Class-action suit seeks justice for thousands of children left autistic by mercury-laced vaccines

http://www.newswire.ca/releases/May2002/09/c3880.html

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Attention News Editors:

Class-action suit seeks justice for thousands of children left autistic by mercury-laced vaccines

    TORONTO, May 9 /CNW/ - A class action lawsuit was filed in Ontario
Superior Court yesterday on behalf of children who developed autism after
receiving vaccines preserved with thimerosal, a mercury derivative.
    Vancouver law firm Klein Lyons filed a Statement of Claim seeking damages
from Aventis Pasteur, a pharmaceutical manufacturer whose widely used DPT
(Diptheria/Pertussis/Tuberculosis) vaccine contained thimerosal until 1994.
Thimerosal is a compound of 50% mercury, a highly toxic metal known to cause
severe neurological and behavioural damage. Infants are particularly
vulnerable to mercury poisoning due to their incomplete brain development.
    Canadian victims represented in the Klein Lyons suit include nine-year-
old Keean East, who began life as a healthy, happy, alert and developmentally
normal infant. Soon after receiving a series of three DPT vaccines containing
thimerosal, he became withdrawn and unresponsive, failing to develop normal
language, social, and motor skills. He has since been diagnosed with autism.
    Although the medical and pharmaceutical communities knew of mercury's
dangers for almost a century, they did not advocate removal of thimerosal from
pediatric vaccines until the late 1990s. In July 1999, the American Academy of
Pediatrics issued a statement calling for thimerosal-free vaccines. That same
year, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration report noted that infants injected
with multi-dose vials of thimerosal-preserved vaccines can receive
approximately 100 times the level of mercury exposure considered safe by the
Environmental Protection Agency.
    Klein Lyons is the first Canadian law firm to launch a class action suit
on behalf of children damaged by thimerosal, but dozens of similar suits have
already been filed in the U.S. Autism rates have risen exponentially over the
past 30 years, coinciding with the use of thimerosal in infant vaccines. In
1970, approximately one in 2,000 children experienced autistic symptoms.
Today, the U.S. Center for Disease Control estimates that one in 150 children
suffers from autistic symptoms.
    "Young Keean is just one among thousands of Canadian children whose
futures may have been destroyed by needless exposure to toxic mercury," said
David Klein, managing partner of Klein Lyons. "This tragedy could easily have
been avoided."

    About Klein Lyons:
    Founded in Vancouver in 1992, Klein Lyons is a Canadian leader in class
action lawsuits. The firm has won settlements for thousands of victims in a
wide range of landmark suits including Hepatitis-C tainted blood transfusions,
defective breast implants, and gastrointestinal illness from Canada's worst
food related E. coli outbreak.




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For further information: David Klein, Managing Partner, (604) 874-7171, 
dklein@kleinlyons.com, www.kleinlyons.com

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.