The Coalition for SafeMinds (Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) is a private nonprofit organization founded to investigate and raise awareness of the risks to infants and children of exposure to mercury from medical products, including thimerosal in vaccines. Safe Minds supports research on the potential harmful effects of mercury and thimerosal.
Jenny's Call to All Families with Children on the Spectrum!
Come one, come all to the Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey DC Rally for Autism
Demand Congress take action to Green Our Vaccine Supply while reassessing our current vaccine schedule. Ask Congress to reenact legislation that would eliminate mercury and other toxins from our children's vaccines, study the instance of Autism and other neurological disorders in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children, and to extend the statute of limitations to allow all children affected by vaccine induced Autism to file in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP).
By joining the Safeminds mailing list we will bring you up-to-date news on our work to end the needless use of mercury in medicine with updates on research, legislative activities and tips on how you can get involved.
Help Spread the Word About the Flu Vaccine
SafeMinds has developed a brochure providing information on the flu vaccine that is available to communicate the risks still posed by this thimerosal- containing vaccine. We encourage you to distribute this brochure in your doctor's office and other places you think people will pick up. Please feel free to download the file here or e-mail eksafeminds@gmail.com to receive copies of the brochure in the mail.
Support SafeMinds Research Through
Your Generous Donation
The truth of today must be explored to finally achieve a full understanding of this tragedy. The hope of tomorrow will only come through accomplishing life-changing research. By partnering with world-renowned experts in clinical and research settings, SafeMinds looks to fund several critical investigations into the harmful effects of mercury and thimerosal, and support treatment research for thimerosal induced injury... but we cannot do this without your help. For a list of recently funded SafeMinds research, please click here.
Fundraise for SafeMinds!
SafeMinds is a volunteer run organization. As such, we need your help to raise funds for critical research. We owe it to those children who have already been tragically injured not to give up on our research efforts. Interested in helping fundraise for this important cause through holding an event, volunteering, working with your company? Contact Elizabeth Kilpatrick at eksafeminds@gmail.com
May 1, 2008 – Dallas, TX –A paper published in the medical journal Health & Place found that children living next to a mercury polluter have a higher risk of developing autism. The research, from University of Texas Health Science Center (San Antonio), by researchers Raymond Palmer, PhD and colleagues, determined that a community’s distance to a coal-fired powered plant, or other industrial mercury source, significantly predicts future autism rates in the community’s schoolchildren.
CDC UNDER SIEGE Deirdre Imus - The Huffington Post
April 2, 2008
When American scholar Warren Bennis said, "Bureaucracies are beautiful mechanisms for the evasion of responsibilities and guilt," he might well have been speaking of the current state of affairs inside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Once revered around the world, hardly a month passes without another news report questioning the credibility, scientific independence, and integrity of the nation's premier health agency.
Over the past four years headlines frequently chronicle a disturbing litany of allegations charging top CDC officials with wasting money on questionable research priorities, public relations stunts, distorting or ignoring health concerns raised by their own scientists, and retaliation against those who object to the censorship of scientific findings.
The past three years have been particularly unpleasant for CDC Director, Dr. Julie Gerberding, but apparently not as bad as she and her managers are making it for many CDC scientists.
It was a big morning in Atlanta today. In case you missed CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding this morning on CNN's "House Call with Dr Sanjay Gupta," it was rather interesting:
If I have read the transcript below correctly, Dr. Gerberding is saying that, yes, in some mitochondrial disorder cases, vaccines can be the trigger that causes "symptoms that have characteristics of autism." So, Dr. Gerberding admits a link -- but then denies that it is a link to autism.
The only problem with this line of argument is that I know for a fact that Hannah, as well as the kids in the new unpublished mito study were, as one doctor told me, "plucked right from autism clinics. They all have autism, there is no question of that."
By now, many parents in America have heard of the Hannah Poling court case. They know the government has acknowledged that vaccines contributed to autism in at least one little girl from Georgia. Understandably, they are worried, and they want answers.
But instead of frank talk from leading health officials, their concerns are being met with stonewalling, denial and misinformation.
By refusing to address what really happened to Hannah — by commanding parents to settle down and adhere to the nation's rigid immunization regime — officials will only drive people away from vaccines in anxiety-ridden droves.
But what if we could test children for underlying conditions that might increase their risk of vaccine injury and autism? And what if we allowed those at risk to slightly delay and spread out their shots?
It's a difficult, but not impossible, proposition. And I believe doing so would reduce the rate of autism, seizure disorders and even asthma in some children. And we would boost vaccination rates by restoring faith in the nation's teetering immunization program.
Dr. Novella,
Thank you for generating interesting discussion regarding my little girl, Hannah Poling. I would like to give you additional information in order to generate further productive discussions on this matter amongst the neurology community. This information should assist you, Dr. DiMauro, and Dr. Trevethan, who have also commented publicly, to formulate better theories as to the significance of Hannah’s mitochondrial dysfunction in relation to her autism.
1. Mito Dysfunction or Mito Disease? Chicken or Egg?
March 6, 2008 -- Federal officials say a Georgia girl is entitled to compensation from a federal vaccine injury fund because she developed autism-like symptoms after receiving childhood vaccines in 2000.
The parents of 9-year-old Hannah Poling are expected to relay their appreciation that "a move toward justice has been made" in a news conference today, says John Gilmore, executive director of Autism United, a coalition of autism groups.
The government has not said that childhood vaccines cause autism; rather, officials conclude that the vaccines given to the girl in 2000 aggravated a pre-existing condition that then manifested as autism spectrum disorder.
Those who believe there is a vaccine-autism link call the decision a victory, but those who see no link worry that parents will once again shy away from childhood vaccines.
