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

FDA Began Hearings Today on Adverse Health Effects of Elemental Mercury from Dental Amalgams as NAA Calls for Hearings on Ethyl Mercury in Vaccines.

Nixa, MO – Today, the Food and Drug Administration began a two-day hearing on elemental mercury from dental amalgams. For three years, the National Autism Association (NAA) has called on the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Congress to conduct hearings into the adverse neurological effects of ethyl mercury, also known as thimerosal, used as a preservative in vaccines. Research studies suggest that thimerosal is especially harmful to the developing nervous system of fetuses, infants and young children.

It is not disputed that methyl mercury from fish is a potent neurotoxin. Yet, laboratory tests indicate ethyl mercury may be more toxic than methyl mercury. There are no studies that prove the safety of ethyl mercury in vaccines. Despite misconceptions that mercury has been removed from vaccines, ethyl mercury continues to be injected into millions of children, as evidence mounts of a link between injected mercury and neurological damage.

In 1999, the FDA called for the voluntary removal of thimerosal from vaccines citing that hundreds of thousands of children had been exposed to mercury in excess of EPA limits. Since 1999, some vaccine makers have complied, leaving trace amounts of thimerosal. Others have not complied.  Some vaccines, including many flu shots, still contain the pre-1999 amount of 25 micrograms of mercury per shot.

“I’d like the FDA or any government agency to show us the science that proves a ‘trace’ amount of mercury can safely be injected multiple times into an infant or pregnant mother,” says NAA president Wendy Fournier.  “Infants receiving multiple shots in one day get several times the ‘trace’ amount of mercury. Why is this being allowed? They can’t show us the science backing this position because it doesn’t exist. I’d also like the FDA to explain how excessive exposure to mercury won’t cause mercury poisoning. The FDA should follow up the long-overdue hearings on mercury from dental amalgams with hearings on thimerosal. Parents and children around the world are waiting,” she says.

To learn more about NAA’s request for FDA hearings on the effects of ethyl mercury thimerosal, please visit http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/pdf/FDA9-06.pdf.

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