It happens on the highest levels ...

Scott Leffler · Guru

It happens on the highest levels ...

shughes · Senior Member

Below is an article from September of last year, I don't understand why more public outcry wasn't heard. Mucury testing should be as common as lead testing in children.

California Governor Swartzenegger today signed into law AB 2943 (Pavley), the bill that will ban the use of mercury containing vaccines in California. Below is my personal statement on this historic event.
Rick Rollens/M.I.N.D. Institute

On behalf of California's children and the parents of those children who have suffered the effects of vaccine induced autism, I congratulate and honor the courageous and compassionate decision today by Governor Swartzenegger to sign this landmark legislation. With his action today, the Governor has sent a strong message that vaccines that contain mercury have no place in the veins of California's pregnant women and young children.

Once again this Governor has demonstrated the uncompromising ability to listen to common sense and logic while at the same time rejecting special interest pressures when deciding the fate of an important public policy issue. Young California children and pregnant women will now be spared the unnecessary exposure to one of the many potent neurotoxins and poisons that are found in our vaccines.

The entire California autism community is eternally grateful for the Governor's historic and precedent setting action, and especially those of us who live daily with children who suffer from the effects of vaccine induced autism. We in California can only hope that all other states as well as the federal government follows California's lead on this important public health issue.

mike of the mountain · Senior Member

my daughter is a special ed teacher with a masters in ABA from columbia university , she and others with her qualifications are very much in demand while other teachers are being laid off , as school systems struggle to meet the demand brought on by higher percentages of "special needs" students ; that alone speaks volumes . although she will be the first to say some of the problems are behavior/disipline problems lumped together with the autistic students .

autisim is only one of the possible effects of mercury in the vaccines .another posibility is asbergers syndrome , there are others ....

another clingon in the early polio vaccine up to early 60s [dates are rough and vary by vaccine batch and location the vaccine was administered ] which is a little nastier is the sv40 virus , which has been linked to many forms of cancer including brain , bone & thyroid .

the sv40 virus and it's effects were soundly put down by American agencies in charge of checking up on theses things but ...... http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/88/2/892 or type sv40 virus into google .

the polio vaccine was manufactured from monkey parts , kidneys if memory serves and the monkeys had a few viruses that humans did not have at that time , s = simeon v= virus 40 = the fortieth virus discovered that was present in the vaccines , at first all were thought to be harmless to humans ..... but later problems developed . a strong link to glioblastoma multiforme brain tumors. one of which killed my mom , but she never had a polio vaccine , she just had mild polio instead. she also taught at lewport and lived within the loow boundries for a few years

Date: Tue Jun 28 12:58 PM, 2005

During pregnancy, she had been given a shot to prevent problems from occurring because she and her baby had a mismatched blood factor. Now, she learned that the drug contained thimerosal, which is half mercury. The additive was also in most childhood vaccines, and had been used since the 1930s to prevent bacterial contamination, especially in multidose vials.

From cnn.....there are not even words for this since I have rh factor thing

shughes · Senior Member

This is in todays Buffalo News. This is an issue that's not going away.

Autism, neurodisorders tied to use of mercury

By MARK SOMMER
News Staff Reporter
7/4/2005

New York could soon become the fourth state to restrict a preservative containing mercury that once was routinely used in children's vaccines.

Legislation that recently passed both houses of the State Legislature would forbid the use of the mercury compound thimerosal in vaccines for children younger than 3 and for pregnant women. Thimerosal is used to prevent bacterial contamination, but it has been linked by some to autism and other neurological disorders.

Andrew Rush, a spokesman for Gov. George E. Pataki, said the governor has not yet decided whether he will sign the legislation.

Restricting thimerosal made sense, given long-standing uncertainties, according to Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, one of the bill's sponsors.

"Autism rates are skyrocketing, and while researchers haven't conclusively determined that mercury contributes, they certainly haven't ruled it out," Hoyt said. "If in doubt, why take the risk?"

Assemblyman James P. Hayes, R-Amherst, another co-sponsor, said he had no reservations about supporting the restrictions.

"I have spoken to a number of parents who have (children with) autism syndrome," he said, "and while the (issue) is controversial and undecided, at this point I don't see that it does any harm to enact a ban."

Some major studies have dismissed such a link, the most recent in May 2004 by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences. The World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration also reject any correlation.

Critics have questioned the studies' validity and argue that no explanation has been found for why one in 166 children is diagnosed in the United States with an autism-related neurological disorder, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics. By comparison, a study in the 1980s estimated that one child in 10,000 suffered from an autism spectrum disorder.

Missouri enacted similar legislation last week, joining California and Iowa. Laws are pending in 15 other states.

