Much is known about the deadly effects of mercury, thimerosal and vaccines, but did you know early testing of thimerosal was done on people who were terminally ill? Great way to be able to claim thimerosal is a safe product, if you can get away with it, which Big Pharma did for a long time.

I find it almost incomprehensible thimerosal, the well-documented, toxic preservative that contains mercury, is still in many vaccines, years after federal agencies have mandated that it be removed. Especially when it comes to injecting infants with toxic chemicals when their nervous systems are just forming, because physicians certainly should know better. That’s why you should think long and hard at the risks and side effects associated with these toxins before you even think about vaccinating your kids.

Dr. Mark Sircus wrote an excellent piece for his association that he agreed to share with us about the short history of mercury, thimerosal and vaccines and how they proved to be a terrible trio that has ruined the health of far too many people over the past 75 years.

By Dr. Mark A. Sircus Ac., OMD
International Medical Veritas Association

Medicine today is more and more frequently described in terms of science. With the origin and development of drugs and surgical techniques, modern medicine has thought itself to be evermore exact and evermore resembling the hard sciences of chemistry and physics.

We would all like to think medicine today is based on rock solid assumptions that stand the test of time. But since the 1930s, medical science began a process of self-deception when it began relying on drug trials and “studies” that were easily manipulated by conflicts of interests whose driving motive was the making of profit. Conflicts of interest may be very diverse in their character and effects but nowhere is the effect more nightmarish than in this story about mercury in vaccines.

Mercury is a unique poison in that it incapacitates numerous enzymes in cells, including those used to neutralize free radicals. -- Dr. Russell Blaylock, noted neurosurgeon and associate editor for the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Only weeks after the Institute of Medicine (IOM) came out with their report in early 2004, stating that thimerosal is not connected in any way with autism, Columbia University researchers reported, “The mercury preservative used in some vaccines can cause behavioral abnormalities in newborn mice characteristic of autism, but only in mice with a specific genetic susceptibility."

These researchers' findings challenge directly the statements of the IOM and the CDC, who are insisting that mercury is safe to use in vaccines. Dr. Steven Goodman of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a member of the IOM commission that prepared the report, said those on the commission were aware of the research from Colombia University, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Dr. Julio Licinio of UCLA, the editor of this medical journal said, "I believe this has enormous implications for public health. Showing that genetic background impacts on the outcome of thimerosal exposure is a major breakthrough." He added that the study clearly showed that there was a link between vaccines and autism "for some groups and not for others."

Questioning Thimerosal

The FDA questioned thimerosal safety several times and decided in 1982 that it was "not safe for ‘over-the-counter’ topical use, because of its potential for cell damage." The FDA never did anything to question its use in childhood vaccines. Dr. Horning, Dr. Chian and Dr. Lipkin of the Department of Neurology and Pathology at Colombia University College of Physicians and Surgeons dismiss the CDC's conclusion that thimerosal is safe and has nothing to do with autism.

They state very clearly, "The developing brain is uniquely susceptible to the neurotoxic hazard posed by mercurials." They demonstrated that, "Autoimmune disease-sensitive SJL/J mice showed growth delay; reduced locomotion; exaggerated response to novelty; and densely packed hyperchronic hippocampal neurons with altered glutamate receptors and transporters."

The mice were exposed to thimerosal doses and timing equivalent to the pediatric immunization schedule. They found, "Profound behavioral and neuropathologic disturbances were observed after postnatal thimerosal in SJL/J mice, but not in strains without autoimmune sensitivity." This study, and many others that back up its findings, was not enough to prevent the IOM and the CDC from approving new vaccines for the childhood vaccine program that contain thimerosal.

Mercury has been known to be hazardous for literally hundreds of years, and its dangers have been well documented. Thousands of parents have reported biological and neurodevelopment changes in their children directly following administration of mercury-containing vaccines with a broad range of symptoms including sudden onset of shyness, GI distress, loss of motor skill function, allergies, the inability to speak, tremors and autonomic disturbances, all which mimic those associated with mercury poisoning.

Mercury has been shown to induce a number of immunological and neurotoxic changes. Researchers at the University of California found that thimerosal:

1. Decreases mitochondrial membrane potential
2. Causes the release of both cytochrome c and apoptosis inducing factor (AIF) from the mitochondria.
3. Increases intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS).
4. Reduces intracellular concentration of glutathione (GSH). [Glutathione is an antioxidant that protects cells from oxidative stress-induced apoptosis.]

For more than 60 years, the medical community simply trusted the Eli Lilly and Co.'s assertion that thimerosal/merthiolate had a low potential toxicity if injected into humans. Based on unscientific and unethical studies done in the late 1920s, several generations of public health care officials, doctors and medical educators were duped into injecting the most toxic and lethal chemical known to man into infants.

Toxicity Revealed

Documents from the archives of Eli Lilly and Co., the original manufacturer of thimerosal, clearly demonstrates that the mercury-based vaccine preservative, implicated in a number of recent lawsuits as causing neurological injury to infants, was known as early as April 1930 to be dangerous.

In its apparent eagerness to promote and market the product, in September 1930, Eli Lilly secretly sponsored a "human toxicity" study on patients already known to be dying of meningococcal meningitis. Andrew Waters of the Dallas-based law firm of Waters & Kraus stated that, "Lilly then cited this study repeatedly for decades as proof that thimerosal was of low toxicity and harmless to humans. They never revealed to the scientific community or the public the highly questionable nature of the original research."

The tests were conducted in 1929 by a young researcher named K.C. Smithburn who injected 22 human subjects who were already dying with a 1 percent solution and then pronounced that all the patients were reported “without ill effect.”

That they all died was never mentioned. "It's apparent that Lilly didn't want to do the study themselves because it's apparent that there were enormous ethical problems with injecting people -- even people dying of meningitis -- with mercury," Waters said. "What Smithburn did was wrong, because he agreed to do the study for Lilly, and not only did he agree to do it, but he agreed to give them results that he knew were flawed."

There simply are no words that can be used to describe what Eli Lilly and Co., and then other pharmaceutical companies perpetuated through decades of use of a highly toxic compound like thimerosal. And there is no ethical explanation for current and former American administrations that have either tried or succeeded in providing protection to Lilly and other pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits for damages done to children from the use of their products.

Continued on Page 2