Welcome to the Coalition for Safe Minds
| 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. |
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Green Our Vaccines Tally
Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey and Thousands of Parents Came Together at the Green Our Vaccines Rally on June 4th in Washington, DC
• Photos of SafeMinds board members at rally.
• Rally Recap. |
Join SafeMinds Mailing List
| 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. |
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Help Spread the Word About the Flu Vaccine
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 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.
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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.
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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
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 SafeMinds News and Update
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IACC Strategic Planning Work Group Meeting
Public Urged to Participate via Conference Call of Webinar
The IACC Strategic Planning Work Group will meet on Friday, August 8th to discuss future budgetary requirements for the IACC Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Research. Workgroup findings will be forwarded to the IACC for consideration and discussion at the next committee meeting on November 21, 2008.
We urge the public to participate in this meeting. Your feedback is important to the process.
The workgroup meeting will be open to the public through a conference call phone number and a web presentation tool on the Internet. Individuals who participate using these electronic services and need special assistance, such as captioning of the conference call or other reasonable accommodations, should submit a request prior to the meeting.
Members of the public who participate using the conference call phone number will be able to listen to the meeting but will not be heard. There may be an opportunity for members of the public to submit written comments during the workgroup meeting through the web presentation tool. Submitted comments will be reviewed after the meeting. If you experience any technical problems with the conference call-in phone number or web presentation tool, please contact GoToWebinar at (800) 263-6317.
To attend this meeting, the following computing capabilities are required:
- Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, Netscape Navigator 6.0 or later or Mozilla Firefox 1.0 or later;
- Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server or Vista;
- Stable 56k, cable modem, ISDN, DSL or better Internet connection;
- Minimum of Pentium 400 with 256 MB of RAM (Recommended);
- Java Virtual Machine enabled (Recommended).
Read details about public attendance
Read SafeMind's Letter to NIH
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Some Vaccines Still Contain Mercury
WXYZ.com Detroit Action News
Anchor Lead:
It’s the controversy that won’t go away. Is the skyrocketing rate of Autism in children due in any way to the mercury long contained in childhood vaccines? It’s an issue our chief investigative reporter Steve Wilson has stayed with from the start…and Steve will science ever answer this one?
Wilson Live Open:
It could happen one day but only if researchers keep looking… and with 1 in 150 children now diagnosed with Autism in this country—more than 100 new, young victims every single day—a lot of skeptical parents and others believe there’s a big incentive for industry and government to cover up the truth.
To see which vaccines still include thimerosal, visit the website below:
http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm
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Caregivers Urged to Register Loved Ones
Tissue Bank for Developmental Disorders and ARI Provide Ongoing Registration to Advance Autism Research
Download brochure
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Infant Vaccines Produce Autism Symptoms In New Primate Study By University Of Pittsburgh Scientists
ROUTINE SAFETY STUDY THAT GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS REFUSED TO DO ILLUSTRATES VACCINE PROGRAM AND MERCURY HEALTH RISKS
ATLANTA, GA – Findings released today showed that infant monkeys given vaccines officially recommended by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) exhibited autism-like symptoms. Lead investigator Laura Hewitson of the University of Pittsburgh and colleagues presented study results at the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR) in London. Safety studies of medicines are typically conducted in monkeys prior to use in humans, yet such basic research on the current childhood vaccination regimen has never before been done.
• News Release
• Study Abstracts
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Don Imus interview with Dr. Bernadine Healy, Former NIH Director
Watch Interview
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Autism Incidence Increased by Mercury Emissions
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.
Read more.
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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.
Read more.
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Can Vaccines Cause Autism? CDC: "We Don't Know"
David Kirby - The Huffington Post
March 29, 2008
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:
• TRANSCRIPT
• VIDEO
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."
Read more.
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Give us answers on vaccines
By DAVID KIRBY
3/20/08
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.
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Dr. Jon Poling to Dr. Steven Novella on Age of Autism
By Dr. Jon Poling, father of Hannah Poling.
OPEN LETTER TO DR. STEVEN NOVELLA IN RESPONSE TO
"Has the Government Conceded Vaccines Cause Autism?"
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?
READ THE ENTIRE LETTER
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Gov't: Girl’s Autism Symptoms Linked to Vaccines
Federal Officials Say Vaccines Worsened Condition That Led to Autism Spectrum Disorder in Georgia Girl
WebMD Medical News
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.
Autism-Vaccine Debate on Larry King
Read Associated Press story
SafeMinds Statement on VICP Concession
Read more about the science
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David Kirby and Imus on WABC-AM Radio
IMUS: Good morning Mr. Kirby. How are you?
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.
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The Science on Autism, Mitochondria, and Mercury
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.
SafeMinds Statement on VICP Concession
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