Remarks to the US House of Representatives

Committee on Government Reform

Hearing, "Mercury in Medicine: Are We Taking Unnecessary Risks?"

 

July 18, 2000

 

Sallie Bernard

ARC Research                                  tel (908) 276-6300

14 Commerce Drive                                  fax (908) 276-1301

Cranford, TX 07016                          sbernard@arcresearch.com

 

 

Chairman Burton, Congressman Waxman, and other distinguished members of this Committee:

Thank you for holding this hearing to examine the possible role of mercury and thimerosal in causing neurodevelopmental disorders. I would also like to thank the House of Representatives for passing the Child Health bill, which we hope will soon be passed by the Senate as well.

My name is Sallie Bernard. I live in Summit, New Jersey. I am the mother of three boys, triplets, age 12 - Fred, Jamie, and Billy. After meeting all his developmental milestones on schedule and receiving unremarkable pediatrician reports up to age 2 1/2, Bill began to exhibit slower word acquisition than his brothers, articulation difficulties, and attentional problems. At 3 1/2 he was diagnosed with Language Dysphasia and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. At age 4 1/2, he was diagnosed with autism.

Anyone familiar with the signs of mercury toxicity in children will recognize language difficulties and ADHD traits as common features. But in fact, research conducted by me and others, and summarized in our paper, "Autism - a Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning" (June 2000), has shown that the symptoms which are diagnostic of or strongly associated with autism itself are found to arise from mercury exposure, as described in available literature on past cases of mercury poisoning. This research strongly suggests that mercury, primarily from thimerosal in vaccines, may be a contributing factor in many cases of autism.

The similarities between features of autism and mercury poisoning, which in both disorders vary considerably by individual, include:

(a)    on the behavior side, social withdrawal; lack of eye contact, facial expression, and desire to share enjoyment with others; perseverative, obsessive, and compulsive behaviors; speech delay; loss of or impairment in language and conversational abilities; repetitive motor mannerisms such as hand or finger flapping; sensory disturbances like over or under sensitivity to sound, light, or touch; movement disorders; attentional deficits, hyperactivity; lower verbal than performance IQ; difficulties understanding abstract ideas; poor short term memory; head banging, sleep difficulties, and staring spells.

(b)  on the physiological side, damage to in selective brain areas including the Purkinje and granule cells, amygdala, hippocampus, and basal ganglia; abnormal brain neuronal organization; altered dopamine levels; decreased brain serotonin; elevated norepinephrine, epinephrine, and glutamate; cortical acetylcholine deficiency and increased muscarinic receptor density in hippocampus; an immune system shifted towards allergy and less effective in fighting viruses and yeast, with loss of ability to recognize the body’s own brain tissue and antibodies made against parts of the central nervous system; altered purine and pyrimidine metabolism; brain mitochondrial dysfunction; and EEG abnormalities from subtle, low amplitude activity to epilepsy; abnormal vestibular nystagmus responses; chronic gastrointestinal difficulties; and autonomic system disturbances such as poor circulation and elevated heart rate.

(c)    on the population side, a higher propensity for males to be affected than females; and the presence of a strong genetic component, with autism being one of the most heritable disorders and mercury sensitivity also being in large part genetically determined.

There are many other similarities which cannot be covered in the interest of time.

We feel that these similarities are too close to have occurred by chance, and we are not alone in our thinking. The just-released Congressionally-mandated mercury report by the National Academy of Sciences links methylmercury in the environment to neurological disorders in children, and we know from researchers such as Suzuki and Magos that ethylmercury found in thimerosal is as toxic as methylmercury. The latest issue of Environmental Health Perspectives also notes that "an association has been found between exposure to toxic chemicals and various neurodevelopmental disorders such as learning disabilities, intellectual retardation, dyslexia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, and propensity to violence." It is well-recognized by autism researchers that autism is caused by an interaction of environmental and genetic factors. Based on epidemiological and other data, there is strong evidence to suggest that this "environmental toxin" may in fact be thimerosal from vaccinations, acting alone or synergistically with other toxins 

(a)    First, autism was first discovered in the early 1940s among children born in the 1930s; and thimerosal was first introduced into vaccines in the 1930s. 

(b)   Second, prior to 1970, autism was estimated at 1 in 2000 children, while studies after 1970 showed a higher prevalence of 1 in 1000; this was a period of increased immunization of American children.

(c)    Then in 1996, the NIH estimated the rate of autism to be 1 in 500, and just recently the CDC has found 1 in 250 children affected with classic autism; this dramatic increase in the past decade coincided with the introduction and spread of two thimerosal-containing vaccines - the HIB and Hepatitis B.

(d)   Fourth, exposure to mercury in vaccines occurs at the same time as autistic symptoms emerge, given the latent period common in mercury poisoning. Symptom emergence is similar in both diseases, often starting with abnormal movement and sensation, and moving on to abnormalities in speech and hearing, and then the full-blown array of symptoms and signs.

(e)    Fifth, the amount of mercury which is injected with each vaccine greatly exceeds EPA safety guidelines both on an individual and cumulative vaccine basis, and thus is highly likely to be neurotoxic and injurious.

(f)     And last, a recent CDC-sponsored study by Davis et al has found a statistically significant association between thimerosal in vaccines specifically and attention deficit disorder, speech delay, motor tics, and neurodevelopmental disorders in general. The data set precluded them from determining if there was an association with autism, but the traits of the disorders just mentioned are all found in autism.

Since thimerosal is not a necessary component of vaccines, and every child can be fully immunized today with a non-thimerosal alternative, thimerosal should no longer be allowed to be given in vaccines. There is no reason for another child to be harmed. There must also be official recognition of the strong possibility of injury which may have been caused by past use of thimerosal: as a society we must invest in the research to understand the role of mercury in autism and how to treat its effects, and parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders must be notified to check their child's mercury exposure level from vaccines and discuss their options with a physician.

Congress, again listening to the needs of citizens, passed legislation in 1997 requiring government agencies to review mercury content in products. In response, the FDA investigated thimerosal in vaccines and found that no safety studies had ever been conducted on this substance. As a parent, this is very disconcerting indeed. Vaccines are recognized as the crown jewels of the US public health system, and their effectiveness relies on the willingness of parents to bring their children in to be immunized. By not conducting safety studies, and then by not taking immediate steps to ban the thimerosal once its potential for harm was publicly recognized, this program has been put at great risk. What parent will want their baby injected repeatedly with a known neurotoxin? How much confidence will parents have that our national vaccine program really cares about safety? Parents like me already have their doubts that it does. I hope that Congress will respond once again with effective action to ensure the safety and well being of all our children in light of the information now presented.

Thank you.