For Immediate Release
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UnInformed Consent

FDA “Asleep At the Switch” Says 2003 Congressional Report “Finds Thimerosal, (Mercury) In Vaccines “Did Pose A Risk”
Monday - June 17, 2005 12:00AM

Health Agencies’ Failure to act “Institutional Malfeasance” For Complete In-Depth Coverage and Stats of US National Academy of Sciences Continuing Investigation… See video of scientists

”Rather than acting aggressively to remove thimerosal from children’s vaccines, the FDA and other agencies with the Department of Health and Human Services, (HHS), adopted an incremental approach that allowed children to continue to be exposed to ethyl mercury, (thimerosal), from vaccines for more than two additional years.”

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) refused even to express a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines,”

“Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is likely related to the autism epidemic. This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding the lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal and the sharp rise of infant exposure to this known neurotoxin.”

“Our public health agencies’ failure to act is indicative of institutional malfeasance for self-protection and misplace protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry.”

In 1999, the House Committee on Government Reform initiated an investigation into the dangers of exposure to mercury through vaccinations. The investigation later expanded to examine the potential danger posed through exposure to mercury in dental amalgams.

Among the 18 Findings of the committees found:

• “Mercury is hazardous to humans. Its use in medicinal products to undesirable, unnecessary and should be minimized or eliminated entirely.”
   
• Manufacturers of vaccines and thimerosal, (an ethyl mercury compound used in vaccines), have never conducted adequate testing on the safety of thimerosal.
   
• The FDA has never required manufacturers to conduct adequate safety testing on thimerosal and ethyl mercury compounds.
   
• Studies and papers documenting the hyperallergenicity and toxicity of thimerosal (ethylmercury) have existed for decades.
   
• Autism in the United States has grown at epidemic proportions during the last decade.
   
• At the same time the incidence of autism was growing, the number of childhood vaccines containing thimerosal was growing, increasing the amount of ethyl mercury to which infants were exposed threefold.
   
• A growing number of scientists and researcher believe that a relationship between the increase in neurodevelopmental disorders of autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder and speech or language delay, and the increase use of thimerosal is plausible and deserves more scrutiny.
   
• In 2001 the Institute of Medicine determined that such a relationship is biologically plausible.
   
• The FDA acted too slowly to remove ethylmercury from the over the counter products.
   
• The FDA and the CDC failed in their duty to be vigilant as new vaccines containing thimerosal were approved and added to the immunization schedule.
   
• When the Hepatitis B and Haemophilus Influenzae Type b vaccines were added to the recommended schedule of childhood immunizations, the cumulative amount of ethylmercury to children were exposed nearly tripled.
   
• Federal health officials have conceded that the amount of thimerosal in vaccines exceeded the EPA threshold of 0.1 micrograms per kilogram of bodyweight.
   
• The actions taken by the HHS to remove thimerosal from vaccines in 1999 were no sufficiently aggressive.
   
• The CDC’s failure to state a preference for thimerosal-free vaccines in 2000 and again in 2001 was an abdication of their responsibility. As a result, many children received vaccines containing thimerosal when thimerosal-free alternative were available.
   
• The CDC and the National Immunization Program are conflicted in their duties to monitor the safety of vaccines, while also charged with the responsibility of purchasing vaccines for resale as well as promoting increased immunization rates.

Dr H. Vasken Aposhian, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Arizona an the July 18, 2000 hearing and part of the record:

“The mercury amalgams in your mouth, the so-called silver fillings, contain 48 to 50 percent of elemental mercury. These fillings continuously emit mercury vapor, which will go to the brain and is converted to mercuric mercury….Certain fish contain methylmercury; again, very rapidly taken up from the GI tract, transported quickly to the brain, and converted very slowly to mercuric mercury….thimerosal which again will be taken up by the brain and quickly converted to mercuric mercury – all three forms are neurotoxic. By neurotoxic, we mean it will damage nerve and it will damage brain tissues. Let me just say as a final statement that there is no need to have thimerosal in vaccines.”

Dr. Aposhian recently resigned his position on an FDA advisory position because he felt the FDA public warnings on fish were too lax.

During the July 2000 hearing Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-ID), said, addressing the governmental agencies present, “You listened to the testimony just as I did and you are willing to, with a straight face, tell us that you are eventually going to phase this out after we know that a small baby’s body is slammed with 62 times the amount of mercury that is supposed to have…(sic) No wonder people are losing faith in their government. And to have some of the witnesses tell us it is because mothers eat too much fish? Come on. We expect you to get real…(sic) Just wait until it gets in the courts. This case could dwarf the tobacco case. And we would expect you to do something now before that circus starts taking place.”

In describing the pros and cons of each option, Dr. Bernier of the CDC returned several times to financial issues. “It could entail financials losses of inventory if current vaccine inventory is wasted. It could harm one or more manufacturers and may the decrease the number of suppliers.”

The financial health of the industry should never have been a factor in this decision. The financial health of vaccine manufacturers certainly should never have been more important to the Federal health officials than the health and well being and the nation’s children. The CDC has a responsibility to protect the health of the American public. If there were any doubts about the neurological effects of ethylmercury in vaccines on children- and there were substantial doubts- the prevailing consideration should have been how best to protect children from potential harm. However, it appears that protecting the industry’s profits took precedent over protecting children form mercury damage.

Thimerosal remains in some vaccines.