cannot express how devastating this disorder is for the family and child, emotionally as well as financially,” she said.
Dr Allen Clark, a licensed physician for 30 years, has a son who developed severe neurodevelopmental symptoms (diagnosed as Asperger’s, an autism spectrum disorder) at age 7½ after receiving a routine influenza vaccine containing 25 micrograms of Thimerosal, a dose which the EPA would calculate as being safe only for a 550 pound adult. The Clark's son weighed only 50 pounds at the time he was vaccinated.
Nancy and Tim Hokkanen are parents of Andy Hokkanen, age 6. Andy was exposed to mercury before birth from his mother's tooth fillings, which are 50% mercury, and from RhoGam shots for Rh factor incompatibility. After birth Andy also received Thimerosal from the mandated childhood vaccinations.
Tim's health insurance has covered much of the cost of behavioral therapy for Andy, but they were on Medical Assistance for about 9 months, which picked up many co-pays. They estimate that their insurance was billed about $100,000 for therapy so far.
Linda Weinmaster has a 13-year-old son that also met with mercury poisoning before birth in the form of a mercury-containing RhoGAM shot that Linda received during her 28th week of pregnancy along with his childhood vaccines. He now suffers from a host of medical problems that require care.
Linda says her son's medications cost over $6,500 per month. Right now, insurance covers his meds less deductible, but not his vitamins, which run about $300 per month.
Kendra Pettengill is a single widowed mother of a child with autism, and veteran of the United States Air Force.
Kendra is annoyed that anyone would believe that there is not an epidemic in autism, and claims that it previously went undiagnosed. “The claim is better diagnosis,” she says, “as if parents, teachers, and doctors 10 or 20 years ago wouldn’t have noticed our spinning, rocking, flapping, head banging, self-biting, children who can’t speak, and who live in their own little worlds.”
“It is an insult, a slap in the face to parents to claim it is only better diagnostics that recognized our children’s autism,” Kendra notes. “A parent 10 years ago would have been just as terror stricken by their child’s condition as I was and would have demanded a reason just as I did.”
Kendra’s insurance company will not pay for her daughter’s medical therapy, the diet, or ABA therapy. In fact, once autism is diagnosed, the insurance company can refuse to pay for a visit to the doctor for the flu if your doctor checks the little autism box on your insurance sheet, Kendra says.
“Every organization I contacted denied me assistance as they say my $30,000 a year income is too much to qualify,” Kendra said. “A good solid ABA program can cost more than that, per year,” she added.
“I have sold my house, spent my retirement, lost my medical insurance, all to save my child from a life of hopelessness,” Kendra says.
According to Kendra, her entire family is affected by her daughter‘s autism: “my parents even sold their house and moved nearby to help out,” she said.
Bob Ashburn and his wife Jamie are from Ohio and they have two children with autism spectrum disorder.
Their son, Kyle, who is now 9, was the first to be diagnosed with autism. In many respects they say he was the perfect baby because he was so easy to get along with and yet there was something strange about him that they couldn’t pinpoint. They originally thought that Kyle might be deaf.
When he was about 15-months-old, the family was eating at McDonalds when an alarm went off. Everyone in the place reacted to the noise except Kyle, who just sat there eating his French Fries.
At first the Ashburns thought their daughter Kris was just shy and had strange habits, like regular hand washing and needing everything to be consistent. For instance, she needs to sit in the same seat in the car and needs to sleep with her same stuffed animals each night.
Kris is now 14-years-old and is very artistically talented and reads at a high level. She can handle regular school but she really needs to have time to herself when she gets home and usually hides in either the bathroom or her bedroom for about an hour reading before she can face the world again.
The Ashburns worry about what kind of future their children will have, especially Kyle, who has very few social skills and so many post-reactions to any interactions of a negative sort with people, that they don’t know how they can live in society.
When Kyle and Kris get upset they become violent and hit their parents. As a result, the Ashburns have had to change their entire lifestyles so that everything is as consistent as possible and that transitions are made with lots of preparation.
Nothing, not even a quick shopping trip for a carton of milk, they say, can be done on the spur of the moment without some sort of violent reaction from either one or both of the children.
Jennifer Thompson tells how for a period of time, her autistic son Zack developed OCD type behaviors about his clothing. “He would only wear certain clothes. No long sleeved shirts, only long pants, and they had to be tucked in! He would only wear shirts that had buttons. This was an obsession. You did not dare think you could make him do otherwise or he would go into an extreme meltdown. And I know most parents out there understand what a ‘meltdown’ is.”
