WASHINGTON, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- It's being called the never-ending Frist legislation. Last year, Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) introduced a bill to protect drug companies like Eli Lilly from litigation pertaining to Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative found in childhood vaccines that has been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. After Frist's bill fell short in the senate, the pro-Lilly legislation surprisingly showed up in the Homeland Security Bill where it was passed and later repealed. Last month, it reappeared as a provision in the BioShield Bill and has since been removed when Frist came under heavy attack yet again from parents groups, this time backed by a well-funded advertising campaign in D.C. media.

But Frist hasn't given up. He's back again. Now as a standalone bill, the Frist legislation is expected to go to markup once again this Wednesday, April 9th, where the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee will decide its fate. The current National Vaccine Injury Compensation Plan (NVICP) has a statute of only three years. If Frist's NVICP Bill, proposing a six-year statute, does pass, it still leaves thousands of children with nothing. Parents claim their vaccine-injured children will be cast aside as "collateral damage" 3/4a product of the war against disease.

The short statute is just one of the many reasons parents are demanding the NVICP program have open, fair hearings in Congress. They claim it sorely needs an overhaul to expose the program's problems in the light of day and address them using the best legislation possible. For weeks they have been saturating senate offices with faxes and e-mails.

Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN), a conservative republican with three years of oversight investigation behind him on the NVICP, is negotiating with Senator Frist and others prior to this Wednesday's mark-up. "Parents are hopeful that Representative Burton can help Senator Frist see the issue as parents do," said Laura Bono, parent of a vaccine induced mercury-poisoned son who is currently chelating mercury from his body in great quantities. "Many parents believe it is a simple choice, either the HELP Committee is for mercury-poisoning and drug companies, or they are for vaccine-injured children and justice."

If the legislation doesn't cover all families, parents say their fight will continue regardless if the bill passes. "The public will be made aware of what's happening," says Lori McIlwain, mother of a vaccine-injured child and part of the Right to Fight Mercury Damage Campaign. "Senator Frist has an opportunity to side with America's children. Let's hope he takes it."

A just-published report in Medical Sentinel (see www.factsformedia.com for full report) by Dr. Mark Geier and David Geier analyzed mercury doses children received from Thimerosal in childhood vaccines while comparing it to Federal Safety Guidelines. The doctors concluded mercury from Thimerosal did far exceed the guidelines and that, "A causal relationship between Thimerosal- containing childhood vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders appears to be confirmed."

Autistic symptoms, regression, and other health problems, can be explained by mercury poisoning that mirrors the medical and behavioral symptoms of autism. Parents believe they have the scientific evidence to prove their children were damaged by Thimerosal in vaccines, yet they are currently prohibited to enter into the NVICP and civil court system.

For more information about the autism-mercury connection, visit www.factsformedia.com, www.momsonamissionforautism.org, www.altcorp.com and www.autismautoimmunityproject.com.

    Contact:
     Laura Bono, The Right to Fight
     Mercury Damage Campaign,
     (919) 403-9443

     Lori McIlwain, The Right to Fight
      Mercury Damage Campaign,
     (919) 468-6455

     JoAnne Pike, Moms on a Mission for Autism, (843) 206-8449