Pichichero

Pichichero, M. et. al. 2002. "Mercury concentrations and metabolism in infants receiving vaccines containing thiomersal: a descriptive study." The Lancet 360: 1737 - 1741.
Review by Helen Tucker

Pichichero has acknowledged financial links with Eli Lilly & Company, the developers of thiomersal and the main target (to date) of US autism litigation. In an article back in April 2000 in the American Academy of Family Physicians newsletter, Dr. Pichichero made the following disclosures of interest: he had received research grants from Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Sqibb Company, Eli Lilly (note), Merck, Pasteur Merieux Connaught, Pfizer Laboratories, Roche Laboratories, Roussel-Uclaf, Schering Corporation, SmithKline Beecham, Upjohn, and Wyeth-Lederle. [July 2004] MMR and Acquired Autism (Autistic Enterocolitis) - A Briefing Note by David Thrower

Mercury Concentrations and Metabolism in Infants Receiving Vaccines Containing Thiomersal - A Descriptive Study, by Pichichero, Cernichiari, Lopreiato and Treanor, University of Rochester Medical Center, US, published in The Lancet, November 30th 2002.
In concluding, Sally Bernard also makes a number of other profound criticisms of this study:
?              It makes improper use of methylmercury safety levels as a marker for ethylmercury risk
?              There has never been any full assessment of thiomersal safety. This has been admitted by the US Food & Drug Administration.
?     The Pichichero study does not address adverse outcomes (eg autism)
    Her conclusion is that the Pichichero study does not offer the reassurance on thiomersal safety that is so widely claimed of it by the medical establishment. It is a small-scale descriptive study with many methodological limitations. It has little or no vale regarding thiomersal safety.
    Pichichero also incidentally commented in January 2003 on the new 5-in-1 vaccine that was just then licensed by the US Food & Drug Administration. Welcoming the Pediarix-DTaP, hep B and inactivated poliovirus vaccine that was recommended for infants at 2, 4 and 6 months, Pichichero said that its advantage was that it offered “fewer injections for kids”, but, he then continued........”which would make room for new vaccines that are on the horizon”. [July 2004] MMR and Acquired Autism (Autistic Enterocolitis) - A Briefing Note by David Thrower

"Pichichero has served as consultant to the World Health Organization, and his research has held considerable weight in the WHO decision to continue using thimerosal in vaccines administered in nations outside the United States."--- [Jan 2008] Babies excrete vaccine-mercury quicker than originally thought