FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
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October 1, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Panel Backs Caution on Vaccines with Mercury
·
IOM Report Confirms FDA/EPA Order for Mercury-Free
Vaccines: NVIC
·
Mercury Removed From Vax as Scientists Study Kid
Disorders Link: AP
·
Safe Minds Applauds IOM Recommendations—Asks for Recall
of All Childhood Vaccines Containing Mercury
·
Role of Environmental Toxicants in Premature Birth:
Webcast Program Guide
[By Will Dunham, Reuters.] http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011001/sc/health_vaccines_mercury_dc_2.htm
l <-- address ends here.
There is no proof that a mercury-containing preservative
present in some vaccines causes developmental disorders in children, but
doctors should steer clear of giving children vaccines made with the substance
just to be safe, a panel of experts said in a report on Monday.
The report by a panel convened by the Institute of
Medicine, which provides advice on health issues to the U.S. government under a
congressional charter, focused on thimerosal, long used in some vaccines and other
pharmaceutical products to prevent bacterial and fungal contamination.
The committee concluded that no evidence currently exists
proving a link between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity
disorder, speech or language delays, or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
But the panel said it is “biologically plausible” that
some children’s risk of one of these disorders could be increased by exposure
to mercury from vaccines containing thimerosal, which contains nearly 50
percent mercury by weight. The experts said existing evidence is insufficient
either to accept or reject the idea that vaccines containing mercury can cause these
childhood disorders.
Mercury, a heavy metal that can harm the nervous system,
can build up in the human body with each exposure, whether from vaccinations or
other sources such as contaminated fish.
Very few vaccines used in the United States still contain
thimerosal and many types of vaccines never contained it, the panel said. But
the committee recommended that, as a prudent precaution, vaccines that contain thimerosal
not be administered when there is an alternative.
“If a vaccine without thimerosal is available, it should
be used. However, if that vaccine is
not available, it’s far better to be vaccinated with a thimerosal-containing
vaccine than not be vaccinated,” Marie McCormick, a professor of maternal and
child health at Harvard School of Public Health who headed the Institute of
Medicine committee, said in telephone conference call with reporters.
Some health professionals have expressed alarm that some
parents are refusing to allow their children to receive recommended vaccines
because of concerns about mercury.
McCormick said childhood immunization is one of the most
effective tools for preventing millions of cases of disease and death. She said
vaccines protect against “real, proven threats to unvaccinated infants, children,
and pregnant women,” while the health effects of thimerosal are uncertain.
The report was requested by federal health officials.
Thimerosal has been used in vaccines since the 1930s.
But the three-in-one vaccine against measles, mumps
and rubella (also
called German measles) never contained the preservative, nor
did the vaccines for chicken pox or polio.
Several other vaccines recommended for children were made
with thimerosal until recently. The committee said these vaccines now are made without
it, but an unknown, probably small number of vaccine doses remain on clinic
shelves. They include vaccines for hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus and
pertussis (whooping cough), and haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), a form of
bacterial meningitis.
A few vaccines, including influenza vaccine given annually
during the viral flu season to adults and some children, still are manufactured
with thimerosal.
Thimerosal also remains in use in many other
countries.
organizations urged new limits on mercury exposure of
infants and young children—a move that instigated the development of routine
childhood vaccines made without thimerosal.
The panel urged that government agencies and professional
societies review their policies about nasal sprays, eye drops and other
products that still contain thimerosal and are used for infants, children and
pregnant women.
Activists who have been critical of the mercury content in
vaccines said they were pleased the report acknowledged that it is plausible
that thimerosal-containing vaccines can cause neurological problems. Sallie Bernard
of the New Jersey-based group Safe Minds advocated the immediate recall of
remaining stocks of childhood vaccines containing thimerosal.
* * *
http://library.northernlight.com/FC20011001320000128.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#
doc ß Address ends here.
PRNewswire - The nation’s oldest and largest vaccine
safety advocacy organization, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC),
today called the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report evaluating whether mercury preservatives
in vaccines have caused developmental delays in children a “confirmation” that
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) were justified in ordering drug companies to take mercury out of
childhood vaccines in 1999. Although
the IOM’s Immunization Safety Review Committee concluded there is not enough
evidence to prove or disprove the hypothesis that mercury-containing vaccines
have caused children to develop learning disabilities, ADHD and autism, the IOM
Committee found enough evidence that mercury can damage the human brain to recommend
that mercury preservatives be removed from all vaccines and over-the-counter
consumer products.
