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I Am A Child Abuser

22 Jun

Some of the comments coming from Generation Rescue’s ‘Rescue Angels’ are getting scarier and scarier. This was posted to a Parents.com thread:

The problem is that doctors keep telling people that autism is not caused by mercury to cover their asses. They screwed up by giving our kids way too much mercury. Those of us who know this don’t like seeing unknowing parents allowing their kids to rot in the abyss of autism. Wake up and smell the coffee is approprite. Anyone who is not chelating to get rid of the mercury is guilty of child abuse. Every doctor who is not telling their patients to chelate is guilty of malpractice. There was no autism until Eli Lilly started putting mercury in vaccines. Aside from fragile X which some say is not really autism, it is all caused by mercury. Any parent who listens to the doctors tell them that there is no known cause or cure for autism is too damn stupid to have kids.

Parents.com

Now aside from the factual errors, isn’t that the most frighteningly, almost fascist, shivers-down-your-spine-hair-stand-on-end-uh-oh-here-come-the-fundie-whacko’s genuinely disturbing thing you’ve read in awhile?

This is a self-styled ‘Rescue Angel’ of Generation Rescue.

Autism And Mercury – Defining the Battle Ground

19 Jun

Autism is Mercury poisoning because:

The symptoms match so closely. Well, thats what the regular claim of the ‘no mercury’ crowd is. So lets see. Mercurysafety.co.uk lists the clinical symptoms of Mercury poisoning as:

Low Dose Exposure

  • Erethism (nervousness, irritability, mood instability, blushing)
  • Tremor
  • Personality change
  • Suicidal tendency
  • Paraesthesia
  • Impaired hearing
  • Speech disorders
  • Visual disturbance
  • Abnormal reflexes
  • Disturbed gait
  • Gingivitis (inflammation of the gums)
  • Impaired nerve conduction
  • Renal damage
  • Adverse outcome of pregnancy
  • Infertility
  • Pneumonitis (lung disease)
  • Glioblastoma (brain cancer)
  • Immune system dysfunction

High Dose Exposure

  • Gastroenteritis (stomach upset)
  • Mouth pain
  • Abdominal pain
  • Vomiting
  • Excessive salivation
  • Anuria (urine production stops)
  • Uraemia (urine products appearing in the blood)
  • Nephritis (kidney disease leading to kidney failure)
  • Anorexia (lack of appetite)
  • Ataxia (difficulty in moving)

Now I have to say immediately that this sounds nothing like the autistics (mainly kids) that I’ve met, including my daughter. There may be a case for arguing ‘speech disorder’ and/or ‘visual disturbance’ but even then you’d be stretching it. By contrast lets have a look at the diagnostic criteria for ASD.

A. Abnormal or impaired development is evident before the age of 3 years in at least one of the following areas:

(1) receptive or expressive language as used in social communication;

(2) the development of selective social attachments or of reciprocal social interaction;

(3) functional or symbolic play.

B. A total of at least six symptoms/signs from (1), (2), and (3) below must be present, with at least two from (1) and at

least one from each of (2) and (3):

(1) Qualitative abnormalities in reciprocal social interaction are manifest in at least two of the following areas:

(a) failure adequately to use eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gesture to regulate social interaction;

(b) failure to develop (in a manner appropriate to mental age, and despite ample opportunities) peer relationships that

involve a mutual sharing of interests, activities, and emotions;

(c) lack of socio-emotional reciprocity as shown by an impaired or deviant response to other people’s emotions; or lack of modulation of behaviour according to social context; or a weak integration of social, emotional, and communicative behaviours;

(d) lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g. a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out to other people objects of interest to the individual).

(2) Qualitative abnormalities in communication are manifest in at least one of the following areas:

(a) a delay in, or total lack of, development of spoken language that is not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through the use of gesture or mime as an alternative mode of communication (often preceded by a lack of communicative babbling)

(b) relative failure to initiate or sustain conversational interchange (at whatever level of language skills is present), in which there is reciprocal responsiveness to the communications of the other person.

(c) stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic use of words or phrases;

(d) lack of varied spontaneous make-believe or (when young) social imitative play.

(3) Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behaviour, interests, and activities are manifest in at least one of the following areas:

(a) an encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that are abnormal in content or focus; or one or more interests that are abnormal in their intensity and circumscribed nature, though not in their content or focus;

(b) apparently compulsive adherence to specific, non-functional routines or rituals;

(c) stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms that involve either hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole body movements;

(d) preoccupations with part-objects or non-functional elements of play materials (such as their odour, the feel of their surface, or the noise or vibration that they generate).

Now do these two things look even vaguely similar to you?

Autism started to be discovered at the same time as mercury/thimerosal was used in vaccines.

Proponents of the autism/thimerosal/mercury link say that autism and mercury became known at the same time – that the first cases of autism were diagnosed immediately after thimerosal was added to vaccines.

The dramatic rise in autism rates correlates with the increase in mercury doses. Thimerosal was first marketed in the mid 1930’s and autism was first described as a new never before seen disorder in 1943, in children born in the 1930’s.

No Mercury

However, its simply not true. There have been numerous reports that describe autistic people going back to Victorian Britain. The only thing that differs in these cases its the actual label of autism but there were certainly autistics long before either dental amalgams came into widespread use or vaccines were being used at all.

I also have anecdotal evidence of my own. 2 members of my family both born between 1910 and 1920 were diagnosed AS in the 90’s. However, they’d been the way they were since birth my grandparents claim – long before thimerosal was ever used in vaccines.

Autism cannot be genetically based because you cannot have a ‘genetic epidemic’

A very misleading argument as it presupposes the idea of an autism epidemic. It also supposes that even if there is an autism epidemic that mercury is the cause.

So, is there an autism epidemic? No. No Gvmt has declared epidemic status for autism at all. The phrase is simply part of an increasingly shrill demonisation of autism in increasingly disrespectful and shameful terms. Other phrases coined include ‘autism tsunami’ (distastefully coined after the events of last Boxing Day), the ‘hell’ of autism ‘autism is our enemy’ and many, many more.

In fact, as is usually the case in situations like this, the real reason is misunderstanding of stats:

The reason why some states show an “almost infinite” increase is that when you increase from zero to 100 the increase is “almost infinite” One does not measure a change from zero in percentage. If the change is from 2 to 100, one can say the number has gone up 50 times.

AutismDiva

Proponents of the ‘autism epidemic’ tout a figure of 1 in 166 for prevalence of autism. This figure is entirely bogus.

There has been no autism epidemic, whether or not there has been an increase at all is debatable.

AutismDiva

The reason there is an apparent increase in ASD is because of two things – better training allowing people to ‘spot’ ASD and more places one can get an official diagnosis:

Variation in the administrative prevalence of ASD is associated with education-related spending, which may be associated with better-trained educational staff who can recognize the problem, and more and better trained in-school specialists who can provide screening. It is also associated with the availability of health care resources. Increased access to pediatricians and school-based health centers may lead to improved recognition of ASD. Interstate variability in the identification of ASD should be taken into account when interpreting the results of prevalence studies based on administrative data and the associated system characteristics taken into account by policy makers working to improve the recognition of ASD.

