Archive by Author

Two autistic people speak

19 Dec

I wrote recently about how positive a year it had been (or PosAutive if you prefer) and I’m pleased to say that its not over yet. Two autistic young adults added their voices to the autistic community. I want to write a little bit about both of them but before I do you should know that I am only going to name one of them. The other one’s identity I will not discuss. It’ll be clear why, I hope.

First, is best selling author Susan Senator’s son Nat who has just launched his own blog. I encourage you to go and leave a nice comment for Nat to encourage him in his fledgling blogging. Maybe one day he’ll be an author as respected as his mum.

The second person is more difficult to discuss. Instead I’ll relate the events in a hypothetical way. I don’t want to discuss this person by name as I don’t want any repercussions going their way.

Lets imagine that there was a Yahoo group that enjoyed talking about a certain book to do with the mercury/autism hypothesis. Lets assume that that group had a track record for less than pleasant behaviour towards autistic people.

In our hypothetical situation, the adult child of a person who was both a regular on this Yahoo group and also a high up member of a prominent group that believes that vaccines cause autism, started to post on this group. Nothing particularly remarkable until one read what it was that this adult child was posting to this group. It was (hypothetically speaking) a copy of Autism Hub blogger Joel Smith’s essay on living with autism describing it as ‘really good’ and Joel’s other essay (you want to take away my window) which starts:

I am autistic. I’ve always been autistic, and I always will be autistic. Autism is part of who I am, just as my sense of humor and my emotions are part of me. I like who I am, even my autistic part.

In this totally hypothetical example, several parents responded, shall we say, less than gracefully. One of the best of their members told this person:

…forget about posting junk here that wants to make autism out to be some beautiful thing, It isn’t.

Another person who might hypothetically blog for the Huffington Post under the ‘fearless voices’ group said:

Knock, F’ing Knock. Oh, sorry, I was looking for my daughters……Have you seen my beautiful girls. I will search for them until the DAY I DIE even if I have to bloody my arm as I put a fist through your window.

Hypothetically, it seems to me that these ‘fearless voices’ need a short, sharp lesson in manners and respect, but be that as it may, I like imagining this hypothetical situation where the adult child of a high up member of a vaccine/autism group is posting what they would only consider pro-ND material to this particular group.

I hope both these voices carry on speaking. Maybe they can even make the truly ignorant listen.

Just Sayin’ Part VI

19 Dec

Unstrange Minds

17 Dec

Unstrange Minds is a book from George Washington University Professor of Anthropology – and Dad to Isabel, his autistic daughter, Roy Richard Grinker about autism, its history as a diagnosis and how it exists as a cultural phenomenon in other (non-Westernised) countries.

Epidemic

The first thing that Unstrange Minds does is quietly and comprehensively dismantle the idea of there having been an autism epidemic in the sense of that concept relating to a sudden, massive increase.

The shift in how we view autism….is part of a broader set of shifts taking place in society.
Page 4

Grinker goes on to take the reader through the often fascinating history of autism as a diagnostic label (Kanner is pronounced ‘connor’ – who knew??) to illustrate his theory of the apparent rise in autism prevalence being intrinsically linked to these cultural changes such as the growth in child psychology as an area of practice, the decline of psychoanalysis, the rise of advocacy organisations, greater public awareness to educational needs and change in pubic policies:

Doctors now have a more heightened awareness of autism and are diagnosing it with more frequency, and public schools….which first started using the category of autism during the 1991 – 1992 school year are reporting it more often….Epidemiologists are also counting it better.
Page 4

Grinker then goes on to make a similar point to the one that Paul Shattuck was making earlier this year:

Still, these rates may not be proof of an epidemic. Why? Because the old rates were either inaccurate….or based on different definitions of autism than the ones we use now.
Page 4 – 5

The point about different definitions of autism contributing to the ‘rise’ in autism prevalence is frequently dismissed by the mercury militia et al but Grinker has collated the ever changing face of the DSM on the books accompanying website and it graphically demonstrates his point.

