Study Shows Decline in Neurodevelopmental Disorders After Removal of Thimerosal...
[align=left]Study Shows Decline in Neurodevelopmental Disorders [/align]
[align=left]
After Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines [/align]
A new study published today (3/1/06) shows that the rate of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) in children has decreased following removal of thimerosal, a preservative containing the neurotoxin mercury, from American childhood vaccines. The study, published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, a peer reviewed journal, by Dr. Mark Geier and David Geier examined two independent databases maintained by the government ?? one national and one state. The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and the Californian Department of Developmental Services (CDDS) database each showed the same downward trend for the period from 2002 through 2005. According to the study ??[t]he results indicate that the trends in newly diagnosed NDs correspond directly with the expansion and subsequent contraction of the cumulative mercury dose to which children were exposed from [thimerosal-containing vaccines] through the U.S. immunization schedule.?
The study examined the trend for cases of autism during the period beginning 1994 and ending 2002 compared with the period from 2002 to June, 2005. The trends for increases and decreases of cases of autism found in the VAERS national database were consistent with the trends found in the CDDC California database. Most significantly, in each database the increasing and decreasing trends correlate with the time that the exposure to thimerosal through the immunization schedule was increased and then decreased after removal of mercury containing vaccines. ??The consistency of the effects observed for the spectrum of NDs, including autism and speech disorders, and the agreement between the observations from two separate databases, support the conclusion that the effect is real and not a chance observation.? The study found that the magnitude of the change in the decreasing trend of cases was significant after removal of mercury from vaccines. Data from the U.S. Department of Education, a third database, showed a recent decrease of autism diagnoses that is consistent with the findings in the two databases.
The authors show that the biological plausibility of their statistical findings is supported by recent toxicological and molecular studies that reveal the mechanism by which mercury from vaccines can cause damage to the developing brains of children. A recent study by researchers at the University of Washington has shown that ethylmercury from thimerosal in vaccines can cross from the bloodstream into the brain in toxic amounts which can remain in brain tissue for many years. This finding contradicted the untested view about the toxicity of ethylmercury in vaccines that prevailed in public health for 75 years. Other researchers have shown that minute concentrations of mercury, far lower than previously believed and far less than other toxins such as lead, can destroy neurons and damage DNA within hours of exposure. Such low levels of mercury, which likely are reached in infant brains via vaccine thimerosal exposure, can disrupt cell signaling and metabolic pathways necessary for normal brain development. Studies in mice, rabbits, monkeys, rats and other animals support these findings. Further studies in children have found evidence of mercury toxicity, metabolic disruption and oxidative stress that is consistent with the author??s statistical findings that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism and developmental disorders.
The authors point out that their finding that the VAERS and CDDS databases show strong associations between thimerosal containing vaccines and neurodevelopmental disorders completely contradicts the 2004 findings contained in a report published by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences ?? which was based on data controlled exclusively by the Center for Disease Control??s National Immunization Program and unavailable to outside researchers. In arguing that their study??s findings justify additional research the authors point out that the handling of vaccine safety data by the Centers for Disease Control has been called into serious question in a 2005 report published by the Institute of Medicine.
You can view and download a pdf file containing the new study, ??Early Downward Trends in Neurodevelopmental Disorders Following Removal of Thimerosal-Containing Vaccines? by clicking here. It is being published today in Volume 11, Number 1, Spring 2006 of the peer-reviewed Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