David S. Mandell, ScD; Raymond Palmer, PhD

The incidence of research-identified autism increased in Olmsted County from 1976 to 1997, with the increase occurring among young children after the introduction of broader, more precise diagnostic criteria, increased availability of services, and increased awareness of autism. Although it is possible that unidentified environmental factors have contributed to an increase in autism, the timing of the increase suggests that it may be due to improved awareness, changes in diagnostic criteria, and availability of services, leading to identification of previously unrecognized young children with autism.

William J. Barbaresi, MD; Slavica K. Katusic, MD; Robert C. Colligan, PhD; Amy L. Weaver, MS; Steven J. Jacobsen, MD, PhD

federal and state administrative changes in policy and law favoring better identification and reporting of autism are likely contributing factors to the prevalence increases and may imply that autism spectrum disorder has been underdiagnosed in the past.

James G. Gurney, PhD; Melissa S. Fritz, MPH; Kirsten K. Ness, MPH; Phillip Sievers, MA; Craig J. Newschaffer, PhD; Elsa G. Shapiro, PhD

But surely the autism/thimerosal crowd have some stats of their own to counter these? Well, no they don’t. What they have (so they claim) is an absence of facts. A bizarre piece of ‘scientific’ reasoning that apparently ignores a basic precept of science: absence of proof is not proof of absence.

If the epidemic is truly an artifact of poor diagnosis, then where are all the 20-year-old autistics?

Boyd Haley

Its a shoddy piece of ‘logic’ repeated by David Kirby in Evidence of Harm. In fact, Haley knows very well where a lot of adult autistics are because he incurred their and their families wrath when he referred to autism as ‘Mad Child Disease‘. In the subsequent uproar that followed Haley was forced to confront the reality of adult autistics. Amusingly he also claimed he was using MAD as an acronym – Mercury Acquired Disease – obviously a better scientist than linguist he failed to spot that when lengthened out his phrase would read ‘mercury acquired disease child disease’. And in fact, he’s a pretty rubbish scientist as well.

Michelle Dawson also had something very pertinent to add to the ‘hidden hordes’ scenario:

Mr Kirby (author of Evidence of Harm who swallowed Boyd Haley’s thesis hook line and sinker) deploys the “hidden hordes” to express his disbelief in the possibility that there is no autism epidemic. Were numbers of autistics steady over the years, he argues, America would be clogged with aging hopeless autistics gruesomely burdening society. Mr Kirby cannot find us (I’m one of his “hidden hordes”) how and where he expects (doomed and confined to institutions), so he denies we exist. Szatmari et al (1989) suggests that Mr Kirby should look for his hordes in university records. In a follow-up of autistics diagnosed as children before 1970, 7 of 16 had university degrees (one was an MBA).

Michelle Dawson

Lots of studies prove a link between autism and mercury and there are none to disprove it.

Wrong on both counts. There are a few studies that suggest there may be correlation but none – none – that suggest causation at all. You can read a comprehensive review of the literature at Pediatrics online. By contrast only one study has been done which showed a link and this was shown to have flaws in methodology so severe that:

the Geiers have used shoddy study methodology and also engaged in data collection irregularities, drawing a rebuke from the CDC and suspension of Dr. Geier’s IRB approval from Kaiser-Permanente.

Orac Knows.

The Geiers in the course of their ‘investigation’attempted to compromise the confidentiality of patients on the CDC database. Nice going guys.

Of course, these studies that fail to show a link are pounced on and traduced as being produced by ‘shills’ in the pay of big Pharmaceutical companies. These same people though fail to mention that David Geier, one of the co-authors of the woeful study referenced above, works for MedCon – a company that helps vaccine injury claimants to obtain money from both the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and through civil litigation. Coincidently, Geier senior made (makes?) a good living on the side as a ‘professional witness’. Although as I’ve noted before – he’s not very well respected by either the judiciary or the medical systems in the US.

This point about correlation being different than causation is important to understand: On Orac’s blog Kaethe Douglass commented:

“The fact that Iowa’s 700 percent increase in autism began in the 1990s, right after more and more vaccines were added to the children’s vaccine schedules, is solid evidence alone,” says state Sen. Ken Veenstra. But Veenstra is wrong. That isn’t evidence. That isn’t anything but coincidence. The 1990s also saw a sharp increase in the use of car seats for children, but no one is blaming them. A 700 percent increase in autism, or any other diagnosis, is much more likely to indicate a growing awareness of a possible diagnosis, rather than an actual increase in patients suffering particular symptoms. And if Veenstra cared to do a little bit of research, he would see that the less specific diagnosis of “mental retardation” dropped as sharply as autism increased.

If people want to research possible causes of their kids autism then thats entirely up to them – I did it so I’m in no position to judge these efforts. But it behooves the researcher in question to apply scientific criteria to scientific data. Its no good extracting the bits that suit your argument and discarding the bits that don’t.

edit: Just noticed AutismDivas has made a very similar post to this – sorry AD!

Open Letter to Evidence Of Harm List Members

5 Jun

Let’s start off with a basic assumption.

You love your kids. I love mine.

A lot of you don’t understand where Kathleen Seidel is coming from, whereas I sometimes can’t understand where you’re coming from. I read posts on the EoH list that say you want to test Kathleen’s kids and I wonder at how you could possibly be so insensitive. I’m sure you often wonder how I, or Kathleen or anyone else on our side of the debate can be so insensitive. I visit other websites where you have all descended en masse and wonder at your behaviour – anyone who disagrees with you is attacked in highly personal ways. And to what end? How does that advance your position?

I’ve received hate mail from some of you which is both highly personal and highly inaccurate. Some of you have stooped so low as to personally attack my daughter, a five year old autistic girl, in words so personal I can’t bear to repeat them. According to some of you, I flit around various websites under a variety of assumed names for reasons that are left unexplained and on evidence that to anyone who makes their living on the web, is naive and technically incompetent. I have also heard descriptions of some of the people I think of as cohorts that verge on the libelous. I really, truly wonder what exactly you get out of this behaviour?

Now, I can’t speak for Kathleen or anyone else but for myself I think you really need to take a long hard look at your behaviour as a group. As individuals I’m sure most of you are decent people – indeed, I have received approaching 20 emails from various members of the EoH lists that apologise for the way I, or Kathleen, or Camille, or anyone else has been portrayed. Some of these people say they can see my/our position and respect me/us for it. However, it seems that the mob still holds sway on EoH itself.

I don’t believe that autism is mercury poisoning. Generation Rescue and the few people who stick to that error both in the book and on the EoH list are simply wrong. This is my main gripe with the book and with a lot of you.

I believe that some of your kids have been mercury poisoned – you say you have tests that prove it and I have no particular reason to disbelieve what you say – and that is a bad thing. I also think that the CDC in your country should release their data. Further I think there needs to be an internationally funded, independent body set up to look at rates of prevalence across the entire world. It would take time but it is badly needed in my opinion. I don’t agree with the opinion that autism is an epidemic and I object strenuously to my daughter and people like her, who have definitely not been metal poisoned being characterised in this way.

