Autism linked to mercury emissions

Certain lefty bloggers will be flabbergasted, but yet another link between mercury and autism has been verified.

A newly published study of Texas school district data and industrial mercury-release data, conducted by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, indeed shows a statistically significant link between pounds of industrial release of mercury and increased autism rates. It also shows—for the first time in scientific literature—a statistically significant association between autism risk and distance from the mercury source.

The study gathered data on mercury emissions within 254 Texas counties, and then used school data to determine autism rates in those counties.  There's quite a bit of noise in this data, in part because not all autism cases are captured in public school data.  Also, distances were measured between the mercury source and the center of the school district, which for rural districts is fairly imprecise.  This would tend to make it harder to find a correlation between mercury emissions and autism rates, but the mercury-autism link came through loud and clear:

“The main finding is that for every 1,000 pounds of environmentally released mercury, we saw a 17 percent increase in autism rates,” said lead author Raymond F. Palmer, Ph.D., associate professor in the Health Science Center’s department of family and community medicine.

Everyone has seen the headlines claiming there is no link between mercury and autism, I know.  But no one has done a study assessing total mercury exposure in children, summing up mercury emissions, fish consumption, vaccines containing thimerosal, and mercury dental fillings from both the mother and the child.  The government and Big Pharma like to hide behind noisy and inaccurate data from enormous databases, where a bit of statistical trickery will allow them to report that there's no mercury-autism link. 

And of course, sometimes they simply flat-out lie, as Merck did (pdf) while claiming for 2 years that its hepatitis B vaccine, given on the day of birth, was thimerosal-free when in fact it was not.  The government then comes in and says "See?  Autism rates aren't declining even though we got rid of the mercury"-- except that in fact, the mercury is mostly still there, even in California.  Merck et al know they had better not simply cut out all mercury, because the resultant drop in autism rates would be too incriminating.  So they drop it out for a while, but then there's a "shortage" of the mercury-free vaccine so they go back to the version that contains thimerosal; they drop the thimerosal in one vaccine but then they recommend flu vaccines, which contain thimerosal; they provide a mercury-free version but parents have to know enough to demand it, and most don't; and in the end, kids are still getting the majority of the mercury they were in the late 90's.

Of all health issues, I can't think of one that's more politicized than this one.  Mark and David Geier fought for years to see the CDC's data on vaccines and autism, and when they were finally allowed access they had to physically go to the CDC's data repository and sit in a room with a CDC "minder."  They weren't allowed to bring a cell phone or anything to write with, and anything they printed out was sent to another room, only to be delivered to them with some of the numbers blacked out with marker.  They protested, and made a phone call to a US Congressman who had been assisting them in getting access to this data.  The Congressman spoke with someone at the CDC and said "Do I have to come down there?"  The CDC guy told the Congressman he had better not, as he would be arrested.  Some time later, the CDC claimed they had mistakenly "lost" that entire database-- a virtual impossibility, as back-ups of important databases are taken to secured, off-site locations.  You begin to see just how nasty the government can get when it's covering its ass.  (You can see the Geiers discussing their experience here, and there's also an interview with Boyd Haley.)

As for the mercury in vaccines, I am dumbfounded that we even debate this.  Gee, does it sound like a good idea to take organic mercury and inject into an infant with no real blood-brain barrier?  Does the phrase "bioaccumulative neurotoxin" sound healthy to you?  It should never have been allowed in any human vaccine, period.

Comments

[Julia]

Wow this website/blog taught me alot because my Best friend has autisum

- Julia

[freelearner]

Hi Julia,

Check out the Generation Rescue website. They have a section on medical treatments for autism, like getting the heavy metals out of the person's system using chelating drugs:

http://www.generationrescue.org/biomedical.html

They also have a section full of parents' stories about children who have recovered from autism (meaning they are now indistinguishable from other kids):

http://www.generationrescue.org/testimonials.php

And if you've got the bandwidth, you might watch some of the videos at that last link, too. They show kids before and after being medically treated; the "before" is a child with autism, the "after" is a neuro-typical / normal kid.