According to Lauro Bono, “What is measurable is the financial toll that this medical crisis inflicts on families. After the vaccines at 16-months-old, Jackson’s medical and therapy needs began taking every bit of money we had saved or ever would have saved."
“The total we have paid for Jackson’s medical, nutritional and private therapy expenses so far,” she says, “is roughly $685,000 since August 1990. That is approximately $53,000 per year.”
In addition to medical costs, most autistic children cannot be left alone and must be looked after and cared for non-stop every day of the year. Unless these kids and their families get the financial help that they deserve from the vaccine makers, the entire burden will eventually fall to the taxpayers, and the cost will reportedly exceed $2 million dollars per child.
Maybe that will make people wake up and listen.
Evelyn J. Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government. She can be reached at: epringle05@yahoo.com.
Article at: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June05/Pringle0614.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
www.dissidentvoice.org
June 14, 2005
We are on the verge of a welfare disaster in this country. Eighty percent of autistic children are under the age of 17. In a few short years, the states are going to be forced to provide support for an overwhelming number of disabled autistic adults. “The costs will be in the trillions,” according to Ann Dachel.
Ann should know. She is a special education teacher, a member of the National Autism Association, and the mother of a boy with autism and a daughter who developed epilepsy after receiving a Hepatitis B vaccine.
Thimerosal is a mercury-based preservative that for many years was added to childhood vaccines to boost drug company profits. In the 1990s the CDC added more and more Thimerosal-containing vaccines to the mandatory vaccine schedule without adding up the cumulative amounts of mercury that children were receiving from the vaccines.
Finally, in 1999, after watching the dramatic autism and other neurological disorders, officials at the CDC and FDA realized that a fully vaccinated infant was receiving up to 125 times what the EPA considered safe for mercury exposure.
Because half the officials involved were on payrolls of the drug companies they were charged to regulate, they have never ordered the pharmaceutical industry to stop using Thimerosal. In fact, the product is still used in some vaccines. Last year's flu vaccine had a mercury content eight times the EPA safe limit and it was recommended for six-month-old babies and pregnant women.
The generation of children poisoned by vaccines during the 1990s is now reaching puberty and if the Bush administration is successful in blocking lawsuits against the vaccine makers that caused this epidemic of neurological disorders, taxpayers will be left holding the bag and a heavy bag it will be.
The theory of mercury toxicity and autism is not promoted by parents only. It’s been verified by such esteemed biochemists as Andrew Hall Cutler, PhD and Boyd Haley, the chemistry department chair at the University of Kentucky. A study by Bernard et al titled “Autism: a novel form of mercury poisoning” documents about 100 matching symptoms.
The transcript of a closed meeting in 1999 attended by officials from drug companies and the CDC and FDA, which was leaked to the press, reveals how the 52 vaccine policymakers at the meeting discussed ways to deal with statistics showing that children given mercury in vaccines had a much higher rate of autism, attention deficit and other disorders.
On August 18, 2003, Dr. Leonard G Horowitz warned members of the congressional committee at a Government Reform Hearing on Vaccines as a Risk Factor For Autism “the great and grave likelihood that disease prevention through vaccinations is violently backfiring -- dramatically increasing mortality and morbidity especially among America's youngest citizens.”
Horowitz cited the dangers of our nation's “most established, generally accepted, public health practice of vaccination, and its links to skyrocketing rates of autism and brain damage in children.”
This public health professional by training, and independent investigator with expertise in medical sociology and infectious disease research, told Congress, “I have unfortunately, over the past two decades, grown accustomed to instances of poor decision-making, gross negligence, and downright cover-ups in safety oversight and pharmaceutical industry control in the vaccine arena.”
In 2002, the research team of David and Mark Geier released a study based on tens of millions of doses of vaccines given to children in the US during the 1990s, that presented the first epidemiologic evidence that associated the increase in Thimerosal from vaccines with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Professor Lynn Adams, a speech-language pathologist at Radford University who specializes in autism, says a 1999 study determined that the average child received 33 doses of 10 different vaccines by the age of five. She claims the multiple shots could “flip a genetic switch” in children predisposed to autism.
Lisa Blakemore-Brown, a Psychologist in the UK, also maintains that Thimerosal is the cause of autism, and suspects it is also the culprit involved in a wide variety of other health problems showing up in children today.