I think (sadly) that the majority of your kids who are metal poisoned have been misdiagnosed as autistic. I think that if there is an increase in prevalence then this will be one of the reasons. I also think that there will come a time when you, as a group, will have to face the fact that your kids are either not autistic and are metal poisoned, or autistic and therefore almost certainly won’t react well to treatments such as Chelation. I don’t know any of you and you don’t know me but what I do know is that autistic kids need early intervention and that the best type of intervention you can give them is love, acceptance and encouragement. Your autistic kids won’t always be kids. They will grow into teenagers and then adults. And they will still be autistic. Do you really want them to grow up feeling guilty and ashamed of who they are? Look at the examples of Temple Grandin and Donna Williams who were both diagnosed as low functioning autistics. See what they are now. Strong, independent, forthright people. Read some of the library articles at autistics.org. A lot of the contributors there were also diagnosed as low functioning as kids. But kids grow up and develop. Can you say you were intellectually at your best as a 3 year old? Did you communicate as well as a 20 year old?

I don’t want to go on being angry with a group of people I don’t really know but neither do I want my daughter to grow up characterised only by negative assumptions about who she is and how she got that way. Please, buy as many copies of Evidence of Harm as you like, but don’t let one book that only tells one side of the story distract you from the truth that autism is not solely mercury poisoning. Don’t let your zeal to find personal answers obstruct autistics who were never metal poisoned from the legitimacy of their condition, or their well meaning parents efforts to support their needs as they see them.

Mercury And Gender

31 May

Autism is mercury poisoning. So says Generation Rescue and a chatroom full of convinced parents. I feel I’ve shown conclusively the fallacy in that position.

Much more ambiguous is the belief that mercury could trigger autism. There does seem to be evidence that increased rates of environmental agents might have led some children to become ill. What is still up in the air for me personally is – is this illness really autism? How many of these children are there? What were the exact circumstances of their onset? Unfortunately, due to the paucity of data on these issues its impossible, or next to impossible, to answer any of them with any degree of accuracy. Not that that seems to have stopped a sizable proportion of hysterics leaping to conclusions. And not that that seems to have stopped the burgeoning autism money-making-machine in the guise of Generation Rescue and David Kirby cashing in on this state of ignorance. Those of us who question are set upon and misrepresented and in the meantime we have to put up with hearing other parents of autistics and various hacks and quacks describe our kids as sub-normal, dead inside, in a black hole, disappeared, missing, part of a plague, part of an epidemic, a parents worst nightmare, a living hell, a disaster and various other niceties. I wonder what members of other minority groups would be happy hearing themselves described in such a way?

Anyway, climbing off my soapbox, it struck me that if mercury (and particularly mercury in vaccines) was such a high causer of autism then where are all the girls?

The gender segregation of autism shows boys are 4 times as likely to be autistic as girls. There are no clear evidential paths that can account for this yet and bearing this in mind, it seems puzzling that mercury could be used as a scapegoat for all incidences of autism as claimed by Generation Rescue and its proponents. Or could it? Does mercury affect boys more than girls?

It’s difficult to find a lot of data on this but everything I’ve found so far indicates the gender plays no role in mercury poisoning. For example, an eMedicine study into the Minamata Bay incident (a factory discharged inorganic mercury into the water), researchers concluded:

Sex: No gender predisposition has been identified clearly.

David A Olson, MD, Consulting Staff, Department of Neurology, Dekalb Medical Center.

And from a separate article in the HSE:

n the U.S.: The 1998 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ toxic exposure surveillance system noted 4,039 exposures to mercury. Of these, 1,039 were in children younger than 6 years, and 1,385 were older than 19 years. Overall, 68 patients were reported to have moderate effects, 12 patients had major effects, and 3 patients died as a result of mercury exposure. There is no scientific evidence that demonstrates any difference in outcome following exposure to mercury that is attributable to gender.

Barry Diner, MD, Barry Brenner, MD, PhD.

That’s all I can find. There may be more but if there is I couldn’t find it. Seems pretty clear cut though – there’s no gender favouring from mercury. And bearing that in mind, how do we account for all the autistic boys? Where are all the girls?

Chelation: Dangerous & Experimental

27 May

DMPSBackfire.com is a site set up and maintained by Jana Nestlerode after her life was ‘derailed by a single injection of DMPS’.

What I have learned is that DMPS is not approved by the FDA. It is considered an experimental drug. I have found no evidence of the existence of appropriate clinical trials by which practitioners can be guided in its safe use.

Which is worrying enough. But…

The discovery that was most disturbing to me was that some physicians and others were misleading (either through ignorance or contrivance) patients about the safety and efficacy of this drug. I am alarmed at the proliferation of health care providers who are enrolling patients in what amounts to experimental medicine without obtaining their informed consent.

The Dr Buttars of this world are using it on people most unable to give informed consent: autistic children. The parents of these children often claim that autistics are bad excretors of mercury. If this is true (and I don’t know if it is or it isn’t) then it seems that using Chelators can actually make the problem worse:

It takes properly functioning excretory systems to then move the chelator-bound metal out of the body. So in order to get the heavy metals out of your body, you have to dislodge them from their present locations, and MOVE them so that your liver and kidneys can excrete them. Whenever you move a heavy metal, you risk increasing the damage it does to your body. Anywhere along the way, the chelator can lose its grip and drop the metal. If the excretory systems are not functioning well, you’ll be unable to excrete all the metal the chelator has mobilized. In either case, you’ll just do more damage.

This is serious stuff. Deadly serious. There are over 30 reports on DMPSBackfire.com – this is one of them:

I had had EDTA chelation to bring down high levels of lead when my doctor noticed that my mercury levels were going up. He gave me an infusion of 250mg of DMPS, and I immediately got sick. It felt like it was ripping open my insides, including my bones. I was really sick, had bloody stools, my hair color darkened and looked awful. I could hardly move for three months.

At that point I decided to get my amalgams out. I had a lot – 15 or 16. They did it in two weeks and I had another infusion of 250mg of DMPS right after that. I got much worse. My whole endocrine system went haywire. All of my extremities went numb. I felt awful, had stomach ulcers, liver damage, insomnia… the list goes on. I felt and looked 40 years older.

I went to another doctor and he said to keep doing the DMPS, that I had to push through to feel better. I had six more infusions with him, and he did neural therapy on my stomach and spine. I kept getting worse. I felt about ready to die, so I guess it didn’t matter. In addition to all of the headaches, gastrointestinal and endocrine problems and pain, I’m now hypothroid, have lesions in my colon, and a tumor on my liver. DMPS really devastated my life. Before DMPS I used to run 4-5 miles a day. Now walking short distances wears me out. DMPS has made my life hell. Today I am a vegetable trying to get my body working again.

I ask you – knowing this is a possible outcome and knowing that if your child is autistic and less able to tell you they are in discomfort or pain, is this really something you want to risk (the ‘P’ in DMPS stands for ‘Propane’ by the way)? The FDA in America certainly don’t – they won’t approve DMPS. Even if we assume the worst – that mercury is causing autism (and you should know by now I don’t believe this) – is being autistic worse than being in extreme pain or worse, being dead?

Chelation may cause many severe side effects, including severe kidney damage, reduction of the body’s ability to make new blood cells in the bone marrow, dangerously low blood pressure, fast heart rate, dangerously low calcium levels in the blood, increased risk of bleeding or blood clots (including interference with the effects of the blood-thinning drug warfarin [Coumadin]), immune reactions, abnormal heart rhythms, allergic reactions, blood sugar imbalances and convulsions. There have been reports of headache, fatigue, fever, nausea, vomiting, gastrointestinal upset, excessive thirst, sweating (diaphoresis), low white blood cell counts and low levels of blood platelets. People using chelation have had severe reactions in which they have stopped breathing. Death has been reported, although it is not clear if chelation therapy was the direct cause.