“This IOM report confirms the obvious: mercury is bad for
you and we shouldn’t be injecting our babies with it. Even though there have
been too few controlled studies to confirm the relationship between mercury-containing
vaccines and various kinds of brain dysfunction, the bottom line is that drug
companies should have come up with a non-toxic way to preserve the stability of
vaccines a long time ago. Now we need a comprehensive analysis of the potential
toxicity of all other vaccine additives, starting with aluminum,” said Barbara
Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of NVIC.
NVIC today joined with SAFEMINDS, founded in 2000 by
parents who believe their children were harmed by mercury in vaccines, in
calling for the removal of all mercury- containing childhood vaccines from the
market in the U.S. and for doctors to warn pregnant women that the flu vaccine contains
mercury.
The National Vaccine Information Center, a non-profit
organization founded in 1982 by parents of vaccine-injured children, has long
advocated a systematic evaluation of vaccine preservatives, adjuvants and other
components by industry and government to confirm vaccine purity and safety. NVIC worked with Congress to create the
National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and now represents more 35,000
parents and grandparents nationwide.
* * *
[Here is the Associated Press’ treatment of the
news.]
www.nandotimes.com/healthscience/story/114485p-1263273c.html
Scientists are still unable to determine if there is a
link between a mercury-containing preservative used in some vaccines and
disorders such as autism in children, the National Academy of Sciences said
Monday.
The ingredient, thimerosal, has been removed from most
vaccines and the academy said that, despite the lack of proof that it is a
hazard, prudence dictates that steps be taken to further reduce its use.
Safe Minds, an advocacy group working to reduce children’s
exposure to mercury, welcomed the report but contended it didn’t go far enough.
Safe Minds president Sallie Bernard said the group is
pleased the report acknowledges the possibility of the preservative being
linked to health problems. But she said the group is renewing its call for
removal of all childhood vaccines containing thimerosal.
The connection between exposure to high levels of mercury
and problems with the nervous system has long been known.
While thimerosal contains a different form of mercury than
the one that has been implicated in nervous disorders, critics have complained
that it also may pose a hazard.
Thimerosal was used for many years to prevent bacterial
contamination of vaccines. Currently, however, few vaccines given to children
in the United States contain the product.
It was never used in vaccines against measles, mumps,
rubella, chicken pox and polio. However, until recently, some other vaccines on
the recommended childhood immunization list used it.
They are now manufactured without thimerosal, but a small
number of doses for hepatitis B; diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; and
influenza type B with thimerosal may still be on clinic shelves, according to
the report by the Academy’s Institute of Medicine.
“Most children in the United States being immunized today
and in the future are unlikely to receive a vaccine that contains thimerosal,”
said committee chair Marie McCormick, professor of maternal and child health at
Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.
“In those few cases where only supplies containing the
preservative are available, the vaccines should be administered rather than
foregoing immunization,” she said. “While the health effects of thimerosal are uncertain,
we know for sure that these vaccines protect against real, proven threats to
unvaccinated infants, children and pregnant women.” The institute said it
conducted an extensive analysis of studies assessing whether thimerosal was
associated with disorders and found them to be inconclusive.
No evidence was found that would prove a link between thimerosal-containing
vaccines and autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, speech or
language delays or other neurodevelopmental disorders, the committee said.
However, it said that as a precaution, the government
should consider changing policies to reduce exposure to thimerosal as much as
possible.
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* * *
Safe Minds Applauds IOM Recommendations—Asks for Recall of
All Childhood
Vaccines Containing Mercury
http://library.northernlight.com/FC20011001560000127.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#
doc
PRNewswire - Safe Minds is pleased that the IOM report acknowledges
the biological plausibility that mercury in vaccines is linked to neurological
problems and that children should not be exposed to it in vaccines or any other
product, but its recommendations do not go far enough,” said Sallie Bernard,
executive director of Safe Minds. “We believe that no child should get any
mercury-containing vaccines. We are
renewing our call for the immediate removal of remaining stocks of childhood thimerosal-containing
vaccines still on pharmaceutical and pharmacists shelves. In addition, we are asking that research be
conducted into how to identify and repair mercury damage in children.”
“Safe Minds is pleased that the IOM Committee has
recommended a comprehensive and ambitious research program to determine the
role of thimerosal in neurodevelopmental disorders,” said Mrs. Bernard. “This
is what we have been asking for for over a year. Some of these studies are already happening as a result of Safe
Minds’ and other parent advocate’s initiatives. But much more is needed, including a strong commitment from the
NIH to fund extensive studies on this issue.
We are calling for studies that include treatment for affected children
as part of the comprehensive research agenda.”
