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The Air We Breath - Mercury Laden and Contributing to Autism
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By SafeMinds President Theresa Wrangham
A recent study announced last week from the
University of Texas has again linked mercury
in the environment to autism. The research,
by University of Texas Health Science Center
(San Antonio) 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 later autism rates in
the community's schoolchildren. For the
first time, research shows a statistically
significant link between autism risk and
distance from the mercury source and adds to
the growing body of evidence of mercury's
causative role in this devastating disorder.
While mercury occurs naturally in the
environment, well over two-thirds of
environmental mercury exposure is due to
human activity, with 40% attributable to
coal-fired power plants. Often overlooked
with regard to mercury and controlling
emissions is the fact that once mercury
enters the environment, it continues to
circulate in and out of the atmosphere and is
a persistent bio-accumulative toxin, or PBT.
In plain terms, mercury "persists" in the
environment and does not break down, cannot
be destroyed, or combusted and does not
degrade into a less harmful substance.
Sources not covered by the study and which
may further increase autism risk include
mercury carried by air currents from other
countries, especially China; mercury
persisting in the environment from past uses,
such as mining operations and agricultural
applications; as well as decades of mercury
that has accumulated and is then released
from wildfires and controlled burns.
Mercury is a known developmental toxin and is
especially dangerous to unborn children and
infants, impairing brain development and
altering the immature immune system.
Currently, the EPA estimates that
contaminated fish leads to increased mercury
levels in the bloodstream in 1 in 6 women of
childbearing age that can result in harm to
unborn children. However, mercury exposures
addressed by the Palmer study are unlikely to
come from fish consumption and it is probable
that the EPA 1 in 6 estimate understates the
real risk to children from all sources.
In light of this study and others, formation
of policy addressing global mercury emissions
must not only include the use of existing
technologies to reduce emissions immediately,
it must also address the long-term issue of
mercury's persistence in the environment.
Contrary to remarks made by the
administration yesterday stating the
reduction of emissions were too expensive to
pursue, installation of existing technologies
at power plants would cost the average U.S.
household $8.28-$25.68 per year and have
previously been found to be feasible.
According to a Harvard study, societal costs
for autism alone are $35 billion per year, or
$331.75 per household, thus making reduction
of emissions highly attractive.
Dr. Palmer notes that further study is
required to determine individual risk, as
this study speaks only to community risk.
However, the study's findings are alarming
and families living near mercury pollution
sources have reason to be concerned. Real
solutions that will bring an end to exposure
in the long-term necessitate elimination of
mercury in industrial processes and the
identification of non-mercury-polluting
technologies. A shift from reduction to
elimination is essential to create healthy
outcomes for children and diminish overall
introduction of dangerous PBTs into the
environment. Once again, the priority must
be our children's health vs. dirty corporate
profit.
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The Next Hannah Polling
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By David Kirby
Reprinted from Spectrum Magazine
In February, I leaked news of the Federal government's admission that vaccines had triggered autism in a little girl named Hannah Poling. The stunning revelation, though still reverberating around the world, was roundly downplayed by US officials, who insisted that Hannah had an extremely rare, genetic case of "aggravated" mitochondrial disorder, with zero bearing on other autism cases.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), rushed to the airwaves, exhorting
parents to adhere to the nation's intensive
and virtually mandatory immunization
schedule, and brushing off their legitimate
anxieties by saying: "We've got to set aside
this very isolated, unusual situation."
Well, the days of setting aside are
over: Hannah Poling is neither isolated nor
unusual.
In fact, the boy who was selected to replace
Hannah Poling as the first-ever thimerosal
"test case" in so-called Vaccine Court, has
just been found with many of the same unusual
metabolic markers as, you guessed it, Hannah
Poling.
Hannah's case was scheduled to be heard in
Federal Claims Court on May 12 -- as one of
three "test cases" of the theory that
thimerosal (a mercury-based vaccine
preservative) can cause autism.
Test cases will help address general
causation issues in all 4,900 autism claims
now pending in Vaccine Court. But following
the government concession, Hannah was
withdrawn as the first test case of the
thimerosal theory, and attorneys scrambled to
find a replacement: a young boy from New York.
Last week, however, the court announced that
the replacement thimerosal test case was also
being withdrawn, in order to "proceed to an
individual hearing on a different theory of
causation."
Click
here to read the remainder of this story.
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SafeMinds 2008 Flu Vaccine Brochures Now Available
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SafeMinds printed 2007-2008 flu vaccine brochures are now here. You can download the brochure here or contact us to order printed copies.
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Looking for an easy way to support SafeMinds?
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Go Shopping!
That's right, go ahead and buy something for
yourself -- a new CD, the latest bestseller,
everyday essentials like pet food or
vitamins, even a computer. But first join
www.iGive.com/SafeMinds.
Every time you shop at one
of the over 680 name-brand stores in the
iGive.com Mall, we'll receive a donation of
up to 26% of each purchase you make, at no
cost to you.
Remember, donating to SafeMinds won't cost
you a thing. But we'll miss out on a lot of
extra dough, if you don't join. So visit
www.iGive.com/SafeMinds
now. Membership is
free and your privacy is guaranteed.
Click
here to join.
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Visit The Age of Autism
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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.
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