Harvard Medical Schools

Another Review Of Evidence Of Harm

20 May

Another first class review of Evidence of Harm, this time from Debunkers.

Cutting stright to the chase, the reviewer exposes the fallacy of Kirby’s book:

…Kirby’s Brockovich-esque page-turner, featuring a group of parents of autistic children as David and big pharma/big government bureaucrats as Goliath, must be taken for what it is, a story of parental love and determination – and not for what it isn’t, an instructional and unbiased medical text.

No one doubts that the ‘mercury is autism/causes autism’ crowd love their children (although I and many other parents of autistics who don’t belive the connection exists have been openly accused by these same people of abusing our kids by not chelating them, have had these people offering to start collections to pay for chelation of our children and have been told we will be going to hell as we are terrible parents.) and want the best for them. Its simply unfortunate that books like Kirby’s peddle their poor science in such a well written way – its the ultimate in spin, if the science doesn’t exist, present anecdotal evidence and present it in a way calculated to inflame their target market. All style, no substance.

As the reviewer also points out there have been poorly researched conspiracy theories regarding autism and vaccines going back to the 1980’s. One by one they’ve crumbled into nothing as will this one regarding Thimerosal. Of course I doubt any of the parents who’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ‘treating’ their childs autism will be in any position when the next big boogeyman (which wil apparently be Aluminium) raises its head – they’ll be too busy trying to recoup all the money they laid out in false cures. You have to shake your head in despair at the mentality of anyone who swears that a ‘cure’ exists and then goes on to prove it by needing $500,000 worth of treatment. At some point you would’ve thought they would’ve noticed that the ‘cure’ doesn’t work at all – except in the instances of children who are mercury posisoned. Newsflash: if it worked for your child, then they weren’t autistic, they were mercury poisoned. If it continues not to work after half a million dollars worth of treatment thats because your child is autistic and chelation doesn’t cure autism. I wonder – when this mercury conspiracy theory falls apart at the seams, will Kirby refund all these people he’s profited from? I doubt it.

The reviwer also points out the sad fact about followers of Kirby – they ignore valid science as it disagree’s with their case:

Regrettably, a book written instead on the data presented at Vanderbilt by CDC pediatrician and epidemiologist Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp (whose study of autism prevalence trends indicates that the “epidemic” may be attributable to better and broader diagnostic criteria) would probably sit on bookstore shelves gathering dust. As we all know, cries of “the sky is falling!” turn far more heads than “all’s well.

As I’ve documented previously, the state of the science behind the ‘mercury is/cause autism’ theory is frighteningly inept. The holy trinity of Geier, Geier and Wakefield – all darlings of the lucrative speaker circuit in the US have been either laughed out of their own country (Wakefield) or disallowed from being an expert witness in trials involving vaccines due to their ignorance of the subject (Geier senior) or not actually be a Doctor at all (Geier junior).

The reviwer is also spot on when it comes to how those of us who don’t believe in the connection get treated:

Those who have fought against the demonizing of thimerosal have to put up with absurd accusations of being industry shills. In actuality, many of those who are fighting against the fear – some of them parents of autistic children themselves – strive to make clear the value of vaccinations.

I personally have been accused of being a bad parent, of being a liar, of being an idiot, of being on the payroll of vaccine manufacturers – one email even accused me of being ‘in league with Satan’ and quoted Revalations at me! Why? Because I follow the science, not the conspiracy theory. And why do I do that? Because I value the health of my child and I’d rather find an intervention that worked than a ‘cure’ that never will.

Overview of Wakefield’s Contribution To Science

Wakefiled was one of 13 authors of a paper published in The Lancet alledging a connection between MMR and autism. In fact, there were only 12 people studied, 9 of whom were autisitc – it seemed Wakefiled made the schoolboy error of deciding on his conclusions and working backwards to find his ‘culprit’.

On the question of these 12 subjcts, it later transpired that some of the 12 were not randomly selected but supplied to Dr Wakefield by a firm of lawyers acting for the parents who believed their kids were ‘made’ autistic by the vaccine. Wakefield was paid about £50,000 for his work and was lined up for lots more as a paid expert witness when legal action against the Pharma’s swung into action. As Ratbags say:

Put bluntly, Wakefield was paid to find a certain result (which matched his beliefs anyway) and was going to get a lot more money if he found it.

Shortly afterwards 10 of the 13 authors of the original report authors issued a statement saying that the paper was not evidence of a connection between MMR vaccine and autism and The Lancet now say they would never have published the paper at all if they’d known about Wakefields payments..

Autism Is ‘Older’ Than Mercury

18 May

One of the key points that advocates of the ‘autism is mercury poisoning/mercury causes autism’ theory often cite in defence of their theory is that autism wasn’t diagnosed until Mercury started to be used in vaccines. Shortly after it was, they say, autism started to be diagnosed.

Pretty impressive eh? Well, no. Not really. Leaving aside the fact that citing this as evidence is akin to saying that breathing causes ear infections because I never got an ear infection until after I started breathing, there’s very compelling (and fascinating) evidence to indicate that autistics have been with us since the Victorian era (early 1800’s).

In an absorbing post on the Wisconsin Medical Society site, Dr Darold A. Treffert shows how people with ‘symptoms’ close to what we would consider autism today were studied by Dr J. Landon Down in 1887.

In an 1887 book entitled ‘On Some of the Mental Affections of Childhood and Youth’ J. Landon Down, M.D. published ‘The Lettsomian Lectures delivered before the Medical Society of London in 1887 together with other papers.’ It was there he found ‘a convenient place to describe an interesting class of cases for which the term ‘idiots savants’ has been given, and of which a considerable number have come under my observation. This name has been applied to children who, while feeble-minded, exhibit special faculties which are capable of being cultivated to a very great extent.’ He then describes a number of cases of children with the artistic, musical and numerical skills that have so regularly been described in by other observers, including myself, this past 117 years (Treffert, 2000). He also keenly pointed out that ‘extraordinary memory’ was linked with the special abilities in the savant, a finding reported consistently in all of the cases documented in the literature in the many years since that first description. One of his patients, for example, had memorized large portions of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and could repeat them back verbatim.

Leaving aside Dr Landon Down’s awful labelling of ‘idiot savants’ these people sounds autistic to Dr Treffert.

Intriguingly, Dr Landon Down (who is responsible for defining Downs Syndrome) even went so far as to apply a diagnosis of ‘developmental’ disorder in an astonishingly modern take on the issue.

In these children the early months of childhood were uneventful and “intelligence dawned in the accustomed way.” But later, around age six or so, ” a change took place in that the child’s look had lost its wonted brightness; it took less notice of those around it; many of its movements became rhythmical and automatic.” There was “cessation of increasing intelligence”, deferred speech and “lessened responsiveness to all the endearments of its friends.” Dr. Down writes “I have had many examples of children who had spoken well and with understanding, but who lost speech at the period of the second dentition, and had also suspension of mental growth.” Dr. Down provides several examples. One was a boy who “attracted no particular attention during the first six years of life” but then “during the period of second dentition” suddenly lost speech. “He heard everything that was said, but never replied to a question.” This child did gradually regain some speech but “afterwards always spoke of himself in the third person.” The other case example was that of two brothers who also “both lost speech at the period of second dentition.”

