You will have probably already heard of this study but in case you haven’t, the abstract of this study is this (in a nutshell, attempting to show there is no link between mercury and autism);

Though causes of autism are considered largely genetic, considerable concern remains that exposure to Rh immune globulin (RhIg), which until 2001 in the United States contained the preservative thimerosal, can cause autism. To determine whether mothers of children with autism are more likely to be Rh negative (Rh(-)) or to have received RhIg preserved with thimerosal, which is 49.6% ethyl mercury, we surveyed families of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) ascertained through a University-based autism clinic considered free of ascertainment biases related to type of autism or severity.

Between 2004 and 2006, 305 mothers of 321 children with an ASD agreed to participate in a telephone interview. Analysis of complete records including the blood group status and RhIg exposure of 214 families showed that Rh(-) status is no higher in mothers of children with autism than in the general population, exposure to antepartum RhIg, preserved with thimerosal is no higher for children with autism and pregnancies are no more likely to be Rh incompatible.

This was also true for autism subgroups defined by behavioral phenotype, gender, IQ, regressive onset, head circumference, dysmorphology, birth status, essential, or complex phenotype. These findings support the consensus that exposure to ethylmercury in thimerosal is not the cause of the increased prevalence of autism. These data are important not only for parents in this country but also for the international health community where thimerosal continues to be used to preserve multi-dose vials which in turn makes vaccines affordable.

And over at LogiPundit you will find some very perceptive comments on this study which sure makes us question the purpose and nature of the study;

1) Vaccinations were given to mothers pre-partum. The concentration of thimerosal to a fetus in a vaccination given to a 135 lb. woman is going to be less than that given to a post-partum baby. I’d have to read the article and wrap my head around the literature to determine the average amount of thimerosal exposure in each case. Most likely, it is a much lower exposure in the prenatal Rh vaccination.

2) Multiple rounds of multi-dose vials exceeded FDA approved levels of mercury exposure. Period. The authors are comparing apples to oranges here. Any one pre-2001 vaccination did not exceed FDA levels of mercury exposure, but the combination of multiple vaccinations in a short span did exceed FDA approved levels. This report is not the nail in the coffin of the thimerosal hypothesis that the authors suggest.

3) Johnson and Johnson funded the study. Good science is often funded by private companies, but it should be noted that although the original report cites this funding, the news media do not. I love Johnson and Johnson, and most all pharm companies. Really, they do great work. But these possible conflicts of interest must be highlighted in every study.

Source: American Chronicle
When someone mentions thimerosal the claim is that they are some kind of nut. Sorry but the nuts are those that claim thimerosal is safe. Explain in detail please, how the second leading toxin to man can be safe at any level? The sad thing is that the government and the pharmaceutical industry know that it is not true. They just fear that once everyone understands this it would cause problems for them.

Please explain why there are 8600 food additives with some being unstudied? Please explain why now you admit Global Warming, but just won’t admit that our people are getting just as sick as the planet? It all goes hand in hand. Add it up and you have to see this. Come clean and start to correct these mistakes. Stop the lies and quit creating one of the biggest crimes against humanity. Our food is not safe when it contains even tiny traces of pesticides. These pesticides are not only killing the destructive insects but the needed ones for plant development also. Do we really need 1000 different pesticides? [more]

Source: WebMD
New research adds to the evidence showing no causal link between autism and the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal. Researchers compared records of children exposed to thimerosal while in the womb and those not exposed and found no difference in autism rates. The study is one of the first to look at exposure to mercury-containing vaccines during the last months of pregnancy.
Rh Protein and Thimerosal

The Rh protein shot is routinely given to pregnant women who are Rh-negative. These women lack the Rh protein on the surface of their red blood cells. The injection prevents Rh disease, which can cause the fetus to be stillborn or lead to fatal illnesses in the newborn. It has been suggested that children born to mothers who are given injections of Rh protein during pregnancy may be at increased risk for autism because thimerosal was used in the Rh protein injection until 2001. [more]

Source: Opednews
Using these epidemiological studies, the head of the CDC, Dr. Julie Gerberding, told the public, “What we know today is based on many studies that have looked at children in various populations around the world including the United States and have involved thousands of children that the preponderance of evidence consistently does not reveal an association between Thimerosal and autism. These studies have been looked at by some of the best and brightest scientists across the world and in the United States through our Institutes of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.”