According to Blakemore, the current autism epidemic did not occur earlier because children “were given single vaccines with single amounts of mercury…[B]ut with the introduction of triple vaccines the amount of mercury contained within the preservative was multiplied and the cumulative effects are only just now being discovered by the public.”
Parents Struggle With The Burden
Laura Bono is the mother of an autistic child and she wants the public to consider the latest research pointing to the mercury-vaccine link. For instance, researcher, Mady Hornig, recently announced the results of a study where mice were given Thimerosal at the level of the childhood immunization schedule and began exhibiting autistic behavior.
Bono cites a study where toxicologist Dr Jill James, a former FDA researcher, found a problem with autistic children's methylation that made it difficult for their bodies to rid themselves of mercury. Bono notes the findings of Dr. Richard Deth, that once in the body, Thimerosal shuts down the detoxifying methylation process.
Bono reveals how her son Jackson experienced a four-month regression beginning days after receiving shots. He received HiB (with 25 mcg. of mercury), DT (with 25 mcg. of mercury), Oral Polio, and Measles-Mumps-Rubella. All totaled, he received 50 mcg. of mercury, three dead viruses and four live viruses. The 50 mcg. of mercury was on top of the 75 mcg. of mercury he had already received in his first year of life through one DPT and two other DT shots. The 50 mcg. of mercury he received in one day was 44 times the EPA exposure limit. He would need to weigh 550 lbs. on that day to process that much mercury. He weighed just 25 lbs. The total amount of mercury he received from 2-months-old to 16 months was 139 times the recommended EPA exposure levels.
“My outgoing, social, verbal child was a shell of his old self,” Laura said. “Jackson’s body was still here. But his personality -- what made Jackson his smart, loving self -- was gone. The sick body replaced the well one. The sleeping child was replaced by one who would awake startled after a few hours and not go back to sleep all night. The one who had a healthy appetite was replaced by one who became picky and whittled his foods down to one or two. The happy child was replaced by an unhappy one. The child who at one time didn’t miss a thing and was the life of the room became distant and preferred to be alone. The one who was developmentally ahead of the crowd began making strange noises and exhibiting odd behaviors. The child God gave us was gone.”
Andrian Prokofiew of New Jersey has a son who was developing normally until he acquired autism at 17 months after receiving some 20 vaccines containing Thimerasol. Within weeks of the last three vaccinations given in the same visit, Prokofiew’s son, “lost all speech for 3 years, did not even look at me or know who I was. He screamed for two weeks, his ears turned red, his eyes dilated and he began to spin, flap his hands and bang his head,” she said.
It took more than 3 years to find out what happened to him medically and Andrian says she was horrified to find out the pharmaceutical companies gave bonus dollars for each vaccine given.
“Words alone cannot express how devastating this disorder is for the family and child, emotionally as well as financially,” she said.
Dr Allen Clark, a licensed physician for 30 years, has a son who developed severe neurodevelopmental symptoms (diagnosed as Asperger’s, an autism spectrum disorder) at age 7½ after receiving a routine influenza vaccine containing 25 micrograms of Thimerosal, a dose which the EPA would calculate as being safe only for a 550 pound adult. The Clark's son weighed only 50 pounds at the time he was vaccinated.
Nancy and Tim Hokkanen are parents of Andy Hokkanen, age 6. Andy was exposed to mercury before birth from his mother's tooth fillings, which are 50% mercury, and from RhoGam shots for Rh factor incompatibility. After birth Andy also received Thimerosal from the mandated childhood vaccinations.
Tim's health insurance has covered much of the cost of behavioral therapy for Andy, but they were on Medical Assistance for about 9 months, which picked up many co-pays. They estimate that their insurance was billed about $100,000 for therapy so far.
Linda Weinmaster has a 13-year-old son that also met with mercury poisoning before birth in the form of a mercury-containing RhoGAM shot that Linda received during her 28th week of pregnancy along with his childhood vaccines. He now suffers from a host of medical problems that require care.
Linda says her son's medications cost over $6,500 per month. Right now, insurance covers his meds less deductible, but not his vitamins, which run about $300 per month.
Kendra Pettengill is a single widowed mother of a child with autism, and veteran of the United States Air Force.
Kendra is annoyed that anyone would believe that there is not an epidemic in autism, and claims that it previously went undiagnosed. “The claim is better diagnosis,” she says, “as if parents, teachers, and doctors 10 or 20 years ago wouldn’t have noticed our spinning, rocking, flapping, head banging, self-biting, children who can’t speak, and who live in their own little worlds.”