Autism Abroad

Unstrange Minds is one of the first academically rigorous books (that I know of) that takes a look at how autism is perceived outside the Western experience. Grinker looks in depth at Korea and India. The picture is not always pretty but it does provide a striking example of how the old adage about ‘out of sight, out of mind’ can contribute to a cultural perception that autism is something unmissable. Those who believe in an epidemic of autism often state that it is ‘impossible’ to miss people with autism. They should consider Grinker’s experience in Korea:

When [Milal School] was being built in the mid-1990s, some of the wealthy residents of this quiet neighborhood south of the Kangnam River in Seoul picketed the site, cut the school’s phone lines, physically assaulted school administrators, and filed a lawsuit to halt construction, because they believed that the presence in the neighborhood of children with disabilities would lower property values. The school opened in 1997, but only with a compromise. It was required to alter its architecture so that the children were completely hidden from public view. Some of the protestors were brutally honest. They said they didn’t want their children to see or meet a child with autism.

If we believe this type of situation and deliberate obfuscation of autism has never occurred in the West than we are kidding ourselves. The situation in Korea now, is how we were in the West once upon a time. This theme is explored thoroughly by Grinker. Remove the places names and this could be London of the 1970’s or New York of the 80’s:

In Seoul, a city of eleven million people, the story is different. There is invisibility in numbers. Posed to an adult, the question ‘Do you know any children who don’t speak well?’ usually goes unanswered, partly because people are reluctant to talk about such things for fear of shaming the child’s family. Equally, people with autism are sometimes hidden away, often go untreated and are seldom integrated into community life.
Page 233

Grinker offers an anecdote from his own life with his autistic daughter Isabel that shows how this wish to exclude difference still turns up in Western culture, even today. A camp director phoned the Grinkers with news that Isabel had ‘took her clothes off in the classroom and the mother of another girl is demanding your daughter be removed from the class’. The camp director had not spoken to the teacher and after he had it transpired that Isabel had merely taken her arms out of her sleeves and put them under her shirt because the air conditioning was on high. It was clear that the whole situation had been contrived by the parent of the other child and indeed, when the camp refused to place Isabel in another class, this same mother withdrew her child (pages 273 – 274).

Autism At Home

The sections of the book directly concerning Isabel are my favourite. My role as dad to an autistic girl makes me appreciate the anecdotes and clear stories of love that other dads of autistic girls convey. The Grinkers don’t shy away from the bad side as well as the good side and detail the battles with American educational authorities that echoed our own battles with our LEA (an ongoing battle even today) to even be recognised as needing such services.

Grinker’s anecdotes about his family (like me, his home life is female oriented with a wife and two daughters) are too poignant and contextual to share and quote well but believe me, they are the lifeblood of the book, making the academic discussion real to parents and people who are autistic.

The author Ron Suskind called Unstrange Minds:

…this big-hearted, uplifting, fiercely rigorous book-a genuine gift to readers who believe in the power of truth.

which is exactly right. It is firmly committed to the truth. It is committed to a rigorous examination of how and why we came to think of autism as having ‘an epidemic’ and explaining how cultural beliefs led us to this stance. It is however also brave, kind, hopeful and above all real. Not a dusty anthropological tome in any way, Unstrange Minds is written in engaging style by a writer who clearly finds his subject fascinating and who has a deep cultural as well as deep personal knowledge of how autism exists as a type of existence as well as a diagnostic label.

Its available on pre-order from Amazon.com only. Don’t let that stop you. Pre-order it from the US no matter where you live. The extra air-mail fare is well worth it. I read the whole thing in two weeks worth of train journeys to and from work and very nearly missed my stop more than once due to being utterly absorbed. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy it.