Who are “the best and the brightest”? The studies by “some of the best and brightest scientists across the world” conjure up images of white-coated experts in state-of-the-art laboratories researching all the possible side effects that could result from using mercury in vaccines. Despite exhausting research, they just came up empty.

Notice the often-repeated phrase is “studies show no link” not, “research shows no link.” That’s an important distinction. The scientists in this case are statisticians sitting at computers running the numbers on children and vaccinations instead of in a laboratory doing testing on the toxicity of the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal, or in the field actually examining affected children. The figures these researchers come up with are the proof used to disprove any connection between vaccines and autism. [more]

Source: Slate
Bobby Kennedy Jr., a lawyer beloved by the environmental movement for defending rivers and attacking coal-burning power plants, recently discovered a new cause. In a June Rolling Stone article, and in subsequent appearances on Imus in the Morning, ABC News, and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, he accuses government vaccine scientists and their academic advisers of covering up what for him is an uncontestable fact: the causal link between a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal in vaccines and a massive increase in childhood autism in America. [more]

Source: Charlottesville Podcasting Network
Wendy Fournier is the president of the National Autism Association. She joins Coy Barefoot on WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now to talk about her own family’s experience with autism as well as the latest research. She also updates listeners on legislation in the Senate to give the Food and Drug Administration oversight of the nation’s compounding pharmacies. Currently they’re regulated by state governments. Fournier says this will limit the options of parents of autistic children, who need individually prepared medications.

Fournier also reports on a recent workshop on autism and the environment held by the Institute of Medicine. She reports that a representative of the CDC appeared at the meeting and listed Thimerosal, an ethyl mercury-based vaccine preservative, as one of possible key triggers of autism. This is a welcome line of research for many parents, scientists, and doctors who have advocated for many years now that there is a connection between mercury poisoning and autism. Listen to the podcast on Charlottesville Podcasting Network.

Source: France 24
Mercury levels have no relationship to the development of autism, a developmental disorder whose cause remains unclear, according to a Canadian study published Thursday. “In recent years, hypotheses have been raised concerning a possible relationship between mercury exposure and autism,” said Eric Fombonne, head researcher and director of pediatric psychiatry at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. “Specifically, the concerns have been related to childhood thimerosal-containing vaccines, dental amalgams, and methylmercury in food,” he said in a statement.

The research team examined mercury levels in hair and blood samples provided by autistic children and their mothers and concluded that the levels observed did not differ largely from those taken from children without autism. The study also “demonstrated that there was no correlation between the mercury level and the severity of symptoms and level of functioning of autistic children.”

Children with autism, a growing developmental concern which appears before age three, often avoid physical contact and communicate with gestures rather than speech. A February study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that autism is more common in the United States than previously believed, affecting one child in 150. The Canadian study was performed on 71 autistic children and 75 children without the disorder. Fombonne said the study’s findings also implied that “chelation therapies, whereby heavy metals are removed from the body using specific compounds, are not useful in the treatment of autism.”

Now, if you have read all that, you should also read this and read about what the study doesn’t tell you. Like the fact that blood tests are not helpful in detecting mercury poisoning, except acute exposure. And that hair tests are often misinterpreted and that the lack of finding a significant difference says very little.

Source: Seattle PI
In most cases, nobody can say what causes the disorder, sometimes better defined as a spectrum of related disorders, or whether the increasing number of diagnosed cases represents an actual increase or just improved recognition of the disease. Autism. It is still largely a medical mystery. More than 900 scientists, physicians, activists and parents from all around the world are gathering in Seattle this week to collaborate on solving that mystery. The sixth International Meeting for Autism Research, which runs Thursday through Saturday, is being held at Seattle Sheraton Hotel. It is not open to the public.

“We’re certainly identifying more children with autism,” said Geraldine Dawson, co-chairwoman of the conference and director of the University of Washington’s Autism Center. This disorder, largely diagnosed by behavioral patterns and generally described as a developmental disability impairing an individual’s ability to communicate or fully engage in social activities, is now thought to occur in one of every 150 births. [more]

Source: Caroline Newswire
In a recent NBC 17 newscast, John C. Pittman, MD, founder of the Carolina Center for Integrative Medicine (CCIM), voiced his concerns about the mercury-containing preservative Thimerosal used in North Carolina vaccines. NBC 17 News Reporter, Brian DeRoy, covered the story, which focused on a parents group that wants to ban mercury from all vaccines currently used in North Carolina. The group, Moms Against Mercury, says that mercury is harmful to children and increases the rate of autism.

