The Department of Health and Human Services recently conceded an autism case in the US Court of Federal Claims, Office of the Special Master, under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). The Respondent's Report states that the vaccines administered to the claimant, a child diagnosed with autism, "significantly aggravated an underlying mitochondrial disorder, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism, and manifested as a regressive encephalopathy with features of autism spectrum disorder." Several of the vaccines contained mercury.

SafeMinds executive director, Sallie Bernard, expressed concern over this latest evidence of the link between autism, vaccines and mercury, stating, "the concession highlights the urgent need to study the adverse effects of childhood vaccines and the contribution to these effects by various vaccine components including the mercury-containing vaccine preservative thimerosal." Thimerosal was widely used in the 1990s and is still present in most infant doses of influenza vaccine as well as vaccines produced for developing countries .

The VICP case was reported in detail earlier this week by David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm on the Huffington Post website. According to the article, the child was developing normally until given the vaccines, and shortly after the shots, she regressed into full autism. The child was diagnosed by nationally recognized autism medical specialists.

Mercury, including thimerosal, can trigger mitochondrial dysfunction, even at low doses. Mercury can also lead to oxidative stress and abnormal calcium signaling, both of which are key features of mitochondrial impairment. Several studies have found markers of increased oxidative stress, calcium imbalance, and mitochondrial dysfunction in autism subjects. Researchers from a variety of academic institutions suggest that a substantial portion of people with autism have underlying mitochondrial deficiency.

In response to news of this case, SafeMinds has compiled an extensive but not exhaustive library of science and medical articles on autism, mitochondria, and mercury. This information is available at www.safeminds.org.

Autism has reached epidemic proportions, now 1 in 150 children, at great cost to basic individual functioning, to families struggling for services and treatment, and to society which must provide resources for intensive education and other lifelong supports. "Our government is failing the public by avoiding unbiased investigations into the link between autism, vaccines, mercury, and other likely environmental triggers," said Bernard. "Instead of fighting families in vaccine court, the government should be spending the taxpayers' money on finding out why so many children are sick, even if these investigations prove an unpleasant theory regarding childhood vaccinations.

The Coalition for SafeMinds (Sensible Action For Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders) was founded to raise awareness, support research, change policy and focus national attention on the growing evidence of a link between mercury and neurological disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder, language delay and learning difficulties. Our mission is to end the health and personal devastations caused by the needless exposure to mercury, one of the most neurotoxic substances on earth. Since inception, SafeMinds has focused mostly on mercury exposure from medicinal products such as vaccines. In November 2007, the SafeMinds Environmental Committee was formed to expand our focus to include the link between environmental mercury exposures and neurological disorders. The Environmental Committee's mission is to end neurological disorders caused by environmental mercury. The Committee will strive to work harmoniously with other groups and individuals who have similar goals and interests.

In addition to mercury, scientific research has also linked toxins such as pesticides, bisphenol A, and other heavy metals (particularly aluminum and lead) with autism. Efforts are needed to reduce our children's exposure to all of these toxins. However, mercury uniquely acts as an 'accelerator toxin' because in addition to being extremely toxic itself, it also blocks the detoxification processes that the body uses to rid itself of toxic metals and pesticides. Thus, mercury exposure can cause an exponential build-up of toxins such that the person's body reaches a 'toxic tipping point'. Therefore while SafeMinds supports all efforts to reduce children's exposure to toxins, the SafeMinds Environmental Committee will concentrate primarily on mercury as the toxin for which exposure avoidance is the most necessary.

February 20, 2008, Seattle, WA. The Collaborative on Health and the Environment's Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative published today the Scientific Consensus Statement on Environmental Agents Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders (available at http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html). This statement, signed by more than 50 scientists and health professionals nationally and internationally, summarizes the latest science about environmental contaminants associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disabilities and developmental delays.

The statement, which has a glossary and over 200 references, was drafted and reviewed by a prestigious committee of scientists and health professionals based in North America. They concluded:

"Given the established knowledge, protecting children from neurotoxic environmental exposures from the earliest stages of fetal development through adolescence is clearly an essential public health measure if we are to help reduce the growing numbers of those with learning and developmental disorders and create an environment in which children can reach and maintain their full potential."

"We know enough now to move on with taking steps to protect our children. This document pulls that knowledge together to further this vital effort," said reviewer Martha Herbert, PhD, MD, an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric neurologist with subspecialty certification in neurodevelopmental disabilities at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Other researchers on the review committee underscored the cost-savings, policy-related and ethical implications of this consensus statement. "We could cut the health costs of childhood disabilities and disease by billions of dollars every year by minimizing contaminants in the environment," said Phil Landrigan, MD, MSc, of the Children¹s Environmental Health Center at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "Investing in our children¹s health is both cost-effective and the right thing to do."