It’s a Beautiful Day

12 Dec

Here’s my beautiful girl:

Now we’re supposed to post two from the PosAutive YouTube group but there are over 160 that to be honest, I’ve enjoyed every single one of. What I want to do instead is talk about an email I got recently from someone I’d not talked with before. I know other members of the Hub have received similar mail. Its a good feeling to get mail like this and makes me feel like a difference is being made. All names and locations have been altered.

From my inbox:

You know, I have come a long way in my perception and understanding of having a member of the family who is autistic. And your website really spurred a lot of that shift forward. Prior to reading it for the first time, I held the same view of autism that most have – that the lack of outward expression – or different expression, anyway – indicated a lack of “sameness” on the inside. How wrong I was. I was explaining yesterday to my brother, who lives in ****** and rarely sees my kids due to distance, of how my view has changed. What I was telling him, in response to the typical question I get so often – “So …… how is Simon doing?” – is that he needn’t ask about Simon as if he has childhood leukemia. He is doing fine and will continue to do fine as long as we offer him the support he needs as a five-year old child. And as long as we continue to support him through each year. Nobody ever asks me about Kyle (Simon’s brother) in that same tone of voice. And they probably use that tone because that is the tone I used earlier in Simon’s childhood. After the Dx that is. I am now in the process of correcting people’s views of what it means to have an autistic child. And more, to give them examples of some of the little things I have learned that have helped Simon and I communicate so much more effectively.

Monday night, he brought me what is his current favorite book – Twas the Night Before Christmas. He handed it to me and made a noise indicating he wanted me to read it to him. I said “Do you want to read this book?” “No” was his reply. Puzzled, I said, “Do you want to play a game or do something else with Daddy?” “No, I want book” “Okay, so you do want to read this book – let’s go” “No, I don’t want to read this book”. Okay, this is typical – Simon and I are standing there semi-frowning at each other trying to achieve some understanding of why the other person is not “getting it”. He grabbed my hand and took me to the couch where I often read to him. We sat down and he put the book in my lap, then settled back for me to read it to him. I said again, “So you DO want to read the book”. His answer, “No, Daddy.” I thought for a moment, tried to put myself in his shoes so I could figure out what level of communication was misfiring here, and it dawned on me, “Simon, do you want ME to read the book to you?” “Yes, Daddy” was the reply.

This is a prime example of the distance I have covered since first being exposed to ND, and your blog in particular. I still look regularly at EOHarm stuff, though I no longer make any comments.

That’s pretty beautiful to me. A Dad and his child connecting.

What else has been beautiful this year? Esteé’s ‘Joy of Autism’ launch sounded pretty damn good:

The Launch of The Joy of Autism: Redefining Ability and Quality of Life last night was a dream.

Five autistic guests who spoke at the microphone, and a gallery full of people, willing to accept. Parents thankful and aware of our need to accept the joy our children bring us, despite the challenges. People untouched by autism approaching me who said “I didn’t understand autism, and now I understand a little more.”

And then, as I finished my speech which had no mention of the following words, Jonathan Lerman yelled: “SELF ESTEEM!”

Self esteem. Trust an autistic person to refine down to the absolute core essence what neurodiversity, the Hub, my video of Megan, all the video’s in the PosAutive YouTube group and the idea of opposing and defeating autism related quackery are all about. Self esteem.

But it didn’t stop there. Kristina Chew and Jim Fisher launched AUTISM AND ADVOCACY: A CONFERENCE OF WITNESS AND HOPE in which Kassi was a speaker.

Another attendee of that conference told me of an event xe witnessed at that conference which spoke to xem.

Kassiane asked everyone not to be so loud with their clapping. It was a wonderful thing to see a couple of hundred people switch from clapping to just waving their hands after each speaker. Anyway I started to watch Kassiane more closely and was amazed at the sensitivity her hearing. In New York there are always police cars and fire engines going someplace. She would cover her ears long before I would hear anything. After a few moments I would then hear the police or fire equipment but just barely because we were inside. On my way home that night I closed my eyes in the airport and just listened, the noise was maddening. Things that I normally just tune out must make travel for her unbearable. So there I sat in a New York airport, eyes closed and beaming with pride for her. With her sensitive hearing coming through that airport had to be like you or I walking a firing range without ear plugs. Courage comes packaged in all forms.

