PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release: June 13, 2006

Contact: Rita Shreffler, NAA (Nixa, MO) 417-818-9030 Wendy Fournier, NAA (Portsmouth, RI) 401-632-7523

Advocacy Groups Urge CDC Advisory Committee To Remove Mercury from Vaccines

Children’s health advocates again ask government officials to make good on repeated promises of mercury-free vaccines

Atlanta, GA -- A prominent ad in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution sponsored by parents and friends of children injured by mercury in vaccines demands that a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory committee require complete removal of mercury from vaccines.  The ad’s sponsors note that according to Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, a person must weigh over 500 pounds to safely absorb the amount of mercury contained in a single flu vaccine and that special hazardous waste sites are required for flu shot disposal.

To develop national vaccine guidelines, the CDC follows the advice of the 15-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) (www.cdc.gov/nip/ACIP/members.htm).  To date, ACIP has refused to fulfill promises made by the government, physician organizations, and President Bush to remove thimerosal from all vaccines.  “Mercury should never have been in vaccines in the first place.  The fact that it remains in vaccines seven years after explicit promises were made to take it out amounts to government footdragging that puts children at serious risk of injury,“ according to Vicky Debold, PhD, public health nurse and mother of a vaccine-injured child.

A growing number of scientists are finding that the type of low-dose mercury in vaccines kills and injures brain and immune cells.   “Considering that so many children now suffer from learning disabilities and a host of immune-mediated illnesses such as asthma and diabetes, the practice of injecting mercury into our nation’s most vulnerable is barbaric,” said Dr. Debold.

The ad also points out that most flu shots and some other vaccines contain 50,000 parts per billion mercury, despite requirements that landfill waste contain less than 200 parts per billion. “Directly injecting humans with a powerful neurotoxin flies in the face of common sense. With growing research from leading universities further confirming the neurotoxic effects of mercury exposure from vaccines, the ACIP must consider the best interests of our children and put an end to this dangerous and unnecessary exposure,” commented Dr. Debold.

The public is urged to contact Julie Gerberding, MD, Director of the CDC (404-639-3311) and Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services (202-619-0257) to request that they direct the ACIP to recommend removal of all remaining mercury in vaccines.

To view the ad, go to http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/images/acipad.jpg 

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