The Mercury Debate

Thimerosal in Mandated Vaccinations is the Major Etiological Agent
in the Recent Increase in Autism and Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder:
Hypothesis Presented to Kentucky Assembly October 15, 2003

[By Boyd E. Haley, Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky.]

      Since the early 1980s there has been a consistent elevation of the
rate of autism that appears to coincide with the increased exposure of
infants to vaccinations that have been mandated by the CDC and approved by
the FDA. This has been done with good intentions as most agree that
vaccinations can greatly reduce the level of many infectious diseases.
However, underlying this protection against infectious diseases by vaccines
was another apparent risk that has, in my opinion, lead to the tremendous
increase in neurological diseases such as autism, ADHD and other medical
problems. The 714% increase in autism has, in my opinion, occurred through
the early exposure of infants and toddlers to the compound thimerosal used
as a preservative in many vaccines.
      Thimerosal is a compound that breaks down in the body to release
ethyl-mercury, a very neurotoxic compound quite similar to methyl-mercury
found in fish. However, ingestion of fish exposes any methyl-mercury to the
intestines where about 65% of the heavy metal protective protein,
metallothionine (MT), exists in the body. This MT has the ability to bind
mercury and organic mercury rendering them much less toxic and leads to
their removal in the feces before they enter the blood stream. In contrast,
vaccinations containing mercury by-pass the major protection provided by the
intestinal MT as the ethyl-mercury directly enters the blood stream from the
site of injection. It has been documented that the amount of mercury these
infants are exposed to at single visits to the doctors office are 30-70
times the minimum safe level as determined by the EPA. The recommendation to
mandate vaccinations of infants, even as early as on the day they were born,
was made without adequate studies to determine that this was a safe
procedure. It was primarily through the action of several "parents of
autistic children" organizations that this catastrophic occurrence was
brought to the public’s attention. Today, using statistics from the US Dept.
of Education, data on autistic children served through "Individual With
Disabilities Act" it was observed that from 1991-92 through 2001-02 a 714%
increase in autism has occurred throughout the USA. In Kentucky the increase
was from 38 to 1,022; a 2,689% increase over this time period.
      There is little doubt about the increase in autism and related
disorders since 1985. There is severe contention as to whether or not
vaccines in general, and specifically thimerosal in particular, are involved
in this epidemic of autism, etc. A review by the Institute of Medicine (IOM)
of the National Academy of Science (NAS) concluded that there was no direct
epidemiological connection between vaccinations and autism, but that the
hypothesis of thimerosal toxicity causing autism was "biologically
plausible". At this time the "biological plausibility" was supported by
research from my laboratory on thimerosal toxicity and the epidemiological
studies were commissioned by the CDC. A parents group called Safe Minds
obtained the original CDC studies as well as minutes from a meeting on
thimerosal and autism. It seems as if there were strong indications from the
original CDC epidemiological studies that thimerosal was involved, but these
data were not presented at the IOM meeting nor have they ever been released
except through the Freedom of Information Act extraction used by the Safe
Minds organization.
      Rather, a rather cleansed version of this CDC study was presented
which has been challenged by many. Due to the political complexity and
sensitive nature of the issue of the reliability of the CDC presentation I
would encourage all of you to read up on this issue yourselves. In contrast
to the CDC results, other researchers have gained access to the CDC’s
vaccine adverse effects reporting system (VAERS) data and have completed
epidemiological studies that strong imply that vaccinations are causal in
autism (Geier & Geier, 2003). Epidemiological studies are a form of
statistics and are prone to manipulation. However, scientific data
collection is much more detailed and, when data is published with details of
the experimental approach, it is easy to have the studies repeated,
evaluated and critiqued.
      What does published science have to say about thimerosal toxicity and
the possibility that this mercury containing compound may be involved in
autism and related disorders? First, all of basic research has shown that
thimerosal at very low concentrations is extremely toxic to human cells,
especially neurons. In essence, there are numerous research articles that
clearly describe the toxicity of thimerosal, even enough to warrant the
removal of this material from small animal vaccines in 1992. In the early
1980s Russian researchers did work that caused them to conclude that
thimerosal has no place in vaccinations. Consider the actions that our own
government has taken regarding thimerosal in across-the-counter medications.
Among others, the FDA has taken from the market mercurochrome, merthiolate,
and contact lens solutions which contained thimerosal. Research keeps coming
out now that the thimerosal issue is common knowledge to scientists that
shows that many biochemical pathways and many cell types are extremely
sensitive to the toxic effects of thimerosal.
