Parents of children with autism march in Washington - II

[Edited fom US newspaper]
April 6, 2006
Parents of Autistic Kids March Against Mercury

Almost a thousand parents and physicians marched their way through the streets of Washington, DC to get the government's attention. Parents said they want more research done to find out if mercury, which is found in children's vaccines, caused their sons and daughters to become Autistic. "It empowers us as parents, it gives us some power to do something," said Kathy Young, a Charlottesville mother of an Autistic daughter. Young walked in the "Mercury Generation March" to support her daughter. For years, according to the medical community, research showed Autism was a genetic disorder. But Young believes her daughter developed the disorder because of a known toxin that is in most vaccines. There have been some studies to support her comtention.

"No more lies from the CDC," parents chanted. These parents feel if more research is done to find the true cause of Autism, they can possibly find a cure. "The main goal for all of us is that our kids get the proper treatment because currently with the government refusing to look at the issue seriously, little research is being done," said Young.

Right now, there isn't much parents can do if they believe mercury is responsible for their child's Autism. They feel this rally is their last hope to get the government on their side. "The FDA and the CDC are making it very difficult for researchers to get the facts so that they can help our kids," said Young. The CDC denies any cover-up. Currently, one out of every 166 kids are diagnosed with Autism [End of article].

Parents of children with autism march in Washington

While there are those who are unwilling to look at the possibility that vaccination may be injuring our children and grandchildren, there are many others - parents of autistic children in particular - who are demanding to know the truth. With the numbers of such parents increasing daily, I feel confident that the truth will eventually be revealed. Who will then be held accountable? Below I publish a recent email from the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), which is a co-sponsor of the event below, organized by National Autism Association and A-CHAMP. Other sponsors are AutismOne, CoMed, Defeat Autism Now (DAN), Generation Rescue, Moms Against Mercury, No Mercury, SafeMinds and US Autism & Asperger Association.

Mercury Generation March, April 2006
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release:
April 4, 2006 Contacts: Rita Shreffler (Nixa, MO) 417-818-9030 Bobbie Manning (Buffalo, NY) 716-713-6625 Wendy Fournier (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523

National Autism Advocacy Organizations Converge on Capitol Hill to Demand Public Hearings

New Documents Show CDC Attempts to Hide Vaccine/Autism Connection as Parents Ask Congress To Investigate or Appoint Independent Commission

Washington, DC – On April 6, national children’s advocacy organizations will gather at the Capitol, urging Congress to declare autism a national emergency and commence hearings to examine actions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to block removal of mercury from vaccines and undermine state efforts to ban the known neurotoxin.

Parents from around the country will join The Mercury Generation March and meet with members of Congress to encourage Senate hearings on the CDC’s possible suppression of safety information. U.S. Representatives Dan Burton (R-IN) and Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) will join parents in a press briefing in Upper Senate Park beginning at 11:00 AM.

Leaders from the parent organizations have provided substantial evidence to Congressional offices regarding thimerosal toxicity and the CDC’s handling of relevant data. "For over a year, this investigation has been conducted behind closed doors. We have been patiently waiting for action," said Claire Bothwell, board chair of the National Autism Association. "It’s time to bring this into the open where it belongs. If Congress doesn’t respond, parents will mount a campaign for an independent investigation of the CDC’s internal policies and conflicts of interest that permitted an entire generation of children to be overexposed to mercury".

Documents obtained earlier this year revealed the CDC declined the opportunity provided by a vaccine maker to provide mercury-free vaccines in 1999, prompting parents to ask for a Senate investigation of this notable lack of response. "The CDC failed to make the safety of children a priority. The Senate has oversight responsibility in determining the advisability of keeping mercury in childhood vaccines when the CDC already knew the exposures to children exceeded safety guidelines," commented Ms. Bothwell.

Last month, members of Congress urged the National Institute of Health Sciences (NIEHS) to examine the mercury/autism association, commenting, "If the federal government is going to have a study whose results will be broadly accepted, such a study cannot be led by the CDC."
"Millions of children were overexposed to mercury by injection, yet the CDC actively encourages the use of mercury-containing vaccines. Congress has a responsibility to investigate," said A-CHAMP board member John Gilmore. "This is far more important than millionaire baseball players using steroids or a theoretical concern about bird flu that hasn’t affected a single American. Failure to find answers for America’s children is inexcusable and immoral."