Dr Treffert theorises that these children were kids who today would be disgnosed with ‘late onset’ autism:

Autistic Disorder, while not named such until 1943, has existed for the same long time as other forms of developmental disorder and mental retardation. It is not a new disorder.

So where does this leave the ‘mercury causes autism because they happened at the same time’ arguement? I’d urge them to read the list of symptoms Dr Landon Down categorised in 1887:

world of their own,” talking in the “third person,” being in a “dreamland,””echolalia,””self-contained and self-absorbed,” “automatic and rhythmical movements,” a countenance and “repose of brightness and intelligence,” lack of “physical features” of retardation, “no response in words,”

None of this is proof in the scientific sense but to me its simply more evidence that autism has been around much longer than people think and that the ‘mercury/autism’ link is simply wrong. For your amusement, I post a link to a story about a parent-led group similar in nature to the ‘mercury/autism’ group who belive that plastic cups cause autism. Seriously, you couldn’t make it up.

Evidence Of Harm States Its case

17 May

David Kirby unveils the extent of his evidence that mercury causes autism and presents it in the ever eager to please Schafer Autism Report.

Very recent studies, presented by top university researchers at major autism conferences or published in respected, peer-reviewed journals, have reported the following findings possibly supporting a link between mercury and autism. Some of this work has been derided by the CDC as ‘junk science’ conducted by ‘charlatans’.

So lets get rid of the dross and spin first. “major autism conferences” as a source is frankly, laughable. Not only are they unnamed, they are likely to be run by hysterical parent-led groups. I think its safe to discount these as credible. This leaves us with ‘top university researchers’ publishing in ‘respected, peer-reviewed journals’. Lets also bear in mind that that, by Kirby’s own admission these are ‘findings’ (as oppose to evidence or facts) that ‘possibly’ (as oppose to do) ‘support’ (as oppose to are) a link (as oppose to cause) autism.

So lets write out what Kirby and his motley crew wish they could say here and what they can say:

Kirby Crew: “Autism is mercury poisoning – here is some factual evidence to back that up.”

Reality: “There may be a link to indicate the possibility that some forms of mercury might have some relationship to autistic-like symptoms.”

There is not one shred of evidence that I know of that would prove that mercury poisoning causes autism.

Univeristy Of Washington / National Institutes Of Environmental Health Sciences – Published In Environmental Health Perspectives. In primates, ethylmercury from vaccines (in the form of thimerosal), once it enters the brain, converts to inorganic mercury at two to three times the rate of methylmercury, which is found in fish. Inorganic mercury lacks a natural transport system out of the brain, where it remains for long periods of time, perhaps indefinitely. A previous study by the same team found that inorganic mercury was the main cause of serious changes in brain tissue, including a major expansion of microglial cells (white matter), which is consistent with the finding of “big brains” in autistic children.

Note firstly the lack of a direct quote from the article itself. Once you get past the spin you can only deduce from the above that primates brains changed when you put mercury into them. Apparently this is ‘consistent’ with autistics big brains.

At this point I’d like to reveal the results of my own scientific investigation. Once, I gave an ice cream to a monkey which it promptly ate and shrieked in a monkey-like way in gratitude. As autistic children eat ice cream and occassionaly make strange shrieking noises too I hereby annouce that ice-cream causes autism. Where’s my Nobel prize?

In all seriousness, no one is saying that putting Mercury into kids in elevated quantities is a good thing. Its right there should be limits and maybe even a ban. This is because it can lead to mercury poisoning. Not because it causes autism. There really is a difference.

University Of California – M.I.N.D. Institute – Presented At The 2005 Interational Meeting For Autism Research. Children with autism have a markedly different immune profile from normal kids. They are found to have increased autoimmunity, extremely high levels of certain immune cells and cytokines, and an imbalance of immune cells to antibodies (TH1 vs. TH2 response). ALL of these abnormal conditions appear in the literature on mercury toxicity.

What? How is this evidence? All it shows is that some aspects of some autistics immune profile share some characteristics of mercury toxicity. I don’t know anyone in the field who doesn’t know that autism and mercury poisoning share characteristics. How exactly does this even support a link, let alone offer supporting evidence?

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health – Published In The Journal Pediatrics. The rate of increase in new cases of autism among children born every year in the United States was relatively stable until 1987, when the rate suddenly began to spike, and then continued to rise among children born in each subsequent birth cohort. A second spike in the rate of increase was noted in 1992, a few years after which, the rate began to level off. (It is interesting to note that, between 1987 and 1992, with the introduction of new thimerosal containing vaccines, total mercury exposure from infant immunization went from 75 to nearly 240 micrograms). Meanwhile, the reported incidence of mental retardation and other childhood disorders remained constant, meaning that “diagnostic substitution” was not an explanation for the rise in autism cases.

Demonstrating both a frightening attitude to misinformation and a nice line in arrogance regarding how the US sees itself as the centre of the world. Firstly, what happens in America is relevant to America only. The rest of us don’t see that tally. If Kirby wants to rename his book ‘Evidence of Harm Between the Years 1987-1992 and Only In America’ based on this ‘evidence’ then that might go some way towards addressing his interpretation of data. Still won’t make it any more relevant though. And ‘diagnostic substitution’? What the hell? Is Kirby suggesting that Doctors don’t know the difference betwe autism and mental retardation? Or is this just a really stupid way of trying to persuade people the the autism ‘epidemic’ isn’t better detection and reporting plus an increase in the width of diagnostic criteria? I suspect the latter.

University Of Arkansas – Arkansas Children’s Hospital Published In The Journal Biology. Children with autism have extremely low or depleted levels of sulfur-based bio-chemicals known as thiols (a synonym for thiol is mercaptan, or literally, “mercury capturer,”). The reason is thought to be genetic. Without these substances, such as the protein glutathione, these genetically variant children suffer from oxidative stress, and show a reduced capacity to liminate heavy metals like mercury. Biomedical intervention with a variety of natural substances was shown to elevate thiol levels in study children to normal levels.

Er, OK. So what Kirby seems to be saying here is that if autistics have low levels of thiols they can’t liminate mercury. How that supports the theory of mercury poisoning causing autism is beyond me. This line of argument is almost a living breathing definition of the word ‘circumstantial’. Or ‘crap’.

Columbia University – Published In Molecular Psychology. Mice with a genetic predisposition to autoimmunity showed horrific reactions to thimerosal containing vaccines, compared to mice without the autoimmunity. Sensitive mice showed repetitive and self-injurious behavior, including grooming themselves or their cage mates incessantly, sometimes to the point of death. They also were found to have increased brain size compared to the typical (control) mice exposed to the same vaccine schedule.

I must admit to the odd snigger or two by this point. Is this really what Kirby thinks is ‘supporting evidence’ of mercury as a causative of autism? Tell you what Dave mate – when I see two autistics grooming each other to the point of death then I’ll start to worry.