"The overwhelming evidence shows that certain environmental exposures can contribute to life-long learning and developmental disorders," noted Ted Schettler, MD, MPH, with the Science and Environmental Health Network. "We should eliminate children's exposures to substances that we know can have these impacts by implementing stronger health-based policies requiring safer alternatives. Further, we must urgently examine other environmental contaminants of concern for which safety data are lacking."

"The proportion of environmentally induced learning and developmental disabilities is a question of profound human, scientific and public policy significance," said lead author Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT, of the Institute of Neurotoxicology & Neurological Disorders, "and has implications for individuals, families, school systems, communities and the future of our society. The bottom line is it is our ethical responsibility to ensure all children have a healthy future."

This document is designed for researchers, health professionals, health-affected groups, environmental health and justice organizations, policymakers and journalists to use as a resource for understanding and addressing concerns about links between environmental factors and neurodevelopmental disorders.

A meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee [under the Combating Autism Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-416)] will take place on Friday, March 14, 2008 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Rotunda Room, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004.

The meeting will be open to the public, with attendance limited to space available. Individuals who plan to attend and need special assistance, such as sign language interpretation or other reasonable accommodations, should indicate these needs when registering for the meeting. The registration website can be found at the link below:

https://www.infinityconferences.com/InfiniBase/Registration/Reg.aspx?ptguid=ddb9e76c-9f60-4e3c-bd26-e4b4d6e1b55f

The agenda for this meeting will be posted soon. To view the agenda once it is posted, or for more information on the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, please see the link below:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/research-funding/scientific-meetings/recurring-meetings/iacc/index.shtml

SafeMinds vice-president and co-founder, Lyn Redwood, is a member of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee.

The American Journal of Biochemistry and Biotechnology recently published an article entitled, "Evidence of Oxidative Stress in Autism Derived from Animal Models," by Xue Ming (UMDNJ), Michelle A. Cheh, Carrie L. Yochum, and George C. Wagner (Rutgers University) and Alycia K. Halladay (Autism Speaks). The study indicates that is likely that oxidative stress underlies autism. Xenobiotics, including mercury, can cause the oxidative stress, which is treatable.

Following is the article abstract:

Abstract: Autism is a pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that leads to deficits in social interaction, communication and restricted, repetitive motor movements. Autism is a highly heritable disorder, however, there is mounting evidence to suggest that toxicant-induced oxidative stress may play a role. The focus of this article will be to review our animal model of autism and discuss our evidence that oxidative stress may be a common underlying mechanism of neurodevelopmental damage. We have shown that mice exposed to either methylmercury (MeHg) or valproic acid (VPA) in early postnatal life display aberrant social, cognitive and motor behavior. Interestingly, early exposure to both compounds has been clinically implicated in the development of autism. We recently found that Trolox, a water-soluble vitamin E derivative, is capable of attenuating a number of neurobehavioral alterations observed in mice postnatally exposed to MeHg. In addition, a number of other investigators have shown that oxidative stress plays a role in neural injury following MeHg exposure both in vitro and in vivo. New data presented here will show that VPA-induced neurobehavioral deficits are attenuated by vitamin E as well and that the level of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a marker of astrocytic neural injury, is altered following VPA exposure. Collectively, these data indicate that vitamin E and its derivative are capable of protecting against neurobehavioral deficits induced by both MeHg and VPA. This antioxidant protection suggests that oxidative stress may be a common mechanism of injury leading to aberrant behavior in both our animal model as well as in the human disease state.

Letter to the Editor of the American Journal of Public Health by SafeMinds volunteer Mike Wagnitz

In the article, "Mercury, Vaccines, and Autism: One Controversy, Three Histories" the author, while trying to sound impartial, misrepresents several facts in order to support his conclusions. He starts by citing the many findings of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) without mentioning that the IOM was commissioned by the CDC to issue a report on "Vaccines and Autism." The CDC approves, mandates, promotes, and distributes vaccines. He does not mention that every member of the IOM committee had ties to the vaccine program (1). There were no independent toxicologists on this committee. One would think this would be important when considering the safety of mercury in vaccines.

