Web sites have info on thimerosal

This is in response to the letter writer who said a headline in the Southeast Missourian about autism was "absolutely irresponsible." She said the fact of the matter is beyond any doubt that vaccines containing thimerosal, a preservative, do not cause autism.

I would like for this woman to talk with the thousands of parents whose children, after receiving a diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccination containing mercury-laden thimerosal, within days showed signs of autism. My grandson was perfect in every way until the night after he was given his DPT vaccination. He cried all night and had the saddest face you have ever seen. This same story is told in most every home with an autistic child.

It can be understood how parents with a child without autism would want to believe the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health. What I don't understand is why every parent wouldn't want to know the truth about thimerosal. The fact is each of your children received the same amount of thimerosal in their DPT shots.

It might be a good time to educate the public regarding what our families know about thimerosal. Here are Web sites for you to learn what our families know about the subject.

www.nomercury.org

These parents have collected considerable research linking autism to mercury. One theory on the cause of autism is that only certain children with a specific genetic makeup are not able to excrete mercury from their bodies. As a result, they absorb mercury through their tissues, including the brain.

www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/03/02_354.html

This site starts with a story of a child's tooth that was sent to a lab. The tooth registered a mercury level of 3,040 parts per billion. By comparison, the Environmental Protection Agency's limit for mercury in drinking water is 2 ppb, and the limit for mercury content in waste going into a landfill is 200 ppb.

These Web sites should open families' eyes and maybe start helping families with autistic children to join the fight to replace mercury with a different vaccine preservative.

It might be interesting to parents that the rate of autism cases has declined in California in the three years since the state took thimerosal out of vaccines.

Mike Sciortino of Cape Girardeau started Ethan and Friends for Autism after his grandson, Ethan Collier, was diagnosed with autism.