Michael Bender, Mercury Policy Project,

802-223-9000

November 21, 2002 – Safe Minds and the Mercury Policy Project are hailing a statement by the US House and Senate leadership that they will work to repeal a corporate special-interest provision in the Homeland Security Bill. The provision wipes out all legal remedies for thousands of autistic children harmed by mercury in infant vaccines and must be eliminated, the two groups working to prevent mercury-related injuries said today.

"We strongly support Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and House Democratic Leader-Elect Nancy Pelosi’s vow to remove egregious special interest provisions, including the thimerosal liability shield for Eli Lilly," said Michael Bender, Director of the Mercury Policy Project.

As passed, the Homeland bill allows the families to re-file their claims in a special administrative court for vaccine-related injury cases where it takes years for cases to be heard and 87% of the claims filed are denied. And claims can only be made by parents if their child's first symptom of neurological damage occurred within the last three years, which effectively bars many families from going to court to hold Lilly accountable for their children's injuries, the groups said.

"It is a sad state of affairs when the Congress and the White House conspire to benefit a pharmaceutical giant at the expense of injured children and families whose lives have been shattered by corporate wrongdoing," said Lyn Redwood, RN, president of Safe Minds and the parent of a child who developed multiple disabilities after receiving 125 times the government-recommended exposure to mercury. "Eli Lilly has been allowed to exploit a national threat to America to further their own agenda."

The provision to benefit Lilly - which was added to the unrelated Homeland Security Bill at the last minute - affects lawsuits against the drug maker for injuries caused by its product thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was used in infant vaccines until a few years ago.

"Claims by Republican congressional leaders that they will "fix" the provision next year are empty promises because it will be too late," said Michael Bender, Director of the Mercury Policy Project. "Once President Bush signs the bill - which will happen any day - Eli Lilly can go to court and have all the mercury vaccine-related lawsuits against it dismissed immediately."

According to Redwood, after conversations with senate staff, the "fix" will do little if anything to right this wrong. "Our children have been silenced once by autism and now the votes of Congress have silenced them again," said Redwood. "The right thing to do would be to pass legislation as soon as possible to strike the thimerosal provisions."

The lawsuits were filed by the families of children who developed autism, learning disabilities and other neurological problems after multiple mercury exposures. It takes hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to care for a severely autistic child and millions over the victim's lifetime.