For Immediate Release Contacts: Michael Bender, Mercury Policy Project
802-223-9000
Lyn Redwood, Safe Minds, 404-932-1786
Sallie Bernard, Safe Minds, 908-295-6648
STATEMENT OF MERCURY POLICY PROJECT AND SAFE MINDS
ON THE HOMELAND SECURITY BILL’S THIMEROSAL SHIELDING RIDER
November 19, 2002
"I was enraged to hear the misinformation and half truths stated on the US
senate floor over the past few days related to these last minute additions,"
said Lyn Redwood, President of Safe Minds and parent of a child with numerous
disabilities associated with mercury toxicity after receiving 125 times the
Environmental Protection Agency's allowable exposure to mercury. "It's a sad
day in American when injured children are denied their due process and day and
court," said Redwood, who in the attached document rebutts statements made by US
Senators Frist and Gramm on the Senate floor.
"If there was no scientific doubt over the safety of
thimerosal, why was this rider secretly added to shield drug makers from
liability at the last minute with no debate?" said Michael Bender, Director of
the Mercury Policy Project. "Based on the latest science, there is no known
"safe level" of human exposure to any amount of mercury."
"Congress and the Executive Branch must face the autism and
the thimerosal
issue squarely. It can't be legislated away," said Sallie Bernard, Executive
Director of Safe Minds. "Vaccine maker liability is just one component of a
larger question. The government agencies which approved and recommended these
vaccines for use in children should share responsibility in any harm caused by
thimerosal. We would like Congress and the White House to investigate how
mercury was allowed to remain in infant vaccines for so long."
For more information, see:
http://www.safeminds.org
http:://www.safeminds.org
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