Here’s what Craig Newschaffer of Johns Hopkins says:

Epidemiologist Craig Newschaffer of Johns Hopkins says that animal experiments such as this are important to determine the physiological effects of exposure to toxic substances. But, he notes, it’s impossible to say with certainty that lab animals exhibiting certain kinds of behavior have autism or that what happens in lab animals translates to people.

Science News.

Of course, the mercury crowd don’t care for logic. How they think you can diagnose a mouse with autism is simply baffling.

Northeastern University – Published In Molecular Psychiatry. Thimerosal, when exposed to cells with certain genetic mutations, can interfere with critical metabolic processes, including something called methylation. Methylation is crucial for proper gene expression and DNA/RNA growth, and for the development of neurotransmitters and essential fatty acids – including myelin – which protect the nerves and brain. Methylation is also needed for the development of sulfur-based thiols (or “mercury capturers”) such as glutathione, and other detoxification functions.

So really, what you’re saying is that if someone doesn’t have these ‘certain genetic mutations’ then Thimerosal can’t harm them? But…but…I thought all the mercury crowd thought there was no genetic basis for autism. Talking to such hysterics as Lujene Clarke gave me the idea that it was either/or with you guys. And even if you do support the idea of a genetic basis – what exactly are these ‘certain genetic mutations’? I can’t help but note no-one says what these mutations actually are. Possibly because they have no bearing on autism?

Here’s what proper scientisits have to say about this study:

The authors conclude that “The potent inhibition of this pathway by ethanol, lead, mercury, aluminum and thimerosal suggests that it may be an important target of neurodevelopmental toxins.” Unfortunately, the authors tacked on the statement that “…vaccine components (i.e. thimerosal and aluminum) may have contributed to the risk of autism, ADHD and other developmental disorders.” We understand the pressures on scientists to justify the relevance of their research and maintain funding of their work but the problem is that sometimes basic research is just basic research and nothing more.

Medicinenet

Next!

University Of Texas – Published In The Journal Health And Place. Mercury released primarily from coal-fired power plants may be contributing to an increase in the number of cases of autism. The study found that autism increased in Texas counties as mercury emissions rose. For every thousand pounds of environmentally released mercury, there was a 61 percent increase in autism rates. The study looked at Texas county-by-county levels of mercury emissions and compared them to the rates of autism and special education services in 1,200 Texas school districts. One county with low mercury emissions but significant autism rates was found to harbor the nation’s largest mercury mine. An author of the study said it shows a potentially “important connection between environmental exposure to mercury and the development of autism.”

61% increase? Funny that, because Professor Palmer himself says

We found that for every 1,000 pounds of mercury released by industry, there was a 17 percent increase in autism,” Palmer tells WebMD.

Please do your research properly. The Professor also says:

Palmer is quick to point out that this kind of study does not prove mercury pollution causes autism. “We show a significant relationship between mercury release into the environment and autism. But that does not prove causation,” Palmer says.

FOX

So, once again. No proof that mercury poisoning either is, or causes, autism. There may be a link but what that link is or even if it exists at all is pure conjecture. In the meantime, what isn’t conjecture is the amount of money Kirby, Generation Rescue et al make from manipulating the emotions of parents into buying hysterical books on the subject and purchasing thousands of dollars worth of chelation ‘therapy’.

I’m merely happy that the more hysterical and easily led of these groups exist mainly in the US and Canada. Thankfully in the UK common sense still seems to largely prevail. Then again, we’ve never been of the opinion that everything difficult can be solved be stamping our feet and showering it with money.

BMJ Weighs In on ‘Evidence of Harm’.

13 May

David Kirbys ‘Evidence of Harm’ in particular and the whole ‘mercury poisoning is autism’ movement in general were roundly denounced today by the BMJ.

Kirby echoes the conviction of parents who believe that vaccines are to blame for an “epidemic of autism.” He endorses their dismissal of the consensus among autism specialists that the most likely explanation for the increasing number of cases is the greater recognition of the condition among parents and professionals and the expansion of diagnostic categories. In response to the numerous epidemiological studies in different countries that have failed to confirm any link between vaccines and autism, Kirby reports the increasingly forlorn attempts of campaigners to discredit these studies and their authors. Disillusioned with epidemiology, campaigners have turned to biochemistry; and Kirby follows them into the laboratories of a handful of researchers, some funded by parent led campaigns, who claim to have shown evidence of a link between vaccines and autism. This evidence was systematically examined—and rejected—by the authoritative US Institute of Medicine last year.

All I can say is ‘well done’ to the BMJ and reviewer Michael Fitzpatrick in particular. Its a great relief to know that the scientific community are watching the quack cure movement closely, ready to point out the logical and factual errors in their beliefs. As parents who love and care for our autistic children what we need are interventions that work, not ‘cures’ that are based on fallacy and innuendo. Hasten the day when those parents (particularly those in North America) can realise that autism isn’t something you can solve by throwing a quick fix of money at it. Its a reality to be experienced and the sooner that parents can accept that and help their kids, the better we’ll see autistic kids grow into successful autistic adults.

More On Mercury/Thimerosal And Generation Rescue

2 May

An intriguing development. Checking my referrer logs (in the awesome Awstats) I came across a reference to Yahoo list server about the David Kirby book, ‘Evidence of Harm’. Interested, I followed it back and came across a thread where this post about Generation: Rescue was being discussed. Of course, when I say discussed I mean slagged off and (as you can see from the comments) my abilities as both a parent and a functional human being called into question because I disagreed with GR that autism is mercury poisoning.

I’m not going to link to the list server as I hate Yahoo lists with a passion (they’re incredibly difficult to navigate – why would anyone use a Yahoo maillist when hosting is so cheap and there are loads of free easy to setup forums?) but it shouldn’t be hard to find if you’re minded to look for it. Just go to yahoo Groups and search for Evidence of Harm. You have to join to read by the way.

Anyway, in amongst the vitriol and petty posturing were some valid points that I felt deserved further explanation. I also got a lot of emails asking me to backup and/or justify my position which is fair enough, no-one can make assertions in a vacuum and expect to be taken seriously and I’d rather do it here in one place than carry on using the dreadful, unintuitive Yahoo interface design.

So, to begin, lets start with the reason that I visited the EoH list in the first place. I made a post that stated that GR were wrong to state that autism was mercury poisoning. Lets clarify that a bit further. GR didn’t say some cases of autism were mercury poisoning. They didn’t say that some cases of mercury poisoning had been misdiagnosed as autism, they said – autism was mercury poisoning. Pure and simple, just that.

Now obviously I disagree. But why? And why does it matter so much?

Well I disagree mainly because mercury poisoning isn’t autism, its mercury poisoning. In order for me to disprove GR’s assertion that autism is solely mercury poisoning, all I have to do is prove there’s more than one basis for autism. Thats easy, researchers are certain there is a genetic component to autism:

Because of the clear evidence that idiopathic autism has a strong genetic basis, many groups are undertaking whole genome screens

Two Studies Point to Genetic Basis of Autism, Open Door to Further Research

The findings indicate that autism is under a high degree of genetic control and suggest the involvement of multiple genetic loci.

While the causes of autism still remain a mystery, it has become clear that genetic factors contribute significantly to the occurrence of the disorder.

