Thimerosal Goes to Court 

Thimerosal, the ethyl mercury-based preservative used in infant vaccines up until 2001, increasingly has been the subject of national attention for its alleged connection to autism and other neurological disorders. The preservative has been the focus of not only extensive research but also of several major lawsuits across the country.  

COUNTER V. ELI LILLY and COMPANY ET AL. 

The first known lawsuit to allege that thimerosal caused neurological damage to an infant eventually diagnosed with autism is currently being tried in Brazoria County, Texas. One of the defendants is Eli Lilly and Company, which at one time manufactured thimerosal. Waters and Kraus, a Dallas law firm involved in the case, asserts that Eli Lilly knew of thimerosal’s dangers as far back as the 1930s but chose to conceal this information from the public. According to documents obtained by the firm, Eli Lilly sponsored a human toxicity study of thimerosal using terminally ill patients as subjects in September 1930. Lead attorney Andy Waters says Eli Lilly used the results of this study for decades to prove thimerosal’s low toxicity and harmlessness to humans. However, Waters stated, “[Eli Lilly] never revealed the highly questionable nature of the original research.” Waters was referring to the study’s two obvious inadequacies: no possible long-term follow up, due to the impending death of the patients, and a lack of focus on infant neurotoxity.  

            Over the years, researchers provided Eli Lilly with numerous articles indicating the hazards of injecting humans with mercurial substances such as thimerosal. Of particular alarm was a 1972 British Medical Journal article reporting that the chemical interaction of thimerosal and aluminum, another vaccine component, resulted in skin burns. The authors stated that “mercury is known to act as a catalyst and to cause aluminum to oxidize rapidly, with the production of heat...The manufacturers who supply us with thimerosal have been informed.” Still, even as late as 1976 Eli Lilly argued that mercury that is organically bound, such as ethyl mercury, has a “completely non-toxic nature.” Today the research continues to point to the dangers of mixing the two metals. Professor Boyd Haley, Chemistry Department chair at the University of Kentucky, has shown in his research that aluminum increases the toxicity of thimerosal tenfold.  

            In 1991, Eli Lilly finally ceased manufacture and sale of thimerosal. autism, thimerosal, and MT Proteins Autism is recognized as a syndrome, not as a single disease; its etiology is believed to be multifactorial. In addition, how it presents itself can differ significantly from one infant to the next. Many question why some children have been affected by thimerosal and others have not. Bill Walsh, biochemist and chief scientist of the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Naperville, Illinois, and Anju Usman, MD, have been studying metalothionen (MT) proteins and have found evidence of MT dysfunction in 499 of 503 (99 percent) patients diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders. MT proteins regulate blood levels of metals such as copper and zinc and serve to detoxify the body of mercury and other heavy metals. They also have been shown to be directly involved in neuronal development and maturation of the brain and gastrointestinal tract, two areas found to be profoundly affected in autism. Because of MT proteins’ varied functions, children with a  MT defect or impairment would not only suffer developmental delays but would also exhibit symptoms of mercury and other heavy-metal toxicities.  

            Walsh and Usman’s research suggests that children can be born with a genetic MT defect, but they also believe that they can acquire one through biochemical abnormality or an environmental insult, such as a toxic-metal overload from vaccines or other sources. They say that “metal-metabolism abnormalities observed in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, behavioral disorders, and mental illness may result from biochemical imbalances that impair MT functioning, rather than a direct genetically- defective MT....” They also suggest that this may explain why autistics respond differently to treatment. “It is very likely that autistics with genetically-defective MT are more refractory to treatment than autistics with more readily correctable biochemical imbalances,” according to the researchers, and “many cases of autism “reversal” may be restricted to patients with the latter type of MT disorder.”  

AUTISM TREATMENT 

The practitioners who are reporting the most dramatic successes or reversals of autism are those who are treating heavy-metal poisoning. Dr. Stephanie Cave, a Louisiana State University professor, has had an integrative medicine practice specializing in children with learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) for more than 20 years. She has noted that these children almost always have toxic levels of mercury in their blood. In July 2000, she testified before Congressman Dan Burton’s (R-OH) hearing on Mercury in Medicine for the Committee on Government Reform, stating “Mercury affects pre-cisely those parts of the brain affected in autism—the cerebellum, amygdala, and frontal cortex, accounting for the myriad of symptoms in mercury poisoning and autism. When displayed, these symptoms superimpose on each other. The following are prevalent in both: social withdrawal, depression, lack of eye contact, delayed speech, increased sound and touch sensitivity, tremors, seizures, poor concentration, poor memory, repetitive behaviors, sleeping problems, self-injurious behaviors, rashes, anorexia, accelerated cell death in the central nervous system, and prevalence of autoimmune disorders.” She went on to say, “The injection of mercury appears to affect only certain children, but I fear that we have underestimated the devastation by concentrating on the autistic children. We are measuring elevated levels of mercury in other children with milder difficulties like learning disabilities, ADHD, and  Asperger’s syndrome. We do not have any idea what the scope of the problem is at this point.” 

            Cave and her associate Dr. Amy Holmes are among the first to practice chelation (a process that rids the body of heavy metals) and supplemental therapy on children with autistic spectrum disor-ders. Their therapies are considered by some to be experimental. They are also two of 27 other physician and researcher authors who contributed to the Mercury Detoxification Consensus Group position paper that was initiated at the February 2001 Defeat Autism Now conference in Dallas, Texas. In a recent telephone interview, Cave said that children are responding beautifully to chelation treatments. Although almost all children show improvement, the most dramatic successes occur in the youngest children. Metal chelation is not expensive, but it is a lengthy process. The chelator, DMSA (2, 3 Dimercaptosuccinic acid), is administered along with supportive supplementation that helps other immune system, biochemical, and bodily processes. Cave noted, “It is rare that we find any child with a developmental problem who does not have increased levels of mercury in the urine after a chelator challenge.”  She continued, “The changes in the children are remarkable with each dose of chelator... the chance for recovery is evident on a daily basis.”         

For more information, go to www.autismresearchinstitute.com;  www.safe minds.org; www.autismfraud.com.  

Amy Morrison