Contact: Michael Bender, Mercury Policy Project, 802-223-9000
Lyn Redwood, Safe Minds, 404-932-1786
Peter Collins, Rowland Communications, 908 244-9916
 

November 27, 2002--On Monday, Department of Justice lawyers asked a 
federal court "task master" to withhold from the American public 
documents on hundreds of lawsuits filed by parents of injured children 
claiming mercury-induced autism resulting from childhood vaccines. 
Autism and mercury advocacy groups expressed outraged at this legal 
maneuver by the Bush Administration to conceal evidence linking the 
mercury preservative in childhood vaccines with autism.

"This cover-up attempt by the Bush Administration at the apparent behest 
of Eli Lilly and others is appalling," said Michael Bender director of 
the Mercury Policy Project. "All parents - not just those with autistic 
children - have the right to be informed about exposure risks from 
mercury that may affect their children. We have to ask: what are in 
these documents that they are so desperately trying to hide and suppress?"

The groups questioned the Bush Administration's motivation and apparent 
close-knit ties to the drug industry. The primary beneficiaries of 
sealing the records are manufacturers who added thimerosal to their 
vaccines, and, in particular, Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal. 
Lilly's chairman, president and CEO, Sidney Taurel, was recently given a 
coveted seat on the president's Advisory Council on Homeland Security 
and Mitch Daniels, former president of Lilly's North American 
operations, is now the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
in the Bush Administration. The pharmaceutical industry as a whole, and 
Lilly in particular, were major donors during the last elections, 
contributing around $14 million.

Safe Minds and the Mercury Policy Project believe that corrective action 
is needed. "We want Congress to investigate why the Bush Administration 
is bending over backwards to help thimerosal vaccine makers and Eli 
Lilly to the point that they would grant them total immunity from civil 
action. We didn't let 'Big Tobacco' of the hook, why are we letting the 
drug makers?" said Lyn Redwood, president of Safe Minds. "Representative 
Henry Waxman (D-CA) has requested an explanation from the Bush White 
House, and we call on Congress to conduct a thorough investigation."

The US government legal action comes on the heels of last week's 11th 
hour insertion of a rider to the Homeland Security Act, apparently at 
the request of the Bush White House. The provision's intention is to 
unilaterally deprive parents of autistic children of their right to 
bring civil action against the thimerosal-based vaccine manufacturers 
and Eli Lilly in Federal Court.

Safe Minds and the Mercury Policy Project are asking Members of Congress 
to repeal the thimerosal liability shield provision from the Homeland 
Security Act, a step supported publicly by several Republican and 
Democratic legislators. Both organizations are in favor of the 
bipartisan Burton-Waxman legislation to reform the National Vaccine 
Injury Compensation Act.

The Mercury Policy Project and Safe Minds are non-profit organizations 
dedicated to reducing and eliminating mercury exposure and improving 
children's health and environmental outcomes through the elimination, 
treatment, and scientific investigations of mercury, regardless of its 
source, including thimerosal in medical products.

More information is available at --
www.safeminds.org
www.mercurypolicy.org