So, thats pretty clear. Not conclusive whatsoever taken individually but when taken as a whole, the weight of evidence clearly indicates genetics at least plays a part. This is backed up by my own experience – 3 of my close relatives were on the spectrum and I don’t believe in coincedences on that scale.

But lets not forget that GR claim that autism is mercury poisoning. I’ve shown fairly conclusively that mainstream science disagrees with such a black and white interpretation but lets tackle the issue directly – what actually is autism?

…(a) lifelong developmental disability that occurs by itself or in association with other disorders that affect the function of the brain

brain disorder that begins in early childhood and persists throughout adulthood

autism is a complex developmental disability

The term means a developmental disability

(autism)….is (a) disorder which usually appears within the first three years of life

A chronic developmental disorder usually diagnosed between 18 and 30 months of age

Autism is a disorder of brain function that appears early in life, generally before the age of three

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability

A lifelong, nonprogressive neurological disorder

Autism is a form of pervasive developmental disorder with an unknown origin

a developmental disability that can cause problems with communication, social interaction and routine/repetitive behaviors

Autism is a communication and behaviour disorder

Phew, thats enough copying and pasting. All these definitions were found on Google searching for ‘define: autism’. Seems pretty clear to me. Autism is seen by the medical community as a developmental disorder. Not mercury poisoning.

What about the industry heavyweights? In the UK, the main research body is ARC (Autism Research Centre). the President of this organisation being Professor Simon Baron-Cohen:

What do you feel is the reason for the recent dramatic increase of autistic children in the United States? Do thimerosal
(mercury), environmental toxins and genetics play a role in autism?. I know it is not a very popular view, but it is possible that the dramatic increase of children with autism world-wide is due to better diagnosis, better awareness, changing diagnosis, and the growth of services. When I started in this field 20 years ago, there were only about 3 centres in the whole of the UK where one could go to get one’s child diagnosed with autism, from a specialist. Today, there are many clinics in every town that can provide this service. So, we cannot under-estimate the effect of having a lot more well trained clinicians in front-line public health services looking out for children with these possible diagnoses.

SAR.

To be fair, Professor Baron-Cohen does, as all decent scientists should, say that he maintains an open mind regarding Thimerosal. I completely agree with him. If it was proven in scientifc, peer-reviewed journals that autism was mercury poisoning then I’d be first in the queue. However, as we’ve already seen, autism is not mercury poisoning, its a disorder which is almost certainly at least partly genetic.

So lets give GR the benefit of the doubt. Lets say that what they actually meant when they said that autism was mercury poisoning was that autism is caused by mercury poisoning. I mean, lets not beat around the bush – this is not what they claim but lets be fair and assume they did. Is it true? Does mercury poisoning cause autism?

If it does we need to answer the following questions:

  • Why do only a few people (relatively speaking) ‘get’ autism? If mercury poisoning causes autism we should see a much, much greater prevelance than we do. The vast majority of children in the UK have had vaccines.
  • If mercury poisoning causes autism why, when Thimerosal was removed from US vaccines in 2000, have autism cases not dropped? (http://www.autism-watch.org/general/thio.shtml)
  • Why is there no scientifically valid, peer-reviewed evidence available to support the theory that mercury poisoning causes autism?

Here’s a few extracts from Quackwatch, the science website dedicated to exposing scientific fallacies.

A study published in 2002 of infants who were 6 months of age or younger compared the levels of mercury in the blood, hair, urine, and stool of 40 who received vaccines containing thimerosal and 20 who received vaccines without thimerosal. The study found: Mercury levels in blood and urine were low in all infants studied and in many cases too small to measure. There was no observed dose-dependent relationship between the level of thimerosal received through vaccination and the level of mercury in the body. Mercury levels in blood did not exceed, at any time, the blood levels that correspond to Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for exposure. Mercury levels in the stool of infants receiving vaccines containing thimerosal were relatively high compared to mercury levels in the stool of infants who were not exposed to thimerosal, providing evidence that mercury from thimerosal is eliminated in the stool of infants. The researchers concluded that, “Administration of vaccines containing thiomersal does not seem to raise blood concentrations of mercury above safe values in infants.”

http://www.quackwatch.org/03HealthPromotion/immu/thimerosal.html

As recently as last month (Feb 2005), the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published a report by UK and Japanese researchers that disproved the thimerosal-autism connection in a study of 30,000 Japanese kids. The website of the Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov) offers several studies that refute any linkage. The CDC’s own Institute of Medicine’s Immunization Safety Review Committee recently concluded that “neither thimerosal-containing vaccines or MMR [measles-mumps-rubella] vaccine are associated with autism” and that “the hypotheses regarding a link between autism and MMR vaccine and thimerosal-containing vaccines lack supporting evidence and are only theoretical.”

http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2005/03/revisiting-thimerosal-autism.html

More to the point: If there were a link between thimerosal and autism, you would expect to see a sharp decrease in autism, since thimerosal has been absent from all childhood vaccines (except some flu vaccines) for five years now, On the contrary, the documented autism rate has continued to climb, proving there is no relationship between the two whatsoever.

http://quackfiles.blogspot.com/2005/03/revisiting-thimerosal-autism.html

Those who support the idea that mercury causes autism cite a wide range of researchers who’ve conducted research into the connection and found positive evidence to support the link. Particular favourites amongst believers in the link are Dr. Mark Geier, David Geier (who’s not even a Doctor) and Dr Andrew Wakefield.

Dr Mark Geier is in American parlance a ‘professional witness’, meaning one who will perform as an expert witness for you in court cases for money. Here’s an official court order regarding Mark Geier from November 2003.

He is however a professional witness in areas for which he has no training, expertise, and experience. Petitioners must seriously consider whether they want to proceed with a witness whose opinion on neurological diagnosis is unacceptable to the undersigned. When we reach the end of this case and the question of expert fees arises, there will be serious doubt whether Dr. Geier should be compensated for his time devoted to diagnosing an acute encephalopathy where none exists, and discussing (in his first supplemental affidavit) the MMR reactions of acute encephalopathy and encephalitis when neither is relevant in this case because Christopher, who was alert and in no acute distress on the 15th day after his MMR vaccination (when Dr. Geier opines his acute encephalopathy began on the 14th day, less than 24 hours earlier), could not possibly have had a Table acute encephalopathy or encephalitis. Moreover, three days later, he was also alert and in no acute distress.

And further to that,

The IOM report described two studies by Geier (6) which had reported an association between MMR and autism as “characterized by serious methodological flaws and their analytic methods were nontransparent making their results uninterpretable, and therefore non-contributory with respect to causality.” In other words, the studies by Geier could not establish a causal relation between MMR and autism because of their methods—such as using statistical measures incorrectly and omitting facts about their research approach. Similar problems were found in six other studies by Geier (7) and one study by Blaxill (8), which reported findings of an association between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism. In addition, Geier’s expertise in neurological disorders has been questioned.