      Research that I have been involved in has shown that the amount of
thimerosal that is needed to cause neuronal damage is easily reached in
infants given the normal vaccine procedures. In fact, it would be quite
predictable that damage would be done when infants are given on at least 3
days of their life before 1 year of age vaccine exposures to mercury that
are 30-70 times above the EPA recommended safe level. I, in collaboration
with others, have measured the mercury levels in the birth-hair of normal
and autistic children that was primarily contributed from the birth-mother’s
dental amalgams.
      What we observed was data that clearly showed that autistic children
do not excrete mercury as do normal children. This results in a much lower
blood levels of mercury and therefore lower levels of birth-hair mercury
level in autistic children. The lower blood levels are due to the mercury
rapidly being taken up by the cells and not effectively excreted in autistic
infants. Further, the observation that the more severe the autism the less
mercury in the birth hair was additional proof of retention of mercury in
the autistic child. Therefore, autistic children represent a subset of the
population that cannot effectively excrete mercury and, being unable to
detoxify themselves are more susceptible to mercury’s toxic effects.
      The other connection between thimerosal toxicity and autism comes from
the observation that 4 of every 5 autistics are boys, a distinct gender
bias. This ratio may be explained by the effects of estrogen versus
testosterone on thimerosal toxicity. In our studies the female hormone was
protective against toxicity whereas the testosterone dramatically increased
the neuron killing capability of the thimerosal. This explanation was
supported by the observations by a Dr. Baron-Cohen in England who reported
that the amniotic fluid of mothers who gave birth to autistic children
differed from the same fluid from mothers of normal children by only the
elevated presence of testosterone. This can be evaluated that autistic
children, on the day they are born, have higher testosterone levels and can
be much more sensitive to the thimerosal exposure from the first Hepatitis B
shot they receive that day.
      However, there is a push for research showing thimerosal safety by
certain groups who were positioned to be responsible for vaccine safety or
who are directly involved in the manufacturing of vaccines. There are two
papers regarding this issue (published in multiple sites) that have been
released recently that I feel need discussing. One, called the Danish study,
contends that removal of thimerosal from their vaccines was followed by an
increase in autism thereby proving that thimerosal was not causal for this
disease! An amazing claim when one considers the toxic potency of
thimerosal. However, according to their own records, the rate of autism in
Denmark before removal of thimerosal was about 0.2 per 10,000, an amazingly
low rate!
      Note that this is lower than the pre-epidemic rate in the USA which
was about 3-5 per 10,000. The current elevated rate the Danish report after
the removal of thimerosal went up to 2-5 per 10,000 compared to the current
USA rate of 67 per 10,000. Comparing the Danish rate to the USA or British
rate is like comparing apples to cows!
      Therefore, a quick review of the Danish autism data system was done
and it showed that they kept very poor records, loosing autistic children
from their early records, which likely accounts for their initial
exceptionally low rates. It appears as if the recent keeping of more
accurate records and the inclusion of other changes (such as changing the
description of other diseases as now being autism) was the reason for recent
apparent increase in recorded autism cases, not the removal of thimerosal.
Common sense requires that one question any argument where the removal of a
potent neurotoxin like thimerosal increases neurological problems.
      Looking at the broad picture, it should be noted that the Danish never
vaccinated their children on the day of birth as we have done in the USA.
Instead they waited several weeks to months before the first vaccination and
never approached the number of vaccinations or mercury exposure levels that
USA infants have been given before age one. Therefore, considering the
autism rates in Denmark today (2-5 per 10,000) versus the USA rates (about
67 per 10,000) one could logically conclude that the lower rates in Denmark
are due to exposing their infants to less vaccine derived mercury and
exposing them only have a period of maturation.
      The second study needing discussion was presented in Lancet by
Pichichero et al. where they used about 36 children and measured the
decrease in blood mercury levels and also monitored fecal excretion levels
after vaccinations containing thimerosal. Their conclusions were that the
mercury from thimerosal cleared the blood with a half-time of 5 days or less
and therefore was not around long enough to cause toxic problems. They also
found nanogram levels of mercury (ppb) in the feces and stated this as proof
that the mercury was being removed by fecal excretion. I evaluated this
paper with Mark Blaxill, a statistician, and we noted that, using the
amounts excreted in the fecal material, that it would take much longer than
5 days to remove the mercury that was found decreased in the blood. We
determined a minimum of about 74 days to greater than 1,339 days to excrete
the amount of mercury in the feces that a USA child receives in their first
six months (187.5 mcg).
      Therefore, the merc