Confidential report on mercury in children's vaccines differs from public report Per Dalen sends us a Press Release below that refers to a confidential CDC report, which discusses autism as a potential neurological injury caused by mercury in children's vaccines, that he has made available by attachment. As too many people have reservations about, or trouble with, attachments, I have include Per's email at the end of this broadcast for those that wish to pursue that document further. For further information, Per also directs us to SafeMinds (Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders): http://www.safeminds.org/ ; And Dr. Joseph Mercola's Optimal Wellness Center: http://www.mercola.com/2001/aug/15/cdc.htm ----------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 07:33:53 -0700 From: "PROVE" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [PROVE] Press release re internal CDC report on thimerosal and autism PRESS RELEASE An announcement was made today by the law firm of Waters & Kraus, the firmthat filed the first known lawsuit alleging that a mercury preservative in children's vaccines caused neurological damage to an infant ultimately diagnosed with autism. Waters & Kraus is leading a consortium of ten firms in as many states that are actively prosecuting cases of this nature (firms listed below). Andy Waters, the lead attorney in the cases, announced that his firm is now in possession of a previously unreleased confidential reportauthored by Centers for Disease Control scientists which studied autism as apotential neurological injury caused by mercury in children's vaccines. A different version of the report was made public and has been cited by the recent Institute of Medicine study as inconclusive on the issue of whether the mercury-based vaccine preservative known as thimerosal has contributed to cause a nationwide epidemic of regressive autism and other neurological disorders in small children. The confidential version of the study, however, clearly demonstrated that an exposure to more than 62.5 micrograms of mercury within the first three months of life significantly increased a child's risk of developing autism. Specifically, the study found a 2.48 times increased risk of autism - that is to say, children with the exposure were more than twice as likely to develop autism as children not exposed. In the United States, courts of law have generally held that a relative increased risk of 2.0 or higher is sufficient to substantiate that a given exposure causes disease. As but one example, in the case of Cook v. United States, 545 F.Supp. 306, at 308 (Northern District - California 1982) the Court stated that, "in a vaccine case, a relative risk greater than 2.0 establishes that there is a greater than 50% chance that the injury was caused by the vaccine." Waters indicated that, in many of the cases his firm has evaluated, including the case filed in a Texas state court on behalf of the Counter family, the affected child received more than 62.5 micrograms of mercury through pediatric vaccines in the first three months of life. The confidential report, which was obtained by the SAFEMINDS support andadvocacy group, states: "As for the exposure evaluated at 3 months of age,we found increasing risks of 'neurological developmental disorders' with increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal ... within the group of 'developmental disorders'... for the sub-group called 'specific delays,' and within this sub-group for the specific disorder 'developmental speech disorder,' and for 'autism,' 'stuttering' and 'attention deficit disorder.'" The report also contained the graph depicted below which illustrated the report's findings of a child's increasing risk of developing the neurological symptoms of autism after receiving increasing amounts of thimerosal. Graph 3: Relative risk - 95 % CI of Autism after different exposure levels of thimerosal at 3 months of age, NCK & GHC (see www.vaccineinfo.net/autismHg.htm to view graph) Waters pointed out that the confidential study's lead author, Thomas Verstraeten, has since left the Centers for Disease Control and is now employed by GlaxoSmithKline, a manufacturer of thimerosal-containing vaccines for many years that is a defendant in numerous suits pending nationwide. "We have asked GlaxoSmithKline to provide Mr. Verstraeten's deposition in order to understand if conflict of interest issues may have played a role in the CDC's decision to keep this report confidential, and specifically, their failure to reveal it to the Institute of Medicine." Waters called the report's contents and the fact that it was kept from the public as "shocking, but unfortunately not surprising, given the political influence of pharmaceutical companies and the tremendous liability they face if they are forced to compensate thousands of families for the costs of care that these children require." Waters added that "no amount of money can give these children back the potential that they were born with, and no amount of money will comfort the parents that watched helplessly as their childrenliterally just slipped away." The purpose of the lawsuits his firm is currently prosecuting, said Waters, is "to bring to the surface the truth on this issue, a truth that government agencies seem unwilling to admit, perhaps for fear that parents will stop vaccinating their children, and to force the companies that profited from this disastrous mistake to shoulder the responsibility that so many families now bear on their own, often without even the aid of health insurance benefits." Media inquiries should be directed to Melissa Miles at 214-357-6244. Client inquiries should be directed to Victoria Gibson at 800-226-9880, or to the firms listed below. Other firms working with Waters & Kraus to prosecute individual cases involving thimerosal exposure are: ANDERSON & KRIEGER, APLC 40925 County Center Drive, Suite 210 Temecula, California 92591 Telephone: 909-296-5090 DOGAN & WILKINSON 726 Delmas Avenue Pascagoula, Mississippi 39567 Telephone: 228-762-2272 DORAN & MURPHY, LLP 1234 Delaware Avenue Buffalo, New York 14209 Telephone: 716-884-2000 EVERT & WEATHERSBY, L.L.C. 3405 Piedmont Road, Suite 225 Atlanta, Georgia 30305-1764 Telephone : 404-233-8718 HENDRICKSON & LONG 214 Capital Street P.O. Box 11070 Charleston, W. VA 25339 Telephone: 304-346-5500 JONES, MARTIN, PARRIS, & TESSENER LAW OFFICES, PLLC 410 Glenwood Ave., Suite 200 Raleigh, North Carolina 27603 Telephone: 919-821-0005 LEACH, SCHWARZ & STRASSBERG 11 Bala Ave. Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004 Telephone: 610-668-7964 MARTZELL & BICKFORD 338 Lafayette Street New Orleans, Louisianna 70130 Telephone: 504-581-9065 WISE & JULIAN, PC 3555 College Avenue Alton, Illinois 62002 Telephone: 618-462-2600 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dawn Richardson PROVE(Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education) [log in to unmask] (email) http://vaccineinfo.net/ (web site) ------------------------------------------------------------------- PROVE provides information on vaccines, and immunization policies and practices that affect the children and adults of Texas. Our mission is to prevent vaccine injury and death and to promote and protect the right of every person to make informed independent vaccination decisions for themselves and their family. ------------------------------------------------------------------- This information is not to be construed as medical OR legal advice. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to PROVE Email Updates: Click here http://vaccineinfo.net//subscribe.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------- Per Dalen <[log in to unmask]> *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html