And as Jim Fisher shows the ripples of someone speaking who is qualified by experience spread far and wide.

The conference featured a memorable presentation by autistic self-advocate Kassiane Alexandra Sibley. “I’m not broke and don’t need fixin, ‘” Ms. Sibley proclaimed. Kassiane had just finished asking how many among the audience (of over 200) considered themselves “broken.” A fairly healthy smattering of hands were raised. The speaker noted that none of the hands belonged to the very small cohort of audience members that a moment earlier had identified themselves (by another show of hands) as autistic persons. “I guess none of us are broken,” the speaker concluded. It was a stunning moment amid an electrifying performance by Ms. Sibley.

A few months ago I posted a blog entry simply entitled ‘Enough‘ in which I basically informed several ‘advocacy’ groups that I – we – had had enough. I would not suggest that post inspired Esteé or Kristina but it did (to me) mark a turning point of passive blog writing.

That turning point will continue to be explored in 2007. Advocacy and anti-quackery efforts will be redoubled. This is a beautiful time for self esteem.

Support Autism Hub, Come out as evil ND

10 Dec

As I mentioned awhile ago, in an effort to fund the Autism Hub website I created some T-Shirts which you can buy in both the US and Europe. Doing this saves me from putting ads on the site or in the feeds, both of which I hate.

Anyway, I thought it might be amusing to play on a, ahem, certain sections perception of the Hub and the Hub members are and create a range of T-Shirts to play on that image. They’re not pricey, they’re good quality and they help me devote money to keeping the Hub afloat.

The European shop is here and the US/North American shop is here.

Below are the latest products added. As you can see, there’ a bit of a theme ;o)

European Shop (inc UK)

Male

Female

US/North American Shop

Male

Female

RFK Jr – Hold yourself to account

8 Dec

Last year, RFK Jr published his shlock piece Deadly Immunity.

Its been taken apart more times than a Lego castle (a good list exists on Skeptico’s site) and was so bad that it contained more than five factual corrections, posted after initial publication.

One of the more amusing bits of idiocy that Kennedy spouted was that:

Even more alarming, the government continues to ship vaccines preserved with thimerosal to developing countries – some of which are now experiencing a sudden explosion in autism rates. In China, where the disease was virtually unknown prior to the introduction of thimerosal by U.S. drug manufacturers in 1999, news reports indicate that there are now more than 1.8 million autistics.

This prompted a flurry of comments from the more credulous element on my blog:

John Best:

Maybe the genetic stuff you found has to do with susceptibility to mercury. I heard from a couple of people in China but it was a long time ago. I didn’t hear back from their government.

We’ll get better information on China someday and they’ll be jumping all over us when they figure out we poisoned them with thimerosal. Maybe that’ll start WWIII.

Sue M (attempting levity):

This is Julie Gerberding. I really need Anders Hviid to make a trip to China ASAP. We really could use some help over there. Yes, the sooner the better. Denial it ain’t just a river in Africa…

(and quoting David Kirby from EoH):

Autism has rarely been reported outside of industrialized countries, at least until recent years. A good example is China, where companies such as Merck and Glaxo-SmithKline have begun an aggressive pediatric marketing campaign, selling millions of dollars in vaccines to the Communist Government” – David Kirby

What do you want to do, start injecting children all over again with the large quantities of thimerosal that we have seen in the past? Oh, wait, we’re actually doing experiments like that overseas. I guess we can just wait and see how those turn out. Not so good, so far as seen by the rates of autism in China.