Below I list several books (and some links to other websites) which examine the more general issue of vaccinations. I acquired most of the books in early 2004.

Stephanie Cave (with Deborah Mitchell) (2001). What your doctor may not tell you about children’s vaccinations (New York: Warner Books, 2001)

Neil Z Miller (1992/2003) Vaccines: Are they really safe and effective? (Revised edition, Santa Fe, New Mexico: New Atlantean Press, 2003; originally published in 1992)

Neil Z Miller (2003). Vaccines, autism and childhood disorders: Critical data that could save your child’s life ( Santa Fe, New Mexico: New Atlantean Press, 2003)

(Thinktwice Global Vaccine Institute: http://www.thinktwice.com/)

Aviva Jill Romm (2001). Vaccinations: A thoughtful parent’s guide (Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 2001)

Jamie Murphy (1993). What every parent should know about childhood immunization (Boston: Earth Healing Products, 1993, Ninth Printing, 2002)

Harris L Coulter (1990). Vaccination, social violence and criminality: The medical assault on the American brain (Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1990)

Harris L Coulter and Barbara Loe Fisher (n d). A shot in the dark: Why the “P” in the “DPT” vaccination may be hazardous to your child’s health (Garden City, New York: Avery, n d). (This book was originally published, by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in New York, under the title DPT: A shot in the dark, in 1985. Although this revised edition was supposedly published in 1991, it must have been subsequently updated, as there are references, on Pages 185 and 215, to 1997). See also the website of the National Vaccine Information Centre (NVIC), founded by the second author, at: http://www.909shot.com/)

Nancy Appleton (2002). Rethinking Pasteur’s germ theory: How to maintain your optimal health (Berkeley, California: Frog Limited, 2002)

Viera Scheibner (1993), Vaccinations (Blackheath, Blue Mountains, New Soth Wales: Self published,1993)

Australian Vaccination Network (1998) Vaccination roulette (Bangalow, New South Wales, 1998) See also http://www.avn.org.au

Tim O'Shea (1999), The sanctity of human blood: vaccination is not immunization (Seventh edition, 2003, North Woods, California: http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/ )

Lynne McTaggart (2000) The vaccination bible (London: What Doctors Don't Tell You, 2000)

Greg Beattie (1997/2002) Vaccination: A parent's dilemma (Harrow, Middlesex: The Informed parent, Second edition, 2002; http://www.informedparent.co.uk/ )

Peter Baratosy (2004) Vaccination: It's your informed choice (Adelaide, South Australia: Self-published, 2004)

Harriet Griffey (2000) Immunization (Shaftsbury: Element Books, 2000)

Greg Wilson (2000) Vaccination and behavioural disorders (Lismore, New South Wales: Tuntable Creek Publishing, 2000)

Leon Chaitow (1987/1998) Vaccination and immunization: Dangers, delusions and alternatives (What every parent should know) (Frome, Somerset, UK: Revised edition, 1998)

Randall Neustaedter (1972/1996/2002) The vaccine guide: Risks and benefits for children and adults (Revised edition, Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2002)

Maureen Hickman (2000) Vaccination: The right choice? (Australian edition, Self-published, 2000)

Isaac Golden (1989/2005) Vaccination and homoeoprophylaxis? A review of risks and alternatives (Sixth edition, (Daylesford, Victoria, Australia: Self-published; http://users.netconnect.com.au/~i_golden )

Gordon Ada and David Isaacs ((2000) Vaccination: The facts, the fears, the future (Sydney, New South Wales: Allen and Unwin, 2000)

It should be pointed out that only the last is unashamedly in favour of routine, mass vaccination.The others range from supportive, with qualifications (eg, the first one listed), to unashamedly anti-vaccination (eg, the one by Tim O'Shea).Some other useful web sites are the following: http://www.mercola.com; http://www.vaccinationnews.com; http://www.nyvic.org/nyvic http://www.vaccinescience.org; http://www.vaccination.inoz.com; http://www.safeminds.org/

