By Dr. Matsen

Recent newspaper headlines indicate that mercury in the form of thimerosal, which has been used as a preservative in vaccines since the 1930s, may be far more toxic than some once thought. To show that this isn’t actually recent news, I’ve compiled a Fact Sheet on the History of Thimerosal.

1930—Pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, produces a mercury preservative called thimerosal that is added to many medications, including the pertussis vaccine for Whooping Cough. Since mercury is a known toxin, the EPA sets safety limits for young children at 0.1 micrograms per kilogram of body weight. The safety limits are based on methyl mercury in fish, but thimerosal is ethyl mercury and its toxicity is unknown and only presumed to be the same as methyl mercury.

1933—Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports 2 babies dying in the night after receiving pertussis shots. (1) Result: IGNORED

1935—Leo Kanner M.D. notices that some children of wealthy clients developed schizophrenia-like symptoms that differ “markedly and uniquely from anything reported” before and he coins the word “autism.” Kanner’s Freudian background shows as he states that wealthy people must have poor parenting skills. Of course, in 1935 only the wealthy can afford the pertussis vaccination. Result: New Mystery Disease Named

1946—JAMA reports identical twins dying after pertussis shots. (2) Result: IGNORED

1950s—Pertussis vaccine is given to children of all economic and social classes and autism soon shows up throughout the social spectrum.

1970s—Sweden discontinues the pertussis vaccine sensing that the vaccine is more dangerous than the disease. Result: IGNORED by the rest of the world

1976—Health Canada’s Pierre Blais writes a report recommending that mercury be banned immediately because of its known toxicity. He says that “the potential hazards with the product (silver/mercury fillings) are so transparently obvious that we (Government of Canada) cannot even appear to ignore it without attracting ridicule.” Four subsequent Health Canada reports raised similar concerns. (3) Result: All were IGNORED

1979—Pediatrics reports that 12 years after receiving the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) vaccine, 95% of the recipients still were vulnerable to contracting pertussis. (4) Result: IGNORED

1980—Kalokerinos, a doctor who flies into the remote regions of Australia, reports that after he vaccinated Aboriginal children, half of them died. (5) Result: FIRED

1980—Mats Hanson writes an article for a midwifery magazine, Jordemodern, about how dental amalgams release mercury vapours that harm the developing fetus during pregnancy and through breastfeeding. Dental work during pregnancy was therefore deemed as especially risky. Result: Loses his research post at the University of Lund

1980s—University of Kentucky autopsy studies show that the brains of Alzheimer’s patients contained high levels of mercury and aluminum.

1981—Pediatrics reports that 1 in 200 had severe reactions to DPT shots. (6)

1982—Neurology reports that DPT vaccine may be killing babies. (7) Result: IGNORED

1982—Journal of Pediatrics reports Tennessee children dying after receiving DPT shots. (8) Result: IGNORED

1985—Schiebner, Australian inventor of the Cotwatch baby monitor, while studying SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), reports that every baby nearly died in the middle of the night hours to days after receiving vaccines. (9) Result: IGNORED

1989—Journal of Pediatrics reports that DPT-vaccinated children still contracted pertussis. (10) Result: IGNORED

Late 1980s—Hib (Hemophilus influenzae type b) vaccine, which also contains thimerosal mercury, is added to the vaccination schedule. Autism is estimated at 1 in 10,000.

Early 1990s—Hepatitis B and flu shot, both of which contain thimerosal mercury, are added to the vaccination schedule.

1992—American Journal of Epidemiology reports that children were 8 times more likely to die after receiving the DPT shot. (11) Result: IGNORED

1992—Journal of Infectious Diseases reports that children were more likely to get polio after receiving the DPT shot. (12) Result: IGNORED

1993—New England Journal of Medicine reports outbreak of pertussis in vaccinated Ohio residents. (13) Result: IGNORED

1994—European Journal of Pediatrics publishes a study on aborted fetuses which shows that by several weeks after conception, the livers and kidneys of aborted fetuses contained mercury if the mother had 10 or more mercury amalgam fillings. (14)

1994—JAMA reports that children were 5 times more likely to get asthma after receiving the DPT shot. (15) Result: IGNORED

1997—Epidemiology reports that children were 23% more likely to get asthma after receiving the DPT shot (non-immunized children: 0%). (16) Result: IGNORED

1997—The FDA begins an investigation into the amount of mercury in vaccines.

1998—Sweden moves to ban the use of all mercury as there is no safe level.

1998—Pediatric Dermatology publishes a study that shows that thimerosal is the main allergen in children with eczema and dermatitis. (17)

Late 1990s—Congressman Dan Burton (R-Indiana) has two grandchildren brain-damaged after receiving vaccinations-one with autism and one with epilepsy. Autism is as common as 1 in 150.

