Proof That Thimerosal Induces Autism-Like Neurotoxicity

I’m always pleased to see another study confirming what vaccine-safety advocates have tried to get across for so long—that the mercury-based preservative thimerosal is seriously bad news and should never be injected. I don’t know how much proof will be required take to get the truth to finally get through, but a mountain of evidence is apparently still not enough for some nay-sayers.

This latest study confirms that damage does occur in human neuronal and fetal cells, even at low concentrations.

As you’ve likely heard by now, rates of autism in the U.S. have increased nearly 60-fold since the late 1970s, rising right along with the increasing number of vaccinations added to the childhood vaccination schedule.

This oftentimes debilitating neurological disorder now affects about one in 150 U.S. children, but an article in the Daily Mail two years ago reported the rate of autism in Great Britain could be as high as 1 in 58.

Although autism may be apparent soon after birth, most autistic children experience at least several months, or even a year or more of normal development -- followed by regression, defined as loss of function or failure to progress.

Typically, by the age of three, at which time the child has received at least 24 of their scheduled vaccinations, symptoms of autism are fully apparent, affecting their communication and social skills, and impairing the child's ability to play, speak and relate to the world.

The Genetic Catch-All

Many have tried to debunk the autism-vaccine link, oftentimes blaming the disorder on genetic factors, but the connection refuses to go away. And for valid reasons.

So far, scientists have been able to link genetic defects to a mere one percent of autism cases. Although the other 99 percent are still unaccounted for, conventional media rarely underscore this fact, focusing instead on the minority link to genetic predisposition.

For example, last year the U.S. government concluded that childhood vaccines contributed to symptoms of autism in 9-year-old Hannah Poling. According to U.S. Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation, the shots "significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder" and resulted in a brain disorder "with features of autism spectrum disorder."

Again, they finally conceded that those with genetic predispositions can develop autism when injected with thimerosal. But industry is still refusing to take any responsibility for having anything to do with the other 99 percent of autism cases, and our health officials are playing along, protecting the interests of industry, not that of your child.

And bear in mind, mercury is not the one and only potential danger hiding in vaccines. Aluminum is yet another neurotoxic poison used as an immune-suppressing adjuvant. (For more on that, please see this previous article, which covers that issue in greater detail.)

All this lopsided logic serves no one except Big Pharma, and their fingerprints are all over the so-called “evidence” proving that vaccines are safe.

The Cover-Up of Thimerosal Dangers

Four years ago, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote a must-read Rolling Stone article exposing the truth about the drug industry's greed, and the secret gathering where a plan was hatched to cover up the dangers of thimerosal.

According to Kennedy’s account, in June of 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials -- including high-level officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the top vaccine specialists from the World Health Organization (WHO), and representatives from every major vaccine manufacturer -- secretly gathered to discuss the use of thimerosal in childhood vaccines.

Data indicated that the toxic heavy metal appeared to be responsible for a drastic increase in autism and other neurological disorders among children.

However, rather than taking every precaution to protect public health, they spent the majority of the next two days plotting how to protect the industry’s bottom line by getting rid of the troubling data.

The CDC played their part in the cover-up by:

• Paying the Institutes of Medicine to produce a new study that would debunk the link between thimerosal and brain disorders
• Withholding unflattering findings by claiming the original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated
• Handing its massive database of vaccine records over to a private company, effectively pronouncing it off-limits to researchers and preventing dissemination of the data through the Freedom of Information Act

Although thimerosal was eventually removed from the majority of childhood vaccines in 2001, it’s still used in some multi-dose vials, and is present in nearly all seasonal flu vaccines.

And, thimerosal-containing vaccines already produced were not recalled, so children most likely continued to receive the tainted vaccines until stocks were depleted.

So, What Do We Know About Thimerosal?

Thimerosal (TMS), which is used in vaccines as a preservative, is 49.6 percent ethylmercury (eHg). It is already an established fact that exposure to mercury can cause immune, sensory, neurological, motor, and behavioral dysfunctions -- all similar to traits defining, or associated with autism.