Mrs. Redwood, the mother of a child who received mercury
exposures far above federal safety guidelines, believes it is only a matter of
time before the causal link is acknowledged between mercury and the current
epidemic of learning disorders and neurodevelopmental problems in
children. “The first step in
identifying a cause and effect relationship is establishing biological
plausibility, which IOM has done today.
The problem with mercury from thimerosal-containing products has just
recently surfaced so it is not surprising that controlled epidemiological
studies that assess causality have not yet been conducted.”
“The recommendations that the IOM advances for continued
use of thimerosal-containing vaccines in infants, children and pregnant women
are correct, but Safe Minds believes that aggressive action should be taken to make
thimerosal-free flu and diphtheria-tetanus vaccinations available. The US has the capability of making these
available now. Mercury-free flu shots for
this flu season are available in Europe.
There is no reason why these vaccines are not being offered in this
country today,” said Mrs. Bernard.
“The IOM report is an important first step in
acknowledging the risks to the safety of some of the nation’s vaccination
supply,” said Sallie Bernard, executive director of Safe Minds and a mother of
a child with autism, “but it raises important public health concerns for all
Americans.
Safe Minds is a non-profit parents organization founded to
investigate the continuing risks to infants and children of exposure to mercury
from medical products, including thimerosal in vaccines. Its Web site is http://www.safeminds.com.
* * *
Role of Environmental Toxicants in Premature Birth: Webcast
Prog. Guide
Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and
Medicine
Oct. 2-3, 2001
Send a Question to the Panel <mailto:webcast@nas.edu>
(please include your name and affiliation)
Online presentations from the meeting may be subject to
copyright protection. Permission from the speaker may be required prior to any copying,
reproducing, or rebroadcasting any portion of the speaker’s presentations. For
best results, use Internet Explorer to view slides.
8:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Oct. 2
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Paul G. Rogers, J.D., Hogan and Hartson; Jennifer Howse,
March of
Dimes; Donald Mattison, March of Dimes
Send a Question to the Panel <mailto:webcast@nas.edu>
(please include
your name and affiliation) 9:30 a.m. EDT Session I: Clinical
and Public
Health Aspects of Prematurity-Causes, Interventions, and
Consequences
Moderator: Jeannette Rogowski, RAND Graduate School
Causes and Mechanisms of Premature Labor
Clinical and Public Health Interventions-Why Nothing
Has Worked
Robert L. Goldenberg, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Maureen Hack, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital,
University Hospitals
of Cleveland
Send a Question to the Panel <webcast@nas.edu>
(please include your name and affiliation) 11:00 a.m. EDT Break 11:30 a.m. EDT
Session II:
Moderator: E. Albert Reece, Temple University School
of Medicine
A Framework for Social and Cultural Determinants of
Prematurity
Toxic Social Environment: a Factor in Preterm Birth?
Send a Question to the Panel <webcast@nas.edu>
(please include your name and affiliation) 12:30 p.m. EDT Break 1:30 p.m. EDT
Session III:
Environmental Causes of Prematurity: the Role of
Environmental Toxicants
Moderator: Donna S. Dizon-Townson, Utah Valley
Regional Medical Center
Behavior, Nutrition, Infection, and Stress:
Epidemiologic Clues to the
Study of Environment and Preterm Birth [PowerPoint
Presentation <http://www.iom.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/Savitz/$file/Savitz.ppt>]
(51KB)
Exposures to Environmental Agents and Preterm Delivery
[PowerPoint Presentation <http://www.iom.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/Longnecker/$file/Longnecker.ppt>]
(128KB)
Matthew Longnecker, National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences
Gene-Environment Interactions and Preterm Delivery
[PowerPoint Presentation <http://www.iom.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/Wang/$file/Wang.ppt>]
(88.5KB)
Send a Question to the Panel <webcast@nas.edu>
(please include your name and affiliation) 3:00 p.m. EDT Break 3:30 p.m. EDT
Session IV:
Experimental and Laboratory Approaches to Analyzing
Prematurity
Moderator: John R. G. Challis, Institute of Human
Development
Current Approaches to Reproductive and Developmental
Toxicity Testing
and Risk Assesment
Evaluating Chemical Agents for Potential Hazards in
Reproduction
Jack B. Bishop, NIEHS
Assessment and Relevance of Environmental Chemical Effects
on Uterine Muscle [PowerPoint Presentation <http://www.iom.edu/iom/iomhome.nsf/WFiles/LochCaruso/$file/LochCaruso.ppt>]
(583KB)
Send a Question to the Panel webcast@nas.edu
(please include your name and affiliation)
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