Safe Minds: EPA Children's Health Report, Altered by Bush

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Safe Minds: EPA Children's Health Report
U.S. Newswire
25 Feb 17:49

Safe Minds: EPA Children's Health Report, Altered by Bush
Administration, Omits Mention of Top Mercury Source from Vaccines
To: National Desk
Contact: Lyn Redwood of Safe Minds, 404-932-1786
Lori McIlwain of the Right to Fight Mercury Damage
Campaign, 919-468-6455

WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Sources say the
Children's Health Report released yesterday by the EPA is
actually a revised second draft. Parents upset by the report's
nine-month delay by the White House are now fuming over the
apparently watered-down "official" version and wonder what was
altered and why. One of the obvious irregularities is the
report's failure to mention thimerosal, a mercury based
preservative developed by Eli Lilly decades ago and the subject
of heated debate for its role in the current epidemic of learning
disabilities and autism.

In July 2000, the National Academy of Sciences published an
exhaustive review on the toxic effects of mercury that identified
thimerosal as a source of mercury exposure in the U.S. But the
new EPA report, referred to as the benchmark for government
agencies to address the hazards of mercury, is dead silent on the
issue. Parents are questioning how such a purportedly
comprehensive report that clearly acknowledges concerns about
mercury damage to the neurological development of fetuses,
infants and children, can fail to mention the largest source of
exposure to these vulnerable groups.

According to Lyn Redwood, RN, the numbers speak for
themselves. Redwood is President of SAFE MINDs and parent of a
child who received 125 times his EPA allowable exposure to
mercury from thimerosal containing vaccines. She asks, "How can
EPA caution pregnant women to avoid tuna that contains
approximately 17 mcg of mercury, but remain silent on the fact
that some infants were exposed to 237.5 mcg of mercury from their
vaccines?" Redwood went on to say, "Many children suffering
from neurological problems have been found to have mercury body
burdens 500 times that of normal children, when their only known
exposure was from vaccines. These children exhibit symptoms of
mercury toxicity, yet our Federal agencies have turned a deaf ear
to our dilemma. Continued Congressional investigation of the
thimerosal connection is urgently needed."

Sources say it was the mercury portion of the report that
caused the most dispute and subsequent delay, and that the OMB,
headed up by former Eli Lilly executive Mitch Daniels, and the
OSTP made "numerous changes" to the already-edited second draft
of the report. Just this month Congress repealed a provision
quietly slipped into the Homeland Security Bill that granted
legal protection to Lilly and vaccine-makers from thimerosal
litigation. Late last year, the Department of Justice attempted
to seal all documents related to thimerosal-autism claims in the
U.S. Court of Federal Claims. After ensuing controversy, the DOJ
withdrew the motion.

"It does not take long for one to connect the dots between the
delay of the EPA report, the White House, and Eli Lilly," says
Lori McIlwain, another parent of a child injured by mercury and
co-founder of MOMA. "This is just another shameless tactic to
suppress evidence to benefit large political supporters."

Parents say this is not the first time that a government
report has been watered down to downplay risks. According to
internal documents received from CDC, a February 2000
investigation into thimerosal exposure in infants was found to be
associated with ADD/ADHD, speech and language delays, and adverse
neurological outcomes in general. This analysis was also subject
to much scrutiny, altered to reduce the significance of the
findings, and never published by the agency.

Parents are demanding the original EPA report be released
immediately and that money be allocated for unbiased
investigations into thimerosal and adverse neurological outcomes.

To learn more about the evidence supporting a connection
between mercury and autism, visit
http://www.momsonamissionforautism.org, http://www.safeminds.org,
http://www.altcorp.com, and
http://www.autismautoimmunityproject.org.

http://www.usnewswire.com
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/U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
02/25 17:49

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