Double Dosing

Though mercury, in the form of thimerosal, has been in use for over 60 years in vaccines, the big problem with this pharmaceutical practice only became obvious through decisions implemented in 1990 and 1991, when the medical establishment more than doubled the amount of mercury injected into children during the first year of life.

With the addition of Hib and, a year later, the Hepatitis B vaccine, medical authorities passed federal guidelines for safe mercury levels. These highly dangerous toxic levels today are being reduced, but not eliminated, in the United States.

Prior to the recent initiatives to reduce thimerosal from childhood vaccines, the maximum cumulative exposure, according to the CDC, to mercury via routine childhood vaccinations during the first six months of life was 187.5 micrograms. Now, the CDC states on its Internet site that for these same American babies they have reduced that down to less than 3 micrograms, a 98 percent reduction.

But, as we will see, this is not honest because thimerosal vaccines are still on the shelves. Thimerosal still is in tetanus shots administered to children and many flu vaccines that are just now being introduced into the childhood immunization schedule.

As a point of reference, 200 micrograms of mercury would fit on the head of a pin.

According to the EPA, dropping that pinhead of mercury into 23 gallons of water would make it unsafe for human consumption.

It is astonishing to see American authorities at the CDC adding flu vaccines that contain a whopping dose of 25 micrograms into the childhood vaccination schedule for children starting at six months of age. According to the FDA and the EPA, the maximum amount of mercury exposure that is safe and permissible is 0.1 micrograms per kilo per day. So a 6-month-old child weighing 7.0 kilos would be allowed only 0.7 micrograms. That means the CDC this year approved injections for children, exceeding the FDA's and EPA's safe limits by a factor of 32.

What's Too Much?

According to Dr. Hugh Fundenburg, one of the most quoted biologist of our time (with nearly 850 papers in peer review journals), if an individual receives too many consecutive flu shots his or her chance of developing Alzheimer's disease is 10 times greater than if they had one, two or no shots. When asked why, Dr. Fundenburg stated it is due to the mercury and aluminum buildup that are in many flu shots and in many other childhood vaccines. The gradual mercury and aluminum buildup in the brain causes eventual cognitive dysfunction.

According to Dr. Haley at the University of Kentucky:

"Mercury dramatically reduced the viability of a major brain protein called tubulin, but had little if any effect on another major protein, actin. Both tubulin and actin are critically important for the growth of dendrites or maintenance of axon structures of neurons. Exposing neurons to mercury rapidly results in the stripping of tubulin from the axon structure, leaving bare neurofibrils that form the tangles that are the diagnostic hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

“Thimerosal, like mercury, also rapidly reduces the viability of tubulin; in addition, however, it abolishes the viability of actin. This likely represents a major difference in the mechanism of mercury versus organic-mercury (more neurotoxic) toxicity. However, both mercury and organic-mercury inhibit tubulin viability and would work in concert to damage neurons of the central nervous system."

Researchers at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Calgary also show how mercury causes brain neuron degeneration and provide important direct evidence on how low levels of mercury exposure can initiate neurodegenerative processes in the brain. In a graphic visual presentation they show how mercury ions denuded nurofibrils and how mercury prevents tubulin molecules from linking together.

It was “finally” recognized in 1999 that the long half-life of ethlymercury could theoretically result in accumulation and toxicity during chronic applications and as such joint statements by the American Academy of Pediatricians and the United States Public Health Services recommended the removal of thimerosal from all vaccines.

With this in mind, it is shocking that in 2004 we find the CDC adding a thimerosal-containing vaccine into the childhood immunization schedule and amazing to learn that American officials have not led a movement in the third world to diminish or eliminate thimerosal from the millions born each year there. American officials seem to care not for what happens to children around the world as they "go through the motions" of removing some, but not all of the thimerosal from American clinics.

American health officials have not faced the truth, will not admit their error, and even five years after the above 1999 recommendations, we still have the CDC, the IOM and several important health officials denying that there is any problem with using mercury in vaccines.

In fact, with the three now scheduled flu vaccines to be administered before two years of age, some children will be receiving between 37-75 mg of thimerosal, depending on how the shots are administered (doctors are allowed some flexibility to give half doses to kids under two years of age).

Despite their own statements in 1999, the medical authorities are actually reintroducing thimerosal into the childhood immunization schedule, even as they brag about taking it out.

It is very important to note that though the U.S. authorities are diminishing the mercury content of vaccines at home it does not change the picture of the “global” thimerosal nightmare where most children are still receiving high pre-2001 level doses. Dr. Boyd Haley, a world-renowned expert on the toxicity of mercury said, "I am ashamed that our country is misleading other parts of the world with regards to the thimerosal issue."

Continued on Page 3

Mark A. Sircus Ac., OMD, is director of the International Medical Veritas Association and, as senior editor, launched the first issue of the Medical Veritas Journal of Medicine. Dr. Sircus was trained in acupuncture and oriental medicine at the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Sante Fe, N.M., and in the School of Traditional Medicine of New England in Boston.

He served at the Central Public Hospital of Pochutla, in México, and was awarded the title of doctor of oriental medicine for his work. One of the first nationally certified acupuncturists in the United States, he was persecuted by the medical board of New Hampshire in the early 1980s for practicing medicine (acupuncture) without a license. This led him to diversify his healing work into other areas especially counseling and psychology.

Today, Dr. Sircus is spearheading a dramatically different medical organization dedicated to unifying the various disciplines in medicine with the goal of creating a new dawn in healthcare. Dr. Sircus is particularly concerned about the effect vaccinations have on vulnerable infants and is identifying the common thread of many toxic agents that are dramatically threatening present and future generations of children.