Two days ago the latest study on the prevalence of autism was released and I find myself angrier and angrier the more I think about it.
What is going on with autism? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data from 2002 (don’t ask me why it’s five years old) showing that autism rates have climbed again, now up to a prevalence of about 1 in 150 American children. The most recent data put the figure at 1 in 166. How high will it have to get before this country stops pouring mercury into our skies and into our bodies? It’s a known brain poison. If it doesn’t get you during childhood it still may get you in your golden years as it is also implicated in Alzheimer’s Disease.
This study was from 14 states. Alarmingly, New Jersey had the highest rate of slightly over 1 percent of children having the disorder.
Researchers looked specifically at children who were 8 years old because most autistic children are diagnosed by that age.
Studies show that since 1980 autism has risen dramatically.
The lead author of the study, Catherine Rice, a CDC behavioral scientist, said “Autism is more common than we believed.”
The results suggest 560,000 children and young adults in the United States have the condition.
The other day I wrote an article about patience and admitted that I had no patience for illogic. So how about this for illogic: In March 2001 the FDA issued a statement warning pregnant women and young children not to eat fish containing high levels of mercury because it causes neurological problems in children. So far so good.
However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that these same women and young children (ages 6 to 24 months) should get flu shots. This is where I get upset. Why? Because flu shots still contain mercury in the form of the preservative thimerosal. According to The Coalition for SafeMinds (Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) some flu shots contain more mercury than the EPA recommended safe level for seafood.
How can you advise pregnant women to avoid seafood containing mercury while recommending vaccines which contain mercury? I guess the seafood lobby is not as strong as the pharmaceutical lobby.
According to SafeMinds, mercury rapidly crosses the placenta and into the fetus where the fetus actually accumulates mercury at a much higher rate than the mother and typically has blood levels 70% higher than those found in the mother at the time of birth.
They also report that a recent NIH-funded study showed that the type of mercury found in flu shots crosses into the brain of infant primates and results in appreciable levels of mercury being trapped in the brain.
What to do? If you feel a strong need for a flu vaccine, you can request a thimerosal-free vaccine from your doctor. Fluzone by Sanofi Pasteur has a single dose vial without thimerosal and pre-filled syringes without thimerosal. FluMist by Medimmune contains no thimerosal is available for ages 5 to 49 in a single-dose nasal sprayer.
That thimerosal is still used in vaccines boggles my mind. To quote Safeminds again: “In the 1982 Federal Register, an expert panel at the FDA reviewed thimerosal and found that it was toxic, caused cell death and called for its removal in over the counter products.”
The study that I want to see is a survey showing how many of these drug company experts, who insist thimerosal is safe, would let their newborns get vaccinations containing thimerosal. Perhaps compared to their children’s health, the vaccine industry’s bottom line would no longer be so important and the prevalence of autism might start to go down.
