[NVIC] Battle Lines Drawn Over Mercury in Shots

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BL Fisher Note:

 

Mercury is a neurotoxin. In countries around the

world, mercury is being

eliminated as a toxic pollutant from the water

and air because it can damage

the brain. Every government, every politician,

every medical and scientific

organization, every doctor inside of government

as well as those operating

the World Health Organization should call for a

ban on injecting mercury

into the bodies of babies via vaccines. It is a

" no-brainer " so to speak.

It should be against the law to inject poisons in

any form into our children

for any reason.

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vaccine10apr10,0,755082

1,full.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

 

 

From the Los Angeles Times

 

 

Battle Lines Drawn Over Mercury in Shots

States push for bans in children's vaccines. But

leading medical groups are

pushing back.

 

By Myron Levin

Times Staff Writer

 

April 10, 2006

 

As lawmakers in about 20 states press for bans on

mercury in children's

vaccines, they are meeting stiff resistance from

influential health and

medical organizations, including groups that get

substantial funding from

drug makers and the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention.

 

Seven states have adopted the anti-mercury bills

— California being one of

the first.

 

California's law, passed in 2004 and to take

effect July 1, will prohibit

shots with more than a trace of thimerosal for

pregnant women and children

younger than 3. In recent weeks, similar bills

have been defeated in at

least five states.

 

The push for legislation comes long after the

uproar over continued use of

thimerosal, a mercury-based antibacterial agent,

appeared to subside in

1999, when manufacturers began phasing it out of

routine pediatric vaccines.

 

But the controversy flared anew when flu shots

containing thimerosal were

added to the childhood immunization schedule in

2004 and the CDC refused to

recommend thimerosal-free shots for infants and

pregnant women.

 

Angered by the CDC's refusal — and fearing a

backslide into more thimerosal

use — state lawmakers and anti-mercury advocates

began pushing for outright

thimerosal bans.

 

The legislation faces opposition from groups such

as the American Academy of

Pediatrics and the Immunization Action Coalition

— a stance that

anti-mercury advocates say defies logic.

 

" We're trying to get [mercury] out of the

environment, " said Marilyn

Rasmussen, a Washington state senator and sponsor

of a thimerosal bill that

was signed into law last month.

 

" Why would we be injecting it into babies? We've

got to be smarter than

that. "

 

Mercury can damage the nervous system, and

infants and toddlers are thought

to be particularly at risk because of their low

body weight and rapidly

developing brains. That concern is behind

wide-ranging initiatives to cut

mercury pollution from industrial plants and warn

pregnant women to limit

intake of some types of fish.

 

The American Academy of Pediatrics and its

allies, including some state

health departments, say there is no proof that

the small amount of mercury

in vaccines is harmful. They argue that legal

restrictions could undermine

confidence in vaccines — causing people to skip

their shots — and lead to

shortages.

 

The academy, an organization of 60,000

pediatricians, has generally taken a

zero tolerance stance on mercury, even joining a

federal lawsuit seeking

stricter controls on power plant emissions. Its

official policy, published

in July 2001 in its journal Pediatrics, states in

part:

 

" Mercury in all of its forms is toxic to the

fetus and children, and efforts

should be made to reduce exposure to the extent

possible to pregnant women

and children as well as the general population. "

 

Dr. Louis Z. Cooper, the academy's former

president and chairman of its

Center for Child Health Research, acknowledged

the group's stand on

thimerosal " does appear to be a paradox. "

 

But Cooper said he did not believe " the science

justifies codifying in state

law that we ban all mercury-containing vaccines. "

 

He also voiced concern about the effect on

immunization programs in the

developing world. The World Health Organization

relies heavily on thimerosal

to immunize millions of children in poor nations,

and could face cost and

logistical problems if forced to abandon it.

 

" If we banned mercury-containing vaccines by

statute in the United States, "

Cooper said, " it would make it a lot harder to

explain in other parts of the

world " why they should accept them.

 

Vaccine producers generally oppose the bills but

have kept a low profile,

leaving health groups to lead the charge. Last

year, pharmaceutical

companies contributed about $1.54 million to the

academy out of a budget of

$68.2 million. Among the donors were vaccine

giants Merck & Co.,

GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur Inc.,

according to tax filings and

academy officials.

