Crusador Comment: On Friday the Associated Press ran a story that said 1 in 150 children now have autism. Until the medical community takes a look at the role of mercury toxicity in this epidemic they will never get to the bottom of the problem. Isn't it interesting that pregnant women are told to avoid alcohol and smoking during pregnancy to protect the child yet almost every single OBGYN clinic in the U.S. has signs hanging up all around their offices that strongly recommend pregnant women take a flu shot? How is it that people can't make the association between these issues. Are we supposed to somehow believe that the mercury in the flu shots won't harm the child in the womb? It's ridiculous.  Below is an intersting story we came across that all pregnant women need to read.

Flu Vaccine Facts

"I think it's absolutely criminal to give mercury to an infant." - Boyd Haley, Ph.D., Chemistry Department Chair, University of Kentucky

"The committee accepts that under certain conditions, infections and heavy metals, including thimerosal [mercury preservative in vaccines], can injure the nervous system." - Dr. Marie McCormick, Chairperson and co-author of the 2004 Institute of Medicine Report often cited by journalists that mercury in vaccines is somehow "safe".

PutChildrenFirst commissioned a survey by Zogby International of more than 9,000 Americans regarding their views of mercury in flu shots. Results of the survey include:

Approximately 115 million doses of flu vaccine will be available during the 2006-2007 flu season from 4 different vaccine manufacturers

More than 90% of this year's flu vaccine supply will contain 25 micrograms of mercury, which means there is not enough mercury-free flu vaccine available for children under the age of 3 and pregnant women (8 million being made versus a 15-20 million estimated need)

A Sanofi-Pasteur spokesman, the only vaccine manufacturer making Thimerosal-free flu vaccines, confirmed that enough vaccine to supply all children could be made, and in this article he noted "he had no idea why health officials were not ordering more mercury-free vaccine."

The CDC's cost for a mercury containing vial of flu vaccine is $9.71. A comparable mercury-free package (each with 10 doses) costs $12.02

Thimerosal has never been tested for safety and no proof exists that it is safe. On the contrary, there are thousands of documents in the literature that discuss its extreme toxicity, starting with Thimerosal's own Material Safety Data Sheet that, amongst other things, states:

"Exposure Guidelines: Thimerosal - no known occupational limits established... Exposure to mercury in utero and in children can cause mild to severe mental retardation and mild to severe motor coordination impairment... Target Organ Effects: Mercury - Nervous system effects (insomnia, tremor, anorexia, weakness, headache), liver effects (jaundice, digestive effects (hypermotility, diarrhea)."

In drinking water, mercury cannot exceed 2 parts per billion. With more than 200 parts per billion of mercury, liquid is considered hazardous waste. A mercury-containing flu shot vial has 50,000 parts per billion of mercury. How can something with 250x the mercury level of hazardous waste be deemed safe?

The Centers for Disease Control released a study in Pediatrics that cited a correlation between Thimerosal-containing vaccines and both "tics" and "language delay" in children

California is the only state this year with a ban of Thimerosal-containing flu shots for pregnant women and children under 3

Six additional states have passed laws banning mercury from vaccines: New York, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Delaware, and Washington with many more considering legislation, but the legislation has not been phased in for the 2006-2007 flu season

Seven years ago, in 1999, a joint statement by the Public Health Service encouraged manufacturers to remove Thimerosal from all vaccines for children as soon as possible:

"Because any potential risk is of concern, the Public Health Service, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and vaccine manufacturers agree that thimerosal-containing vaccines should be removed as soon as possible. Similar conclusions were reached this year in a meeting attended by European regulatory agencies, the European vaccine manufacturers, and the US FDA which examined the use of thimerosal-containing vaccines produced or sold in European countries." - Joint Statement of The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Public Health Service (FDA & CDC), July 7, 1999, 4:15pm

Because of the addition of the flu shot in to the recommended schedule for childhood vaccinations in 2005, the level of mercury our children are receiving is actually on the rise again, as this recent article from UPI "Mercury Creeps Back In", points out. You can also look at this chart - children by the age of 5 will receive 53% of the mercury received by children at the peak of mercury exposure in the mid-1990s.

Thimerosal is made of mercury. Mercury is 1000x more toxic than lead. If lead were in vaccines, the world would be in an uproar because lead's toxicity is well known, and thimerosal is ONE THOUSAND TIMES WORSE. Some of the many studies documenting Thimerosal's extreme toxicity, at levels well below what our children receive through vaccines, include:

Comparison of Blood and Brain Mercury Levels in Infant Monkeys Exposed to Methylmercury or Vaccines Containing Thimerosal

Uncoupling of ATP-mediated Calcium Signaling and Dysregulated IL-6 Secretion in Dendritic Cells by Nanomolar Thimerosal

Thimerosal induces neuronal cell apoptosis by causing cytochrome c and apoptosis-inducing factor release from mitochondria

Thimerosal Neurotoxicity is Associated With Glutathione Depletion: Protection with Glutathione Precursors

Activation of Methionine Synthase by Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 and Dopamine: a Target for Neurodevelopmental Toxins and Thimerosal

Thimerosal Induces DNA Breaks, Caspase-3 Activation, Membrane Damage, and Cell Death in Cultured Human Neurons and Fibroblasts

A recent study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association touting the safety of flu vaccine. Nine of the studies authors had stated financial ties to vaccine manufacturers, and an additional four authors worked for the CDC. The study also stated:

"It is also important to note that there is scant data on the efficacy and effectiveness of influenza vaccine in young children."

On October 27, 2006, the British Medical Journal published an article also questioning the efficacy of the flu vaccine. The article noted:

"Evidence from systematic reviews shows that inactivated vaccines [flu vaccines] have little or no effect on the effects measured. Little comparative evidence exists on the safety of these vaccines. Reasons for the current gap between policy and evidence are unclear, but given the huge resources involved, a re-evaluation should be urgently undertaken...

...The optimistic and confident tone of some predictions of viral circulation and of the impact of inactivated vaccines, which are at odds with the evidence, is striking."

A recent British Medical Journal article reported that CDC materially exaggerates the actual number of deaths from flu each year and uses fear to increase vaccination rates:

US data on influenza deaths are a mess. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges a difference between flu death and flu associated death yet uses the terms interchangeably. Additionally, there are significant statistical incompatibilities between official estimates and national vital statistics data. Compounding these problems is a marketing of fear - a CDC communications strategy in which medical experts "predict dire outcomes" during flu seasons.

At the 2004 "National Influenza Vaccine Summit," co-sponsored by CDC and the American Medical Association, Glen Nowak, associate director for communications at the NIP, spoke on using the media to boost demand for the vaccine. One step of a "Seven-Step `Recipe' for Generating Interest in, and Demand for, Flu (or any other) Vaccination" occurs when "medical experts and public health authorities publicly...state concern and alarm (and predict dire outcomes) - and urge influenza vaccination"