Although state health officials say that there is no documented connection between mercury and Autism, Dr. Pittman said that he has seen many patients-both adults and children-who have had their health harmed by heavy metal exposure. In DeRoy’s interview, Dr. Kevin Ryan, the Chief of the State Health Department’s Women’s and Children’s section, stated that replacing Thimerosal with a substitute in vaccines would be costly and unnecessary-resulting in over one million dollars to the State. Dr. Pittman is one of the area’s most outspoken advocates pushing for the removal of Thimerosal in children’s vaccines and has personally treated children who have suffered neurological injury due to Thimerosal exposure. Says Dr. Pittman, “If you consider the enormous costs involved in caring for an autistic child, especially if you look over that individual’s lifetime, this cost can far exceed a million dollars, which in many cases is paid for by the State.”

Dr. Pittman and the Carolina Center treat patients diagnosed with mercury toxicity through Chelation Therapy, the administering of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. These agents, like EDTA, are injected into the bloodstream where they attach to heavy metals (such as lead, mercury, and cadmium), bind them, and then remove them from the body through the kidneys. Dr. Pittman also uses Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) as an adjunct in treating Autism and all forms of brain injury. When used in the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder, HBOT has been shown to increase verbalization, promote calmness and a feeling of well being, increase oxygen to areas of the brain that are ischemic, improve sleep patterns disturbed by oxygen deficiency, and promote new blood vessel growth into areas of poor blood flow in the brain.

Dr. Pittman is the only local physician fully certified in chelation therapy for the treatment of heavy metal toxicity and only one of six medical practitioners in the state of North Carolina who is a Diplomate through the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology. He has testified at the Environmental Defense public hearing to discuss the current health crisis caused by mercury toxicity and was one of several professionals who spoke at the State Capitol Building last year to support legislation to ensure safer vaccines and flu shots for North Carolina’s children and pregnant women.

“The symptoms experienced by children exposed to mercury are real and can be directly linked to the vaccines they were given as infants,” said Dr. Pittman. “It’s ironic that the vaccines given to these young people are meant to protect them, when in fact they are adversely affecting their neurological development. Hopefully, the more pressure that citizen groups like Moms Against Mercury can put on our State health officials, we may eventually see a change in the way vaccines are manufactured.”

About the Carolina Center for Integrative Medicine:Since 1994, the Carolina Center for Integrative Medicine has been the Triangle’s leading provider of integrative medical treatments and therapies. Practice founder, Dr. John Pittman, is the only local physician fully certified in chelation therapy for the treatment of heavy metal toxicity and only one of six medical practitioners in the state of North Carolina who is a Diplomate through the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology.

The Carolina Center utilizes a combination of the most progressive alternative and conventional therapies, along with dietary and lifestyle modifications, to treat a wide variety of chronic illnesses and immune system dysfunctions. Conditions treated include Atherosclerosis & Disorders of Circulation, Chronic Digestive Disturbances, Chronic Infections & Immune Dysfunction, Degenerative Neurological Disorders, Fibromyalgia, Lyme Disease, Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity/Environmental Allergies, and Pediatric Program for Autism. The Carolina Center also provides Chemical Detoxification and support for patients injured through exposure to mold, pesticides, hydraulic fluid, mercury, and sick building syndrome. For more information, visit www.carolinacenter.com

Source: American Chronicle
The spin doctors have called those that have pointed to this toxin as a contributor to Autism Spectrum Disorders junk scientist. They claim that the only reason why the elimination of the vaccine preservative thimerosal (mercury compound) is being done is to calm the fears of parents. The denial that it was the EPA that sounded the warning is neglected. A Dr. David Graham of the FDA told a congressional hearing that mercury in vaccines is in fact dangerous. He was introduced as a top researcher for the FDA but was soon ridiculed by his bosses as a junk scientist.

Despite claims that all but the flu vaccine are thimerosal free is also misleading as thimerosal is still used in the production of some vaccines and trace amounts can still remain. This is noted but with a disclaimer that these vaccines should be regarded as Thimerosal free. Not that they really are. [more]