 

The group also got about $1.55 million from the

CDC for several health

programs.

 

Although CDC officials are not permitted to lobby

states, they have warned

that thimerosal bans could create confusion about

which vaccines are

acceptable and lead some parents to delay or

forgo immunization of their

children.

 

Cooper said financial ties to drug makers and the

CDC had not influenced the

academy. " The bottom line has always been what

would be best for the child, "

he said.

 

Another opponent of bans, the Immunization Action

Coalition, based in St.

Paul, Minn., runs websites and newsletters

promoting immunization. The group

has been dispensing strategy advice and materials

to critics of the

anti-mercury bills.

 

" We're scaring people away needlessly from very

safe vaccines, " said Diane

Peterson, the group's associate director.

 

The coalition last year got about $628,000 from

the CDC, about 42% of its

$1.51-million budget. Industry donors listed on

the coalition's website —

including Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Pasteur,

Chiron Corp. and Wyeth

Pharmaceuticals — appear to contribute most of

its remaining funds, though

the group would not disclose total industry

support.

 

Along with California and Washington, New York,

Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and

Delaware have passed thimerosal bills. The laws

permit a waiving of

restrictions in a public health emergency.

Bipartisan federal legislation to

ban thimerosal has 73 co-sponsors in the House of

Representatives.

 

Introduced long before current standards for

safety testing, thimerosal came

into wide use in vaccines sold in multi-dose

vials to prevent bacterial

contamination from repeated insertion of needles.

Single-dose vials don't

need thimerosal, but doctors and clinics

historically preferred multi-dose

containers for ease of storage and lower price.

 

Exposure to thimerosal rose sharply in the early

1990s when the CDC added

five new shots for infants in their first six

months. Many of these shots,

as well as some already prescribed, contained

thimerosal. The chemical is

nearly 50% ethyl mercury, considered somewhat

less toxic than the methyl

mercury in fish and power plant emissions.

 

The thimerosal issue erupted in 1999 when it

became known that U.S. health

authorities for the first time had totaled the

cumulative dose of mercury

from multiple shots. The calculation showed that

infants who got their shots

on time could be exposed to mercury in excess of

an Environmental Protection

Agency guideline.

 

As a precaution, the CDC and the American Academy

of Pediatrics called on

vaccine makers in 1999 to phase out thimerosal.

By 2002, the chemical had

been removed or cut to trace levels in all

routine children's shots through

a switch to single-dose vials. But then mercury

made a comeback in 2004,

when the CDC added flu shots to the list of

prescribed vaccines.

 

The only supplier for children younger than 2,

Sanofi Pasteur, then known as

Aventis Pasteur, marketed most of its vaccine in

multi-dose vials. Then, as

now, the CDC decided not to recommend that

doctors select thimerosal-free

shots for pregnant women and children.

 

Sanofi Pasteur since has increased its capacity

to make mercury-free

vaccine, yet because the government has expressed

no preference, some of the

capacity has gone unused.

 

In a pivotal moment in the debate, a committee of

the prestigious Institute

of Medicine rebuffed claims that thimerosal was

responsible for an increase

in autism cases.

 

In its May 2004 report, the panel declared that

" the body of epidemiological

evidence favors rejection of a causal

relationship between

thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. "

 

But parent activists and some scientists

criticized the report — contending,

among other things, that the institute had given

too much weight to research

in countries where thimerosal exposures had been

lower than in the U.S.

Either way, the report considered only autism and

not potential risks of

subtler developmental effects.

 

The CDC is engaged in a study of 7- to

10-year-olds to see if thimerosal

exposures might have influenced language

development, physical coordination

and IQ.

 

And while rejecting the thimerosal-autism link, a

report in November in the

Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal stated that

risks to " the fetus,

premature infant and low-birth-weight infant have

insufficiently been

studied. "

 

Some say the resistance by medical groups to bans

on thimerosal reflects a

profession in denial.

 

Cooper, of the American Academy of Pediatrics,

said he could understand why

people had come to see the academy as overly

defensive. " But I hope we're

big enough to be open to science, " he said.

 

*

Times researcher Jenny Jarvie contributed to this

report.

 

 

 

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