Autism and nature versus nurture

The way this blog is set up makes it easy to miss comments - I am therefore copying a recent comment here, together with my response:

Alexander's Daddy said...You need to look at the medical studies published in the past 25 years and drop those sources from the 1940's,1950's-60's. Autism is genetic neurological disorder and more than 1483 studies have been published in the last 25 years to demonstrate that. I don't want any of your readers to be confused by what you have posted and what your personal thougts are on the subject because you don't have a medical background. If you would like to look at the science, just go to pubmed and look up autism and genetics. Here are two abstracts for you to chew on: (To see the abstracts, click on "Comments" to the previous post)
Mon Mar 27, 03:14:30 PM 2006

Andrew Reiner said...
I have been on a meditation retreat since 22 March (but left instructions for comments to be published) and have therefore been unable to comment until now.

There are at least two compelling reasons for rejecting the hypothesis that "autism is a genetic neurological disorder". I referred to both in the second post on Bruno Bettelheim.The first is the (30-60)-fold increase in the rate of occurrence of autism during the very period to which you refer (from 1-2 in 10,000 to 1 in 166, or 60 in 10,000). This cannot possibly be the result of genetic factors - at least not in the sense in which it is commonly understood, viz as something inherited from the parents. There must be something in the environment to account for the recent autism epidemic. The evidence that is gradually accumulating linking vaccination, especially the neurotoxin thimerosal, used to preserve vaccines and now finally being banned in more and more States (in the US) is now almost unassailable (unless you listen to the vaccine manufacturers or their allies in government). I recommend you have a look at David Kirby (2005), "Evidence of harm:Mercury in vaccines and the autism epidemic: a medical controversy" (New York: St Martin's Press, 2005).

The other likely environmental factor is the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine, even without thimerosal (See, in particular, Neil Z Miller, Vaccines, autism and childhood disorders:Crucial data that could save your child's life. Santa Fe, New Mexico: New Atlantean Press, 2003, with a Foreword by Bernard Rimland; The book also includes Dr Rimland's congressional testimony of 6 April, 2000 on pages 43-46). The only way to find out what else may be responsible is to divert some of the billions of dollars now being spent on genetic research to environmental research.

The above certainly does not rule out the possibility that it is only genetically susceptible children who develop autism, for example, because of an inability to eliminate certain toxins like mercury from their systems.

The second reason for rejecting the simple genetic explanation you offer is the recent discovery that the environment can even change our genes! This can happen in utero, as a result of toxins being introduced into the mother's body during pregnancy (as in your first extract - see above), or it can happen any time after birth. I quote from a recent (10 January 2006) edition of ScienCentral:

Lab experiments suggest that a pregnant mother's exposure to certain chemicals in the environment can cause reproductive problems not only for her own children, but also for several more generations of her family... research with pregnant rats revealed what genetics researchers thought was impossible.

Enduring Effects of the Environment

One chemical is used in insecticides. The other is a fungicide used on vineyards and orchards. They are known to alter levels of reproductive hormones, but there were no signs — until now — that such chemicals could alter our genes — the DNA code we pass on to our children. "We've made a discovery that has made us sit back and think about some general biology questions in a number of different areas," says biologist Michael Skinner, director of Washington State University's Center for Reproductive Biology. "If disease can be induced by environmental factors, and then subsequently be carried forward to the subsequent generations, then we have come up with potentially a new paradigm for disease development."

Yesterday's Age newapaper (3 April 2006) reported on a study by Dr Angelo De Marzo and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, that the ingestion of PhIP, a compound formed when meat is charred at very high temperatures ( as in a barbecue, for example), results in genetic mutation in rats after a mere four weeks, causing prostate cancer. This may explain the known link between eating red meat and prostate cancer, the Age reported. Indeed, the researchers found genetic mutations in all the organs they examined.

The 1483 studies that you refer to may, indeed, demonstrate a role for genes (indeed, how could it be otherwise?) but it requires something to take place in the child's environment for autism to develop.
Tue Apr 04, 05:00:58 AM 2006

Readers may also wish to have a look at http://vaccinationissues.blogspot.com/

Previous Posts :
Bruno Bettelheim and "mental disorders" again
Bruno Bettelheim and "mental disorders"