Erik Nanstiel:

The World Health Organization is distributing vaccines with the full amount of thimerosal all around the world. For the first time ever, China is seeing fast-growing numbers of autistics…

See what’s happening in China, Africa and the Middle east? Their autism numbers are growing at an alarming rate…but only since the WHO began distributing thimerosal-laced vaccines in those countries.

So here’s all these people lapping up every word RFK Jr rehashed from David Kirby….oh if only someone had thought to ask the Chinese. Luckily, they came to us:

There are an estimated five million autistic residents in China, including some 650,000 with serious symptoms, said Jiao Min, doctor with the Zhengzhou Children’s Hospital. Nearly 800,000 are below 14 years old.

Now, wait, wait just a minute….if I take 14 away from 2006, does that come to 1999? Hmmm – no. How very odd.

And – hang on here – apparently 800,000 from a population of 5,000,000 are under 14. That leaves 4,200,000 who are over fourteen.

Listening to grandstanding politicians and bad journo’s can be very bad for your credibility.

Just Sayin’ Part V

7 Dec

Porphyrins, autism and enviromental militia

4 Dec

You know those nature programs where they film sharks in a feeding frenzy? That’s what I’m reminded of when a new test or treatment appears on the radar of the mercury militia. First there’s one lone parent taking a chomp but after a few minutes there’s a whole school of them twisting, turning, biting indiscriminatingly.

Porphyrins are the New Big Thing amongst the mercury militia. Never mind that the sole paper that exists on the subject (pertaining to autism) contradicts the Holy Edicts of DAN! and also fails to note that some forms of chelation affect how Porphyrin’s are measured and further, that the lead author of the study acknowledges the substantial grey areas and unaddressed discrepancies in the paper. Full steam ahead Jeeves and don’t spare the horses.

In a nutshell, these people believe that Porphyrins can be used to give a very accurate measure of how much mercury (or other metals) are in someone’s system. They send their kids wee off to a lab in France to be analysed at €80 a pop. The French test is considered the best as they test for Precoproporphyrin which is supposed to be a specific marker of mercury. Never mind the fact that only one scientist has ever found this association.

So how’s it panning out for the mercury boys and girls? Here’s a series of quotes from the Yahoo ChelatingKids2 Email Group:

A fellow listmate had her son tested twice– once over the summer which showed he had no elevated metals, and one this fall that showed he did indeed have elevated metal levels. She has sent an email to the lab asking about the differing results and has not received a response. I believe she is still trying to contact them.

FWIW, my neighbor’s dad happens to be a porphyrin specialist here in Boston (believe it or not– how many of those are there??). He reviewed lots of info for me– Nataf’s paper, my son’s results that showed very elevated metals across the board– and said he would have rejected the paper for publication had he been asked to review it. He said that fecal, not urine, should be used to measure the porphyrin levels. I sent an email to the lab inquiring about this and also received no response.

It concerns me that if someone does one test and goes on those results, do we know that those are accurate. I hate the idea of implementing treatment on a child based on less than accurate info. It is hard to GET good info I realize on the toxicity issue but just wondering if this is reliable enough to trigger chelating a child etc.

The answer is ‘no’. Here’s another one:

I just received the results of the French porphyrin test for myself and my 7 year old NT daughter, and the results also show severe lead and mercury toxicity. My daughters numbers are worse than my ASD son!

Sadly, this parent was considering chelating her NT daughter anyway even though….

My daughter is terrified of oral capsules and blood draws after seeing what her brother goes through

I’ll bet.

What’s the cut off point when an honest desire to help someone based on love for them and sound science to underpin your decision becomes a dangerous chasing after any sort of unproven treatment no matter what the consequences might be?

The scientist and author Michael Crichton once gave a speech about environmental issues that may as well have applied to the autism/vaccine issue:

We are basing our decisions on speculation, not evidence. Proponents are pressing their views with more PR than scientific data. Indeed, we have allowed the whole issue to be politicized—red vs blue, Republican vs Democrat. This is in my view absurd. Data aren’t political. Data are data. Politics leads you in the direction of a belief. Data, if you follow them, lead you to truth.

