http://www.boston.com/dailynews/015/economy/Parents_win_jurisdiction_rulin:.shtml

Parents win jurisdiction ruling in mercury vaccine lawsuits

By William Mccall, Associated Press, 1/15/2002 18:45

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) A class-action lawsuit against major drug companies for alleged links between autism and vaccines containing mercury should be tried in state court and not a federal one, a federal judge has decided.

U.S. Magistrate Donald Ashmanskas last week ordered the case remanded to Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon, said an attorney for families who allege the vaccines have caused autism in their children.

The drug companies had asked that the case be tried in federal court. They have until Jan. 22 to file any objections or seek a review.

The ruling could help the families who filed the lawsuit, said Portland attorney Kathleen Dailey.

''It levels the playing field because it is more affordable to wage this battle against these megacorporations in state court rather than federal court,'' she said.

The case began with George and Tory Mead, a Portland couple whose 3-year-old son, William, has been diagnosed as autistic. His parents say he was developing normally until he received a series of vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal, a form of mercury.

George Mead said a growing body of research indicates that increases in the number of vaccines routinely administered to U.S. children beginning in the early 1990s led to an increase in autism cases and associated neurological disorders.

The effects of mercury toxicity were not seen until the number of vaccinations was increased to combat various diseases such as hepatitis, Mead said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics joined the U.S. Public Health Service in July 1999 to warn that vaccines containing thimerosal should be discontinued.

The National Academy of Sciences released a report last October saying researchers still are unable to determine if there is a link between thimerosal and disorders in children. But the report backed up the 1999 recommendation to remove vaccines with thimerosal from the nation's medical stockpile.

The same week the National Academy of Sciences report was released, a coalition of law firms across the nation filed claims against the drug companies.

The defendants in the lawsuits include: Aventis Pasteur Inc.; Pfizer Inc., a subsidiary of Warner-Lambert; GlaxoSmithKline; Merck & Co.; Abbott Laboratories; American Home Products; Baxter International Inc., Eli Lilly & Co.; Sigma Chemical Co.; and Aldrich Chemical Co.

Three doctors, including one who treated Mead's son, also are named as defendants.

On the Net:

National Academy of Sciences publications office: http://www.nap.edu  

American Academy of Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org  

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