Mercury in
childhood vaccines: what did the government know?
05/22/2002
By
VALERI WILLIAMS / WFAA-TV
It's a question that has divided doctors, parents and government
scientists for more than a decade: Do childhood vaccines or
additives cause neurological damage?
Next month, a congressional committee will hear testimony on the
subject. A California university has a huge government grant to
research it.
And the possible link has been the focus of a three-month News 8
Investigation.
At the center of the investigation: a preservative put into many
vaccines. It's called Thimerosal, and it's made from mercury, the
second most toxic metal known to man. Uranium is the most toxic.
For years, Thimerosal has been extremely controversial because
there were alternatives to preventing vaccine contamination. And,
questions remain about how pharmaceutical companies conduct vaccine
research and how the government regulates those companies.
Centuries ago, the shimmering properties of mercury captivated
the philosopher Aristotle, who called it "quicksilver" - and the
name stuck.
Perhaps the best visual example of what low-levels of mercury can
do to the brain is seen in a videotaped experiment by scientists at
the University of Calgary.
"Over the next thirty minutes, the neurite membrane underwent
rapid degeneration, leaving behind the denuded neurofibrils seen
here," the narration on the tape said. "In contrast, other heavy
metals added to this concentration - such as aluminum, lead, cadmium
and manganese - did not produce this effect."
Starting in the early nineties, government regulators
dramatically increased the amount of Thimerosal exposure to babies
by adding two new vaccines to the roster of mandatory immunizations
children must have before enrolling in school.
The combination of the Hepatitis B vaccine and the HiB vaccine
more than doubled the amount of mercury children like Jac Counter
received before the age of two.
Jack's parents say today, at age five, he has been diagnosed as
having "mercury-induced autism".
"If you take a ten-pound baby in, and it gets four shots on that
one day, which is a common practice - that's equivalent to giving a
100-pound person forty shots in one day," said mercury expert Dr.
Boyd Haley.
Haley has testified before Congress and the Pentagon as one of
the nation's leading experts on Thimerosal and mercury poisoning.
The research he's done at the University of Kentucky leads him to
believe that some children are genetically predisposed to storing
mercury in their brains.
It's the cummulative effect of the mercury which Haley and other
scientists say leads to neurological disorders, including autism.
However, members of the government's vaccine committees, like Dr.
Jane Siegel, insist the proof isn't there.
Under pressure from the American Academy of Pediatrics, these
government committees ordered pharmaceutical companies to stop
putting Thimerosal in vaccines by March 2001.
"The topic was researched, it was reviewed, (with) no data to
prove a causitive role," Siegel said. "Nevertheless, a call for
Thimerosal removal was made. Within two months of the publication of
that statement, the Hepatitis B vaccine for infants was free of
Thimerosal. Within 18 months, there was on the market all
Thimerosal-free vaccine.
"I think this is an incredible achievement."
But did the government really move fast enough to protect
America's children? After all, Thimerosal had been used in vaccines
since the 1930s.
Documents obtained in a lawsuit show that the government began
asking questions about the compound's saftey in 1972. Eli Lilly,
which holds the patent on Thimerosal, assured the FDA in a report
that "a series of 22 human subjects" were injected with a
one-percent solution "without ill effect".
Attorney Andy Waters said what the pharmaceutical giant concealed
from the government is that the tests were conducted in 1929 by a
young researcher named K.C. Smithburn - on patients dying of
mennigitis.
"It's apparent that Lilly didn't want to do the study themselves
because it's apparent that there were enormous ethical problems with
injecting people - even people dying of meningitis - with mercury,"
Waters said. "What Smithburn did was wrong, because he agreed to do
the study for Lilly, and not only did he agree to do it, but he
agreed to give them results that he knew were flawed.
"They knew, and he knew, (the results) were going to be published
as the truth."
The FDA questioned Thimerosal's safety again in 1982 - this time,
noting that it was "not safe for 'over-the-counter' topical use
because of its potential for cell damage". Despite that evidence,
however, the government regulatory committees did nothing to
question its use in childhood vaccines.
Meanwhile, measures were taken to remove the compound from pet
innoculations. More internal company documents and memos show that
Eli Lilly began revising its claims about Thimerosal starting in the
1960s, changing package inserts from stating "non-toxic" to
"non-irritating to body to issue".
Then, in November 1973, the company's legal division suggested
adding the statement: "Do not use when aluminum may come in contact
with treated skin". Aluminum is a compound added to many vaccines as
a catalyst. But even with this warning, the government committees
did nothing.
Haley said any good biochemist knows that Thimerosal and aluminum
react dangerously when combined together.
He showed News 8 the results of his experiments on human brain
neurons.
"If we add this level of aluminum that we see very little
toxicity with to this level of Thimerosal, we get this bottom line
... indicating that we have dramatically enhanced the toxicity,
where within 24 hours essentially all of the neurons are dead,"
Haley said.
Officials at Eli Lilly declined to interview with News 8.
However, they did send an e-mail, which said in part that the
company's "primary concern is for patient safety". The e-mail also
stated that "Lilly discontinued its sale or use of (Thimerosal)
about ten years ago".
However, that did not stop other pharmaceutical companies from
taking over the production of the vaccine preservative.
In December 1999, shortly before Eli Lilly quit producing
thimerosal, the company changed its packaging insert again. This
time, Lilly warned that Thimerosal was "toxic". Additionally, it
stated that effects of exposure may include "fetal changes,
decreased offspring survival, and lung tissue changes".
However, the government's vaccine committee continues to insist
that Thimerosal has never been dangerous to American children.
So, the 1999 Eli Lilly package insert was shown to Dr. Jane
Siegel for her reaction:
"I cannot comment on this unless I have clarification," Siegel
said. "You will have to interview the public. I don't know - I just
know that if you show me this piece of paper I cannot make a comment
on this - I find it uninterpretable."
Haley said the government should have taken action.
"There should have been an immediate recall of the vaccine,"
Haley said. "We would do that with an automobile if it had a bad
brake system. If we just suspected it had a bad brake system, they
would do that. The government has no problems - they'd do it
immediately."
The congressional hearing on the use of Thimerosal in vaccines
begins in June. While production of the preservative was stopped a
year ago, as Dr. Haley pointed out, existing doses were not
recalled.
Now, it needs to be re-stated that the easiest solution for
parents who are concerned about upcoming immunizations is to simply
ask your doctor in advance for Thimerosal-free vaccines.