Increasingly it seems facts aren’t necessary, because the tenets….are all about belief. It’s about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them.

That’s sad, worrying, dangerous. And true. When did we start to let PR driven media become more important and carry more weight than scientific fact? When papers scream headlines about the evils of mercury causing autism what is it about the apocalyptic way the story is written that catches attention? We live in a world where we think we see threats at every turn. This is a world where I cannot videotape my kids school plays any more as its considered ‘a security risk’. This is a world that now exists in biblical terms like ‘terror alerts’ and ‘axis of evil’. No one conditioned to this hysteria is going to listen to the scientists simply repeating the fact that no science supports such an assertion. That won’t give us a fix of melodrama – maybe if we portray these scientists as part of a global conspiracy that might quicken our terror-conditioned pulses a bit.

There are people who get their ‘facts’ not from scientists but from people like this man – an American DJ names Don Imus. He is, apparently, an autism advocate. He also seems to be something of a racist bigot.

If I have wishes for Christmas its that we stop listening to hyped-up media merchants like the odious Mr Imus and start listening to actual scientists regarding autism and its causes.

Australia – bad for autistic people

29 Nov

Recent events in Australia seem to indicate that if you are autistic then it would be a bad place to be. For a start, you can get away with murdering autistic kids.

Daniela Dawes suffocated her 10-year-old son, Jason, at their western Sydney home in August 2003, before attempting to commit suicide. She was placed on a five-year good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

No prison time whatsoever for killing her son. Of course, it was good to see that the Australian legal system had its priorities right:

Handing down his findings on October 13, Deputy State Coroner Carl Milovanovich said the case was one of the more difficult he had dealt with. He said that, aside from the “tragic outcome” of the boy’s death, there had been a family breakdown and domestic violence. “Perhaps professional, timely and appropriate resourcing at an early stage may have avoided many of those outcomes,” Mr Milovanovich said.

Yeah, perhaps. Now how about legal justice for Jason? Or doesn’t he count?

And how is poor, poor Ms Dawes doing now? She’s still finding time for the odd threat:

Asked about how she was coping with the loss of her son, Mrs Dawes said: “Every day is an absolute struggle. My boy should be with me and the reason that he’s not is a result of my depression. The unfortunate case here is that parents that are struggling with disabled children do suffer depression and there is a strong possibility that this tragedy could happen again.”

So, confirmation that in Australia at least, you literally can get away with murder. Sickening.

But then, why should we be surprised? The disposable nature of disability was emphasised at the highest level of Australian government recently when Federal Community Services Minister, John Cobb MP:

…..told a group of people with disabilities that if he had a disabled child he would send it to live in an institution

Queensland Advocacy chief Kevin Cocks, who was present, claimed Mr Cobb said that “if he had a child with a disability and it was going to cause stress he would get rid of it”. “He said he had lots of children in his family and if he had a child that would cause stress he would get rid of it – they were his words,” he said.

People with Disability Australia president Heidi Forrest said she left the room in tears.

“I’ve got a child with a disability too,” Ms Forrest said. “I love my son and that was kind of saying that I’m no good for trying to have my son.”

Ms Forrest said the meeting was held to discuss advocacy for the disabled, not “shutting them away or picking and choosing who you want to live in our society”.

“Our concern was that if what he said is indicative about what the Government thinks then we’re in a lot of trouble,” she said.

I think Ms Forrest is absolutely right – Australia is in trouble. John Cobb (who’s email details you can get on his contact page) seems to have sanctioned the belief that disabled people are surplus to requirements in Australia. If only there were more fine, upstanding citizens like Daniela Dawes then Australia wouldn’t have to worry any more.