The study above just puts yet another nail in the coffin.

Because of the ever increasing number of required childhood vaccines, thimerosal has become a major source of mercury in children. Within the first two years of life, a child may already have received a quantity of mercury that clearly exceeds safety guidelines.

Genetic predisposition and a number of other environmental factors, such as exposure to other toxins, and diet, are likely major contributing factors that determine whether a child will be able to manage the toxic insult, or develop a neurological disorder like autism.

Other Issues Compounding the Dangers of Thimerosal

The timing of vaccines is also an important factor. According to Dr. Russell Blaylock, multiple vaccines given close together over-stimulate your brain's immune system and, via the mechanism of "bystander injury," destroy brain cells.

He wrote an excellent, in-depth paper on this issue.

If you have not already read it, I highly recommend you give it a moment of your time as it is incredibly informative. In it he presents compelling evidence of the link between excessive vaccinations and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Your immune system is very complex. Naturally, the immune system of a baby is not the same as that of an adult, as it is not yet fully formed. Both animal and human studies have confirmed that immune reactions to vaccinations differ at different ages.

The rate of maturation of the immune system also differs considerably among babies and children, and when combined with variables such as other toxic exposures and diet, there’s no way of foretelling what effect a toxin like thimerosal will cause in ALL children.

For example, fluoroaluminum formed in fluoridated drinking water also interferes with immune function and can significantly compound the damage incurred from mercury, as can many insecticides and herbicides used around your home.

As for diet, there’s substantial evidence that omega-6 oils are powerful pro-inflammatories and cause immune suppression when consumed in large amounts. These oils include corn, safflower, sunflower, canola, peanut and soybean oils.

If you or your child eat a standard American diet, you’re consuming about 50 times more omega-6 fats than you need for health.

So it stands to reason that the average child is exposed to a number of substances both in their food and environment that can alter their immunity, hence making them more susceptible to vaccine complications.

Unfortunately, the standard childhood vaccination schedule ignores all these variables.

How Many Vaccinations are Too Many?

There seems to be no maximum number of vaccines that a child can be exposed to in sight. Think about it: in 1983, before the autism epidemic began, children received 10 vaccinations before attending school. Today they receive 24 vaccines before the age of 1, and 36 by the time they attend school. And that’s not including the recommended seasonal flu shot each year.

Like smoking and lung cancer, there’s enough proof today to call a complete halt to the present excessive vaccine program and ban any level of mercury in vaccines.

But just like the case of Big Tobacco, Big Pharma refuses to do what’s right and protect you and your children from unnecessary harm.

More Recent Evidence

There’s yet another recent study confirming the link between low-level mercury poisoning in children and diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Published in the Journal of Neurological Sciences in September 2008, the study was the first prospective, blinded cohort study to examine children diagnosed with an ASD using urinary porphyrin profile analysis (UPPA) to assess the physiological effects of mercury toxicity. They also used glutathione analysis to assess the children’s susceptibility to mercury poisoning.

Children with severe ASDs had significantly higher levels of mercury intoxication in comparison to participants with mild ASDs.

It was also established that glutathione, a key biochemical in your body’s mercury detoxification pathway, was significantly lower in patients diagnosed with an ASD in comparison with the control group.

I’d like to point out, though, that although this study shows a relationship between lower glutathione levels and greater severity of autism, mercury is not the only toxin that can affect glutathione levels. There’s a plethora of toxins in your daily environment that contribute to your toxic load, so any number of toxins may be contributing to the problem.

Additional Resources

As always, I want to remind and encourage you to continue to educate yourself and your family on the issues surrounding vaccinations of all kinds. There are so many problems; no one article can possibly cover them all.

For example, if you missed my special report on squalene – yet another dangerous vaccine ingredient – please read it now. You can also search my site as I’ve written countless articles on all aspects of the vaccine issue.

I also recommend you familiarize yourself with the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) web site. As a leader for vaccine safety, the NVIC offers information on everything from laws to informed consent to late-breaking vaccine news.