The author cites the inventors of thimerosal and writes, "extensive in vitro testing shows that thimerosal was 40 to 50 times as effective as phenol against Staphylococcus aureus." He then claims "concerns over neurotoxicity in infants receiving thimerosal from vaccines were never raised by medical or government authorities before the late 1990s." This is false. In 1982, an independent panel was convened by the FDA (2). The panel called for the removal of mercury, including thimerosal, from all over-the-counter products. It declared thimerosal as being both unsafe and ineffective. It was singled out as being "no better than water in protecting mice from fatal streptococcal infection." It was shown to be 35.5 times more toxic to embryonic chicken heart tissue than the aforementioned Staphylococcus aureus.

He goes on to declare that the "comparatively miniscule exposures [of thimerosal] involved in vaccines were well within all published guidelines for mercury exposure." Unfortunately, he never took the time to analyze a vaccine vial for mercury concentration. The Hepatitis B vaccine, administered at birth for over ten years, contained 25,000 parts per billion (ppb) of mercury in the multi-dose vaccine vial. The multi-dose DTP and Haemophilus B vaccine vials, administered 4 times each in the 1990s to children at 2, 4, 6, 12 and 18 months of age, contained 50,000 ppb mercury. According to the EPA, any liquid that contains more than 200 ppb mercury is to be classified as hazardous waste based on toxicity (3). It's hard to believe that a level of mercury 250 times higher than hazardous waste levels would be referred to as "miniscule." The fact is, on any given day of receiving even a single thimerosal containing vaccine in the 1990s, all published guidelines for mercury exposure were exceeded.

Several pages of the paper examine the toxicity of methylmercury and its past use as a fungicide. We are led to believe that this form of mercury is much different than ethylmercury, the type found in vaccines. This is in spite of the fact that ethylmercury was used for the same purpose. In fact, Ethylmercurric Chloride, the material used as a fungicide (which was banned long ago) is what is used to make thimerosal. This can be easily confirmed by looking in a Merck Index. We now know that this type of mercury deposits twice as much inorganic mercury in the brains of primates as compared to equal doses of methylmercury (4). Inorganic mercury, following the de-methylation of organic mercury, has been identified as the primary neurotoxic agent in primate studies (5).

The author mentions the book, "Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic" by David Kirby. It contains 436 scientific references. The author did not disclose if he read the book. This may have helped his argument since this book was read by many parents of autistic children.

We are then told about the impact of trial lawyers concerning this situation. The author does not disclose how much money has been awarded to trial lawyers who represent autistic children. It's my understanding that this number is zero.

Click here to see letter with scientific references.

The push to keep adding more vaccines to the mandatory schedules comes directly from a purely profit motivated industry and a recent investor report estimates that the worldwide market will quadruple from about $4.3 billion in 2006 to more than $16 billion in 2016, with the biggest boost coming from kids in the US.

A November 2007 report, entitled "Pipeline and Commercial Insight: Pediatric and Adolescent Vaccines," authored by vaccine analyst, Hedwig Kresse, for the independent market analyst Datamonitor, discusses the future outlook for vaccine profits.

The report provides an assessment of products and a patient-based forecast of market size and coverage rates to the year 2016, and predicts that the introduction of high price vaccines will induce rapid growth in the pediatric and adolescent vaccines market.

The report predicts that due to the "promising commercial potential" of new, high-price vaccines, the pediatric and adolescent market will quadruple from approximately $4.3 billion in 2006, to over $16 billion by 2016, across the US, the EU-five including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, and Japan. The crucial factor for success in the pediatric market, the report notes, is the introduction of a product into national vaccination schedules. "Along with reimbursement, this virtually guarantees the rapid uptake and continuously high coverage rates in the target population," Ms. Kresse states.

As an example, she cites Wyeth's Prevnar, as the first premium price vaccine launched in the US in 2000 for vaccinating infants against pneumonia and meningitis. Since then, Prevnar has been added to the childhood vaccination schedules in the US and EU-five despite its high price of nearly $320 for the four-dose regimen. In 2006, Global sales reached almost $2 billion, making Prevnar the first vaccine to attain blockbuster status, according to the report. By 2016, Datamonitor expects the total value of the infant market for pneumococcal vaccines to increase to $2.3 billion.

Click here to read the rest of this article.

SafeMinds printed 2007-2008 flu vaccine brochures are now here. You can download the brochure here or e-mail eksafeminds@gmail.com to order printed copies.

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The Age of Autism is the nation's first daily Web newspaper for the environmental-biomedical community - those who believe autism is an environmentally induced illness, that it is treatable, and that children can recover. For the most part, the major media in the United States aren't interested in that point of view, they won't investigate the causes and possible biomedical treatments of autism independently, and they don't listen to the most important voices - those of the parents. Visit the website at www.ageofautism.com.