Thimerosal, which is about 50 percent ethyl mercury, a neurotoxin, has been used in vaccines to avoid the risk of bacteria since Eli Lilly & Co. developed it in the 1930s. Its use is favored because multidose vaccines containing thimerosal are cheaper to produce and easier to store than single-dose vials.

Thimerosal's use increased in the 1990s, with a doubling of the number of vaccines containing thimerosal that were added to the immunization schedule for children. The result was that children were receiving as many as nine injections with vaccines containing thimerosal in their first six months of life and up to three in a single day.

A memo from Merck & Co., disclosed by the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, showed that senior executives were concerned about high levels of mercury in children's vaccines in 1991. But it was not until 1999 that a federal review found that health authorities had overlooked the rising exposure to children.

Boyd E. Haley, chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky and a leading critic of thimerosal, praised the proposed New York law.

"Thimerosal is one of the most neurotoxic compounds we know of. Maybe I'd want a more stringent law regarding exposure to older people, but overall I think it's a good law," Haley said.

Bobbie Manning, a Williamsville mother of an autistic child and vice president of Advocates for Children's Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning, is hopeful for enactment of the legislation.

"We think this was a no-brainer bill," Manning said. "Now it's up to the governor to ensure safer vaccines by signing it into law."

A compromise necessary to move the legislation forward changed the bill's initial wording that would have removed thimerosal from all vaccines. Pushing back the effective date of the law until July 2008 was also inserted late in the process.

Gloria Tilley of Lake View, the mother of twins with dangerous amounts of heavy metals in their systems, said, "I'm happy they are moving forward, but I don't understand why they have to have a slow phaseout.

"Every day they wait, there are more kids that will be affected."

e-mail: msommer@buffnews.com

Date: Mon Jul 4 9:43 AM, 2005

Anonymous wrote:

During pregnancy, she had been given a shot to prevent problems from occurring because she and her baby had a mismatched blood factor. Now, she learned that the drug contained thimerosal, which is half mercury. The additive was also in most childhood vaccines, and had been used since the 1930s to prevent bacterial contamination, especially in multidose vials. From cnn.....there are not even words for this since I have rh factor thing

Following up with shughes post,Eazy test would be to check the rh- mom's second child,see how many have autism."Just for starters"then remove Thimerosal out of the vaccines.If autism rate goes down,well there would be the answer. But I think the answer is already there.

shughes · Senior Member

"Andrew Rush, a spokesman for Gov. George E. Pataki, said the governor has not yet decided whether he will sign the legislation."

"Thimerosal is one of the most neurotoxic compounds we know of. Maybe I'd want a more stringent law regarding exposure to older people, but overall I think it's a good law," Haley said.

Why would Gov George not want to sign this legislation? NYS Education has already banned most uses in schools. If it's not safe to play with in science class, why would you inject it into babies?

nit wit · Veteran Member

A letter to Gov George:Hey it is hard to be me,and live in a world where people are judged on what they can do.

Being A person like me is hard.

When I have to read a paragraph with a word like guarantee everyone looks at me.

Then I have to ask the teacher,Then the giggles and the laughing starts.

I get picked on for not being able to read.

I am a kind person with autism,maybe the person right next to you.

Don't make fun of people that are different.Please help us.

Please vote to take the stuff out of the shots that does this!

Typed in by my mom for my spelling is not good either.

Date: Wed Jul 6 11:00 PM, 2005

Mercury from coal-fired power plants in the Midwest impacts everybody, not just those who use products that contain thimerosal. You can't even eat the fish from the Great Lakes because of their mercury levels. Thanks to Atty General Spitzer for suing these states that shower us with their toxins. - Jim Hufnagel

shughes · Senior Member

7/20/2005 10:30:00 AM

To: National Desk, Health and Medical Reporter

Contact: Stephanie Morris, 202-628-7772 or smorris@venturecommunications.com

WASHINGTON, July 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following statement was issued today by 8 national autism and vaccine safety organizations including SafeMinds, National Autism Association, NoMercury, MomsAgainstMercury, Unlocking Autism, NVIC, Dads Against Mercury, and CoMed.The statement was issued in response to the secret press conference held by the CDC extolling vaccine benefits while denying any role of the vaccine preservative thimerosal in autism:

As a group of national organizations focused on uncovering the truth about thimerosal and autism, we have repeatedly heard the claim made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that they are committed "to protecting the health of children in this nation and around the world". Yet we cannot help but continue to question this claim and to question the CDC's true intentions in making such claims when their leadership repeatedly refuses to acknowledge the extensive scientific evidence on links between the mercury-based vaccine preservative, thimerosal, and autism.