1999 (Nov)—JAMA publishes the FDA results, which show that by six months of age the average child has received mercury from their vaccines that is 125 times above the safety limits set in 1930, based on methyl mercury toxicity. (18) Result: IGNORED

2000—Center for Disease Control (CDC) conducts a study that proves conclusively that mercury in vaccines is the cause of autism. It is not released but is found by lawyers from Dallas searching for the cause of autism. Result: DENIAL

2000—George W. Bush gets elected; his election campaign is funded heavily by the pharmaceutical industry, especially Eli Lilly, the company that has the patent on thimerosal.

2001 (May)—Congressman Dan Burton reports to Congress that the CDC and FDA, which in theory are government agencies, are heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical industry.

2001—Thimerosal is quietly removed from vaccines for babies in North America, though adults and Third World children still receive the ones that contain mercury. The replacement preservatives include aluminum, titanium dioxide, formaldehyde, and MSG (monosodium glutamate).

2002—University of Kentucky researcher, Boyd Haley, reports that cells exposed to thimerosal, at 1/10,000 the amount in a vaccine, suffered damage similar to that seen in Alzheimer Disease. Adding aluminum to thimerosal “dramatically increased the rate of neuronal death caused by thimerosal.” This study indicates that the ethyl mercury in thimerosal may be much more toxic than the methyl mercury in fish, on which the safety standards were set in 1930. It also implicates aluminum in vaccines as a cofactor in brain damage. (19) Result: IGNORED

2002—Homeland Security is formed and Eli Lilly executives are involved in its operation. When the bill to create a Department of Homeland Security is passed in Congress in November of 2002, a paragraph at the end of the bill gives amnesty to pharmaceutical companies (that is Eli Lilly) from thimerosal lawsuits (see www.eatingalive.com Monthly Updates for March 2003). Result: MEDIA OUTCRY
In The New York Times, Bob Herbert said, “Now this has nothing to do with homeland security. Nothing. This is not a provision that will in any way protect us from the ferocious evil of Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. So why is it there? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the major drug companies have become a gigantic collective cash machine for politicians, and that the vast majority of that cash goes to Republicans.” With the outbreak of the Iraqi war this seems to have been forgotten. (20)

2003 (Spring)—Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons shows a strong link between mercury in vaccines and autism, speech and heart disorders. (21) Result: IGNORED

2003 (Fall)—CDC finally releases its autism study that began in 2000 and is published in Pediatrics in November 2003; it says thimerosal does not cause autism. (22) Result: INVESTIGATION Investigator Mark Geier, president of Genetic Centers of America, says, “This is fraud. The CDC and the FDA know what is happening. They just can’t admit it because this is one of the worst things ever to have happened to this United States. If a terrorist had done this we wouldn’t have attacked them, we’d nuke them. We’re talking about one in eight children in the U.S. that’s currently in special education….”

2003—Congressman Dan Burton proposes Bill HR 1680 to ban the use of mercury in 2008.

2004—Molecular Psychiatry reports that minute amounts of mercury can create brain damage. This further indicates that the ethyl mercury in thimerosal may actually be much more toxic than the methyl mercury in fish on which the safety limits were set in 1930 and may not only cause autism, attention disorder and Alzheimer Disease, but other problems as well. (23) Result: ????

References:
(1) JAMA, 101(3): 187-8, 1933
(2) JAMA, 131(9): 703-5, 1946
(3) Eating Alive II, page 352
(4) Pediatrics, 256-60, February 1979
(5) Every Second Child by A. Kalokerinos, Thomas Nelson, Australia, 1981
(6) Pediatrics, 68(5), 1981
(7) Neurology, 32(4):A169, 1982
(8) Journal of Pediatrics, 101(5):419-21, 1982
(9) Vaccination: 100 Years of Orthodox Research Shows that Vaccines Represent a Medical Assault on the Immune System by V. Scheibner, Australian Print Group, Victoria, Australia, 1993 (10) Journal of Pediatrics, 686-93, November 1989
(11) American Journal of Epidemiology, 1992
(12) Journal of Infectious Diseases, 165:444-9, 1992
(13) New England Journal of Medicine, 16-20, July 7, 1994
(14) European Journal of Pediatrics, 1994
(15) JAMA, August 24/31, 1994
(16) Epidemiology, 8:678-80, 1997
(17) Pediatric Dermatology, 15(1):12-17, 1998
(18) JAMA, 282(18):1763-6, 1999
(19) Mothering Magazine, Nov/Dec 2002, page 45
(20) The New York Times, November 25, 2002, page 21
(21) Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 8(1), Spring 2003
(22) Pediatrics, 112(5):1039-48, November 2003
(23) The Vancouver Sun, February 5, 2004, page 1