Jock Doubleday’s $75,000 vaccine offer

27 Nov

Jock Doubleday, author of such excellent works as ‘The Burning Time (Stories of the Modern-day Persecution of Midwives)’ and ‘Lolita Shrugged (THE MYTH OF AGE-SPECIFIC MATURITY )’ (Jock is a middle aged man by the way) is most famous in the autism community as the creator of the $75,000 vaccine offer in which he;

…offers $75,000.00 to the first medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO who publicly drinks a mixture of standard vaccine additives ingredients in the same amount as a six-year-old child is recommended to receive under the year-2005 guidelines of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (In the event that thimerosal has recently been removed from a particular vaccine, the thimerosal-containing version of that vaccine will be used.)

The mixture will be body weight calibrated.

Doubleday claims;

14 doctors, or persons claiming to be doctors, have contacted me about publicly drinking the vaccine additives mixture. None have followed through.

Nobody seems sure why participants have to be doctors or big pharma CEO’s and not ordinary folks like you and me. I’m also not sure why Doubleday insists on such a bizarre contract that any participant must adhere to, including psychiatric evaluation, a history of any mental health based counselling (these are probably to add to the air of drama), an email exam of 10 questions regarding vaccine theory and history, the compulsory purchase and reading of at last five altie books on anti-vaccine woo, a 20 question written exam, a certificate of good health…oh, I give up read the rest here.

To be honest, I got bored just reading that contract. And that’s only Part A. If I was a more cynical man I’d say that’s not so much of a contract as an endurance test designed to make everyone with an actual life of their own say ‘Sod this, I could be having a curry or watching Father Ted‘, both of which are activities much more interesting and enjoyable than satisfying the terms of that contract. But then the same could be said of watching paint dry.

Of course, the point of all this is that it shows how few people are willing to ‘take the challenge’. Luckily for Doubleday, someone already ‘took the challenge’ in 1996.

Clinical course of severe poisoning with thiomersal, published by the then Journal of Toxicology – Clinical Toxicology (now just called Clinical Toxicology) was the case study of a German 44 year old man who ingested 5g Thiomersal.

Lets compare that to the maximum load that US kids got before 2001.

The average US child got 187µg of Hg from all thiomersal containing shots. If we bend the rules in favour of the thiomersal (and Doubleday) theory and say that a 1 stone (14 pound) child had had that total of 187µg of Hg we can compare that to our 44 year old man who weighed 60kg (9.4 stone or 132 pounds).

Child Adult Male
187µg of Hg 2,480,000µg of Hg1
13.36µg per pound2 18,787.87µg per pound3

15g Thiomersal = 5,000,000µg of Thiomersal. 5,000,000/49.6% (Mercury in Thiomersal) = 2,480,000µg of Hg
21 stone (14 pound) child 187/14pounds = 13.36µg per pound
3 9.4 stone (132 pounds) 2,480,000/132 pounds = 18,787.87µg per pound

I think we can easily state that this man got vastly more thiomersal per pound then any child would. Even if we inflate the weight of our adult subject to 25 stone (350 pounds) he still gets 7,085.71µg per pound – over 530 times the amount. As it is, using the real figures, he’s getting over 1,400 times more thiomersal than the infant.

So what happened to our German friend? Surely he must’ve had one of the most ‘severe’ cases of autism ever seen right?

He developed gastritis, renal tubular failure, dermatitis, gingivitis, delirium, coma, polyneuropathy and respiratory failure.

Hmm. Sure doesn’t look, act, sound or quack like a duck….I’m going to go right ahead and surmise that in this man’s case, after ingesting over 1,400 times more mercury from thiomersal than an infant that he developed no signs of autism whatsoever and in fact somehow managed to avoid becoming autistic.

And the eventual outcome?

The patient recovered completely…..The decline of mercury concentration in blood, urinary mercury excretion, and renal mercury clearance were not substantially influenced by chelation therapy

It also looks like his total course of recovery took about 5 months. All neurological symptoms were resolved in 46 days. Not several (and ever increasing amounts of) years.

Put your money away Mr Doubleday – its not needed.

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