Today's press conference was just one more example of such denial without substance. The conference's main message emphasized the benefits of vaccines in fighting infectious diseases, while the real question that parents have - what did thimerosal do to children? - was left unanswered. The conference speakers wanted to reassure parents that thimerosal is now gone from the routine vaccines except the influenza shot, so it is safe to vaccinate today, but they had little to reassure parents whose children received vaccines with thimerosal prior to 2002. We found it most curious that the press conference was held the day before an autism rally in the Capital which will focus on connections between thimerosal in vaccines and autism. In fact, the first question posed by a reporter at the press conference was related to what motivated the CDC to hold such a press conference now when no "new news" on the issue was being released.

Though Dr. Gerberding, the Director of the CDC, claimed that "keeping an open mind" is important and that she "can't say with 100 percent certainty that (they will) never find a link" between thimerosal and autism, her comments, as well as those made by five other speakers, focused on telling the media that the scientific evidence shows no such link, while failing to offer any new research that would confirm this opinion. This opinion remains based on the 2004 IOM report which relied on epidemiology studies with major methodological flaws, all conducted and funded by vaccine/public health insiders with a conflict of interest. That report is now a year old, and the authorities have come up with no new evidence.

In addition, a number of speakers cited factual errors and misleading statements, for example:

-- Dr. Duane Alexander of NICHD stated that his agency was diligently studying the environmental causes of autism, although NIH has refused to fund qualified researchers who are trying to investigate the effects of thimerosal.

-- Dr. Murray Lumpkin of the FDA spoke about the vaccine manufacturers' final switch to thimerosal free vaccines in 2001, yet he still failed to quantify for the public when the older thimerosal vaccines were actually used up by pediatricians, given that the shelf life of a vaccine manufactured in 2001 can extend to 2003.

-- Dr. Alexander cited the National Children's Study as a primary means through which environmental causes of autism will be uncovered, but this study has yet to be funded by Congress, is a prospective study that won't yield data on autism for many years, and will only study children who have not been exposed to thimerosal.

Dr. Gerberding also claimed that the CDC has "spent a long time this year listening to parents" and that she agrees with their demands that the government needs to be doing more on this issue. But despite these claims that Dr. Gerberding is "listening to parents," and despite repeated demands for open communication with the autism community, the CDC did not invite any autism groups to speak (including the 13 organizations involved in the July 20th rally), nor did they share copies of what was presented with these groups, nor were any autism representatives allowed into the press conference room. We continue to be appalled by this blatant lack of transparency and attempts to manipulate the media.

We also continue to be dismayed and disheartened by the CDC's lack of cooperation with national autism organizations. The representatives from autism organizations present in Washington had to watch the press conference via screen TV in a separate room inside HHS, while others were only able to listen in by phone after getting the phone number through unofficial channels. Those who attended in person were there as a showing of solid force and to communicate that the government cannot continue to conduct research studies or hold such press conferences without the involvement of the autism community.

If the CDC is truly concerned about building and maintaining public trust in our vaccine program and achieving high childhood immunization rates, then they must begin taking real action on this issue by committing to funding credible research that includes studies comparing American populations which did or did not receive thimerosal vaccines, investigations of clinical treatments that parents are finding successful which address mercury exposures, and biomedical assessments of autistic children themselves Such studies are the only way we will be able to confirm or refute an association between thimerosal and autism, and such studies are the only way we will be able to maintain public trust in vaccines.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

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shughes · Senior Member

Monday, September 5, 2005

Bill Summary - A05543

Back | New York State Bill Search | Assembly Home

See Bill Text

A05543 Summary:SAME AS Same as S 2707-C

SPONSOR Weisenberg

COSPNSR Bing, Englebright, Lafayette, DiNapoli, Jacobs, Millman, Fields,
Ortiz, Rivera P, Boyland, Seddio, Norman, Barra, Hoyt, Meng, Benjami
Wright

MLTSPNSR Acampora, Bradley, Brennan, Brodsky, Burling, Canestrari, Clark, Coh
A, Colton, Cook, Destito, Diaz L, Eddington, Errigo, Fitzpatrick,
Gianaris, Glick, Gordon, Green, Hayes, Hikind, John, Koon, Lavelle,
Lavine, Lentol, Lifton, Lopez, Lupardo, Mayersohn, McDonough, Miller
Mirones, O`Donnell, Ortloff, Perry, Pheffer, Pretlow, Robinson,
Saladino, Sanders, Seminerio, Sweeney, Thiele, Tokasz, Townsend,
Weprin, Zebrowski

Add S2112, Pub Health L
Prohibits the administration to any person under the age of three years and to
women who know they are pregnant of any vaccine containing more than 0.5
micrograms of mercury per 0.5 milliliter dose, except that, for children under
3 years, an influenza vaccine may contain not more than 0.625 micrograms of
mercury per 0.25 milliliter dose, and for pregnant women, an influenza vaccine
may contain not more than 1.25 micrograms of mercury per 0.50 milliliter dose;
uthorizes the commissioner of health to grant exemptions in cases of disease
outbreaks and vaccine shortages, and exempts influenza vaccines for pregnant
women if there is in any year an insufficient supply of such vaccine which
complies with the provisions of this act.