And returning to the issue of Dr Geier’s ability as a professional witness:

In other vaccine cases, Dr. Geier’s testimony has similarly been accorded no weight: Thompson v. Secretary of HHS, No. 99-0436, 2003 WL 221439672 (Fed. CI. Spec. Mstr. May 23, 2003); Bruesewitz v. Secretary of HHS, No. 95-0266, 2002 WL 31965744 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. Dec. 20, 2002); Raj v. Secretary of HHS, No. 96-0294V, 2001 WL 963984, *12 (Fed. CI. Spec. Mstr. July 31, 2001); Haim v. Secretary of HHS, No. 90-1031V, 1993 WL 346392 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. Aug. 27, 1993) (“Dr Geier’s testimony is not reliable, or grounded in scientific methodology and procedure. His testimony is merely subjective belief and unsupported speculation.”); Marascalco v. Secretary of HHS, No. 90-1571V, 1993 WL 277095 (Fed. Cl. Spec. Mstr. July 9, 1993) (where the special master described Dr. Geier’s testimony as intellectually dishonest); Einspahr v. Secretary of HHS, No. 90-923V, 1992 WL 336396 (CI. Ct. Spec. Mstr. Oct. 28, 1992), aff’d, 17 F.3d 1444 (Fed. Cir. 1994); Aldridge v. Secretary of HHS, No. 90-2475V, 1992 WL 153770 (CI. Ct. Spec. Mstr. June 11, 1992); Ormechea v. Secretary of HHS, No. 90-1683V, 1992 WL 151816 (Cl. Ct. Spec. Mstr. June 10, 1992) (“Because Dr. Geier has made a profession of testifying in matters to which his professional background (obstetrics, genetics) is unrelated, his testimony is of limited value to the court.”); Daly v. Secretary of HHS, No. 90-590V, 1991 WL 15473 (Cl. Ct. Spec. Mstr. July 26, 1991) (“The court is inclined not to allow Dr. Geier to testify before it on issues of Table injuries. Dr. Geier clearly lacks the expertise to evaluate the symptomatology of the Table injuries and render an opinion thereon.”).

All above quotes taken from Quackfiles blog

And how about Andrew Wakefield? A name more familiar to a UK audience definitely.

Sir Liam Donaldson, England’s chief medical officer, accused Dr Andrew Wakefield of peddling “poor science”. He said the 1998 study was flawed and has been criticised by “independent experts around the world”. His comments came as the General Medical Council prepared to open an investigation into the way Dr Wakefield carried out his study.

BBC News

So these are part of the scientific resources the ‘mercury causes autism’ followers have to rely on to provide their science. Not a great validation in my opinion. Not only have we seen how mercury poisoning is not solely responsible for autism, or probably even responsible at all, we’ve also seen that in all valid scientific tests done so far, mercury/thimerosal has been substantially unproven to be linked to autism as a causative. We’ve also seen how their leading researchers are held in very low esteem by their countries legaslative and medical bodies.

So what reason then do people have for promoting a link between mercury/thimerosal and autism? Who gets what out of it?

…(I)n a recent web search on “thimerosal autism”, five of the first ten results link to alarmist informational sites bankrolled by law firms. Not to knock my fellow professionals, but this data point makes it easier to understand why there is still so much press on the alleged thimerosal-autism connection. The agenda of many of these sites is quite clear: to link vaccines to autism and to stimulate lawsuits by aggrieved parents. As for the media’s ongoing interest in autism, sensationalism seems to be the primary motive.

Dr. Michel Cohen.

I’m not saying Generation Rescue are in it for the money but when the evidence that supports their theory that autism is mercury poisoning is so scanty and the evidence that goes against them so strong then a large element of doubt about their authenticity is only to be expected.

And why does all this matter so much to me?

Lots of reasons. Firstly, the treatment that groups like Generation Rescue sell is at best, experimental. Its called ‘Chelation Therapy’, stripping out the mercury (and/or other heavy metals) from the body. Here’s some opinions on it:

The use of chelation therapy to treat autistic children is completely bogus. Three successful lawsuits have been filed by parents who believe they were victimized in this way.

Details of the lawsuits and the subsequent shutting down of the clinic responsible for administering these treatments can be found on Quckwatch.org. Its disturbing reading. Also pretty disturbing are the fraud claims against Chelation therapists as well as the suits filed against Chelation therapists in Australia.

You may also find a visit to Quackwatch’s Chelation page interesting. It has links to two cases of fraud and five cases of Disciplinary action against Chelation therapists as well as details of why American Insurance companies won’t cover the administration of Chelation therapy.

Please note: I’m not claiming Chelation therpay has no medical benefit (although it looks pretty doubtful). I’m claiming that it has no medical benefit when used to treat autism. It also has no medical benefit for a range of other medical issues. Taken from the American Heart Association:

What’s chelation therapy? Chelation therapy has been proposed to treat existing atherosclerosis and to prevent it from forming. After carefully reviewing all the available scientific literature on this subject, the American Heart Association has concluded that the benefits claimed for this form of therapy aren’t scientifically proven. That’s why we don’t recommend this type of treatment.

American Heart Association.

So, in essence, Chelation therapy as a treatment for autism is useless. As a treatment for lots of other conditions its also useless. It does however have one legitimate use:

…(C)helation has legitimate use for treating heavy metal poisoning.

Chelationwatch.

So what does that tell us? Well, to me it quite clearly says that any ‘autistic’ being successfuly treated with Chelation therapy wasn’t autistic – they were metal poisoned.

It matters to me that people are being fooled in their honest attempts to help their autistic children into being treated with this stuff. The more attention rubbish like this gets, the less attention valid interventions such as PECS gets and another generation of autistic kids get treated as experimental guinea pigs by well meaning parents doing their best with the information most readily to hand.

So I generally believe Generation Rescue are evil right? No. I believe they possibly do great work in detoxing kids suffering from metal poisoning and its further true to say that some autistic kids may well have metal poisoning – its not the sole province of non-autisitcs after all – but they should seriously rethink their stance on ‘autism is mercury poisoning’. Its a simplistic error and one thats shamefully calculated to play on the best intentions of parents of autistic kids. It could also have serious health implications on the children being treated. Where are the long term health studies into Chelation therapy? I’ve not seen one. Tht doesn’t mean they don’t exist of course but before I subject my child to any course of medication I want to give that method a serious investigation. It does strike me as ironic that the same parents who rush to condem a vaccine that is proven not to cause autism are happy to submit their kids to a very under-researched area of medicine.

Its also depressingly ironic that we’re now beginning to reap the consequences of our folly as a recent outbreak of Rubella in Canada shows. Rubella, of course, can cause autism.

I believe as a parent that my overriding responsibility is to the health of my children. Thats why we only use interventions that definitely help and don’t use those that are not based on valid science. I further believe that my responsibility to my kids is to raise them to be happy and confident of who they are. We don’t seek a cure as we love Megan for who she is. She’s smart, bright, confident, funny, annoying, noisy, stand-offish, loving, stimming, involved, curious and autistic. There’s nothing I’d want to change about any of that and the things that are a problem like her toileting, her lack of effective communication and sleeplesness are intervened in with varying degrees of success. But we know that our interventions are scientifically valid. They require a hell of a lot fo work and there’s no quick fix but who could possibly not want to spend more time with their kids?

NB: I’m sure people will have a lot to say and thats fine. If you keep it polite and well mannered your comments will stay. I won’t tolerate abusive tone or language and I’d appreciate it if you used the ‘textile’ tool (see link next to comment box) to properly create links if you cite them. Anyone who does lapse into abuse will be reported to their ISP and their IP address will be banned from here. I have 2 (soon to be 3) kids to parent, I don’t have time to parent you too.

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