DAVID: I'm good. It's been exactly 3 years ago when you and Diedre really started bringing this to the people's attention. Boy, talk about "Ground Hog Day". It just seems like we're beating the same issues all over again, without getting anywhere.
IMUS. I thought it was kind of amusing to me, after Senator McCain said what he said in Texas, which I'll ask you about in a second....to see my name in a couple of columns blaming me for influencing him. When I've never said anything of the kind. I've got my own suspicions, but, any way, what exactly did Sen. McCain say now?
DAVID: Sen. McCain said, after being asked a question Texas by a woman referring to the big court case, which was just conceded, in which the government said that a girl's vaccine injury led to and resulted in an ultimate diagnosis of autism. She asked him about it and he, to just about everyone's surprise, said he believed there was strong evidence to implicate the vaccine ingredient called thimerosal, in the rise in the numbers of cases. He said the rise of cases is indisputable, meaning it's not just better diagnosis, we have more autism in America today then we had 10 or 15 years ago. He's trying to figure out what is going on. He recognizes there is a national emergency. It may not be the mercury in the vaccines, it may not be the vaccines at all, but, until we get to the bottom of this it's refreshing, to say the least, to hear a politician out their talking about what a lot of other people are talking about. At some point, if you want to get into some of the studies that are coming out, McCain, who's been blasted in the last 24 hours, taking more "incoming" that I've received in 5 years in just 24 hours. He is referring to actual studies that have been published by very top flight scientists, and, he has a very good medical and science staff. He would not have made this statement flippantly, and, it didn't come out of nowhere.
IMUS: The next question: There is scientific evidence out there suggesting that there is a definitive link?
DAVID: There's lots of science evidence, when taken together might suggest a link.
Information has recently come to light that the U.S government has conceded a case in the Vaccine Injury Court. The case is a child diagnosed with autism who has a mitochondrial disorder. The child's vaccinations triggered an adverse effect that led to her autism. David Kirby, author of Evidence of harm, has written an extensive article on the Huffington Post about the case and its implications.
Kirby mentions that mercury, including thimerosal, can trigger mitochondrial dysfunction. Mercury can also lead to oxidative stress (OS) and calcium (Ca2+) dysregulation, both of which are key features of mitochondrial dysfunction. Several studies have linked increased OS, Ca2+ imbalance, and mitochondrial dysfunction to autism.
To help our readers understand the science relevant to this court case, SafeMinds has posted an assortment of research articles (in full or the abstracts) that pertain to mitochondria function, related physiology (that is, calcium homeostasis and oxidative stress), mercury (including thimerosal) and autism.
ABC Drama, Eli Stone, Tackles Autism-Thimerosal Controversy
January 30, 2008
SafeMinds asks network for balanced viewer information despite AAP pressure
SafeMinds has formally asked ABC to resist the latest attempt by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to stifle public discussion on the link between thimerosal and autism. According to an article published in the New York Times last week, the premiere episode of Eli Stone, an ABC drama, depicts the main character, Eli Stone, successfully bringing a mother's lawsuit to court against a pharmaceutical company claiming that a vaccine additive, "mercuritol", in their influenza vaccine caused her son's autism. 'Mecuritol' resembles the real-life mercury-containing compound thimerosal, used in infant vaccines as a preservative.
A letter from AAP's president has urged ABC to cancel the program. Along with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), AAP's Committee on Infectious Diseases makes official recommendations on infant vaccines, and together they were responsible for the addition of mercury-containing vaccines to the infant immunization schedule, including influenza vaccines. Despite the availability of mercury-free flu vaccines, both AAP and CDC have refused to state a preference for them for infants and pregnant women. AAP's conflict of interest on thimerosal vaccines was not stated in their letter to ABC.
ABC has responded that they will air the episode and add a statement that the episode is fictional and to visit the CDC's website for more information on autism. SafeMinds, in its own letter to ABC, applauded their resolve to air the episode. In the interest of offering objective and balanced information on the real-life mercury-autism issue, SafeMinds has requested that ABC state that research on thimerosal's effects is on-going and that viewers be given the opportunity to visit the SafeMinds website as well as CDC's. The Safeminds website provides information on scientific research and analysis supporting a mercury-autism link and mercury-containing vaccines and their alternatives.
The episode airs on Thursday, January 31st at 10/9c and the parallels to real life drawn by the episode are undeniable. There are thousands of vaccine-autism cases yet to be heard in federal vaccine court. The autism epidemic is a national emergency, with 1 in 150 children diagnosed with some form of this debilitating disorder. The cost to society for specialized education and long term care is large. Mercury in any form is a potent neurotoxin and is especially harmful to the fetus and infants. Environmental mercury exposures are increasing. The rapid increase in autism rates indicates that one or more environmental factors are playing a role in autism. While research on the role of mercury in vaccines in relation to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism continues, SafeMinds cannot support the use of mercury-containing vaccines. The Eli Stone premier is a needed addition to continued discourse on this important subject for our children's health
Mercury in Vaccines Leaves Blood Fast Study Shows Ethyl Mercury in Thimerosal Leaves Blood Quickly
January 30, 2008
By Daniel J. DeNoon, WebMD
Ethyl mercury from the vaccine preservative thimerosal leaves the blood 10 times faster than methyl mercury, on which current risk assessments are based.
Only trace levels of thimerosal can be found in U.S. vaccines, except in multi-dose vials of flu vaccine (single-dose flu vaccine has no thimerosal). But the inexpensive vaccines that allow poorer nations to afford to immunize their children still use thimerosal to prevent bacterial contamination. Read more
Jenny's Call to All Families with Children on the Spectrum!
SafeMinds News and Update