A05543 Actions:02/24/2005 referred to health
05/23/2005 amend (t) and recommit to health
05/23/2005 print number 5543a
06/07/2005 reported referred to codes
06/14/2005 reported referred to rules
06/14/2005 amend and recommit to rules 5543b
06/15/2005 reported
06/15/2005 rules report cal.420
06/15/2005 ordered to third reading rules cal.420
06/20/2005 amended on third reading 5543c
06/23/2005 substituted by s2707c
S02707C AMEND= SKELOS
02/24/2005 REFERRED TO HEALTH
05/24/2005 AMEND (T) AND RECOMMIT TO HEALTH
05/24/2005 PRINT NUMBER 2707A
06/14/2005 AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO HEALTH
06/14/2005 PRINT NUMBER 2707B
06/17/2005 AMEND AND RECOMMIT TO HEALTH
06/17/2005 PRINT NUMBER 2707C
06/21/2005 COMMITTEE DISCHARGED AND COMMITTED TO RULES
06/21/2005 ORDERED TO THIRD READING CAL.1647
06/21/2005 PASSED SENATE
06/21/2005 DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY
06/21/2005 referred to codes
06/23/2005 substituted for a5543c
06/23/2005 ordered to third reading rules cal.420
06/23/2005 passed assembly
06/23/2005 returned to senate
08/18/2005 DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR
08/30/2005 SIGNED CHAP.603

A05543 Votes:

A05543 Memo: TITLE OF BILL : An act to amend the public health law, in relation
to the prohibition of the use of certain vaccines containing mercury

PURPOSE : To prohibit the administration of any vaccine to children
under age three and pregnant women that contains more than a trace
amount of mercury except under certain circumstances.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS : Section 1 - Statement of legislative
findings and intent.

Section 2 adds a new section 2112 to the public health law to prohibit
the administration of any vaccine containing more than a trace amount
of mercury. Sets forth specific allowable mercury amounts for the
administration of vaccines to children under the age of three years
and pregnant women. Authorizes the Commissioner of the Department of
Health to set forth the adoption of any necessary vaccine programs
that deviate from this legislation to address a threat of an outbreak
of disease or during a possible vaccine shortage. Also provides that
the Commissioner shall make a yearly determination that there is an
adequate supply of influenza vaccine that contains not more than the
trace amounts mentioned in bill before such provision shall be in
effect for pregnant women. Allows for vaccinations containing
additional mercury to be administered to a child or to a pregnant
woman under certain circumstances with informed consent to the parent
or pregnant woman when the Commissioner determines specific vaccines
with lower mercury levels are not available for distribution in this
state.

Section 3 sets the effective date.

JUSTIFICATION : Thimerosal, a preservative that contains a form of
mercury, has been used for years in some vaccines as a preservative to
help prevent life-threatening bacterial contamination of such
vaccines. However, as vaccine-manufacturing technology has advanced in
recent years, the need to add mercury-containing preservatives during
the manufacturing process has subsided.

In recent years, as controversy involving mercury in vaccines has
emerged, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has engaged in an
active review of thimerosal as a preservative in vaccines. This FDA
review found no evidence of detrimental effects caused by the use of
thimerosal, other than local hypersensitivity effects such as swelling
or redness at the injection site. However, as a precautionary measure,
and since its use as a preservative is no longer necessary, the Public
Health Service FDA, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Center for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued
Joint Statements in 1999 and 2000 urging vaccine manufacturers to
reduce or eliminate thimerosal in vaccines.

Two states, California and Iowa, have joined this effort and enacted
legislation which bans the use of more than a trace amount of
thimerosal in vaccines. Bills in Illinois and Missouri have passed
both houses. Similar legislation is pending in the states of Delaware,
Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North
Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah
and Washington.

PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY : New Bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS : To be determined.

EFFECTIVE DATE : This legislation shall take effect on July 1, 2008,
provided that effective immediately the addition, amendment and/or
repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the timely
implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized and
directed to be made on or before such effective date.

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