“It is an insult, a slap in the face to parents to claim it is only better diagnostics that recognized our children’s autism,” Kendra notes. “A parent 10 years ago would have been just as terror stricken by their child’s condition as I was and would have demanded a reason just as I did.”
Kendra’s insurance company will not pay for her daughter’s medical therapy, the diet, or ABA therapy. In fact, once autism is diagnosed, the insurance company can refuse to pay for a visit to the doctor for the flu if your doctor checks the little autism box on your insurance sheet, Kendra says.
“Every organization I contacted denied me assistance as they say my $30,000 a year income is too much to qualify,” Kendra said. “A good solid ABA program can cost more than that, per year,” she added.
“I have sold my house, spent my retirement, lost my medical insurance, all to save my child from a life of hopelessness,” Kendra says.
According to Kendra, her entire family is affected by her daughter‘s autism: “my parents even sold their house and moved nearby to help out,” she said.
Bob Ashburn and his wife Jamie are from Ohio and they have two children with autism spectrum disorder.
Their son, Kyle, who is now 9, was the first to be diagnosed with autism. In many respects they say he was the perfect baby because he was so easy to get along with and yet there was something strange about him that they couldn’t pinpoint. They originally thought that Kyle might be deaf.
When he was about 15-months-old, the family was eating at McDonalds when an alarm went off. Everyone in the place reacted to the noise except Kyle, who just sat there eating his French Fries.
At first the Ashburns thought their daughter Kris was just shy and had strange habits, like regular hand washing and needing everything to be consistent. For instance, she needs to sit in the same seat in the car and needs to sleep with her same stuffed animals each night.
Kris is now 14-years-old and is very artistically talented and reads at a high level. She can handle regular school but she really needs to have time to herself when she gets home and usually hides in either the bathroom or her bedroom for about an hour reading before she can face the world again.
The Ashburns worry about what kind of future their children will have, especially Kyle, who has very few social skills and so many post-reactions to any interactions of a negative sort with people, that they don’t know how they can live in society.
When Kyle and Kris get upset they become violent and hit their parents. As a result, the Ashburns have had to change their entire lifestyles so that everything is as consistent as possible and that transitions are made with lots of preparation.
Nothing, not even a quick shopping trip for a carton of milk, they say, can be done on the spur of the moment without some sort of violent reaction from either one or both of the children.
Jennifer Thompson tells how for a period of time, her autistic son Zack developed OCD type behaviors about his clothing. “He would only wear certain clothes. No long sleeved shirts, only long pants, and they had to be tucked in! He would only wear shirts that had buttons. This was an obsession. You did not dare think you could make him do otherwise or he would go into an extreme meltdown. And I know most parents out there understand what a ‘meltdown’ is.”
According to Lauro Bono, “What is measurable is the financial toll that this medical crisis inflicts on families. After the vaccines at 16-months-old, Jackson’s medical and therapy needs began taking every bit of money we had saved or ever would have saved."
“The total we have paid for Jackson’s medical, nutritional and private therapy expenses so far,” she says, “is roughly $685,000 since August 1990. That is approximately $53,000 per year.”
In addition to medical costs, most autistic children cannot be left alone and must be looked after and cared for non-stop every day of the year. Unless these kids and their families get the financial help that they deserve from the vaccine makers, the entire burden will eventually fall to the taxpayers, and the cost will reportedly exceed $2 million dollars per child.
Maybe that will make people wake up and listen.
Evelyn J. Pringle is a columnist for Independent Media TV and an investigative journalist focused on exposing corruption in government. She can be reached at: epringle05@yahoo.com.
Article at: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June05/Pringle0614.htm
For more information and resources on autism, go to:
http://www.autismconcepts.com/.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
NYS - Special Transportation for Students with Disabilities
Special Transportation for Students with Disabilities, is intended to provide information to CSEs and CPSEs to assist in developing IEP recommendations for students with disabilities with special transportation needs and communicating with transportation personnel to ensure IEP implementation.
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/timely.htm or directly at URL:
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/specialtrans.htm
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/timely.htm or directly at URL:
http://www.vesid.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/specialtrans.htm
Monday, June 06, 2005
Psychiatric Drug Information, Learn & Share with Other Parents
Has your child's physician recommended or prescribed a psychiatric drug and you wish to learn more about it? This website provides overviews of why a drug is commonly used, lists side affects, join parent forum to discuss experiences using certain drugs.
Check out this website:
http://www.whatmeds.com/
Check out this website:
http://www.whatmeds.com/
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