SCHAFER AUTISM REPORT "Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet"
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January 8 & 9, 2004 Double Issue Vol. 8 Nos. 7 & 8
The Mercury Debate
Thimerosal in Mandated Vaccinations is the Major Etiological Agent in the Recent Increase in
Autism and Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder: Hypothesis Presented to Kentucky Assembly
October 15, 2003
[By Boyd E. Haley, Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry, University of Kentucky.]
Since the early 1980s there has been a consistent elevation of the rate of autism that appears
to coincide with the increased exposure of infants to vaccinations that have been mandated by
the CDC and approved by the FDA. This has been done with good intentions as most agree that
vaccinations can greatly reduce the level of many infectious diseases. However, underlying
this protection against infectious diseases by vaccines was another apparent risk that has, in
my opinion, lead to the tremendous increase in neurological diseases such as autism, ADHD and
other medical problems. The 714% increase in autism has, in my opinion, occurred through the
early exposure of infants and toddlers to the compound thimerosal used as a preservative in
many vaccines. Thimerosal is a compound that breaks down in the body to release ethyl-mercury,
a very neurotoxic compound quite similar to methyl-mercury found in fish. However, ingestion
of fish exposes any methyl-mercury to the intestines where about 65% of the heavy metal
protective protein, metallothionine (MT), exists in the body. This MT has the ability to bind
mercury and organic mercury rendering them much less toxic and leads to their removal in the
feces before they enter the blood stream. In contrast, vaccinations containing mercury by-pass
the major protection provided by the intestinal MT as the ethyl-mercury directly enters the
blood stream from the site of injection. It has been documented that the amount of mercury
these infants are exposed to at single visits to the doctors office are 30-70 times the
minimum safe level as determined by the EPA. The recommendation to mandate vaccinations of
infants, even as early as on the day they were born, was made without adequate studies to
determine that this was a safe procedure. It was primarily through the action of several
"parents of autistic children" organizations that this catastrophic occurrence was brought to
the public's attention. Today, using statistics from the US Dept. of Education, data on
autistic children served through "Individual With Disabilities Act" it was observed that from
1991-92 through 2001-02 a 714% increase in autism has occurred throughout the USA. In Kentucky
the increase was from 38 to 1,022; a 2,689% increase over this time period. There is little
doubt about the increase in autism and related disorders since 1985. There is severe
contention as to whether or not vaccines in general, and specifically thimerosal in
particular, are involved in this epidemic of autism, etc. A review by the Institute of
Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Science (NAS) concluded that there was no direct
epidemiological connection between vaccinations and autism, but that the hypothesis of
thimerosal toxicity causing autism was "biologically plausible". At this time the "biological
plausibility" was supported by research from my laboratory on thimerosal toxicity and the
epidemiological studies were commissioned by the CDC. A parents group called Safe Minds
obtained the original CDC studies as well as minutes from a meeting on thimerosal and autism.
It seems as if there were strong indications from the original CDC epidemiological studies
that thimerosal was involved, but these data were not presented at the IOM meeting nor have
they ever been released except through the Freedom of Information Act extraction used by the
Safe Minds organization. Rather, a rather cleansed version of this CDC study was presented
which has been challenged by many. Due to the political complexity and sensitive nature of the
issue of the reliability of the CDC presentation I would encourage all of you to read up on
this issue yourselves. In contrast to the CDC results, other researchers have gained access to
the CDC's vaccine adverse effects reporting system (VAERS) data and have completed
epidemiological studies that strong imply that vaccinations are causal in autism (Geier &
Geier, 2003). Epidemiological studies are a form of statistics and are prone to manipulation.
However, scientific data collection is much more detailed and, when data is published with
details of the experimental approach, it is easy to have the studies repeated, evaluated and
critiqued. What does published science have to say about thimerosal toxicity and the
possibility that this mercury containing compound may be involved in autism and related
disorders? First, all of basic research has shown that thimerosal at very low concentrations
is extremely toxic to human cells, especially neurons. In essence, there are numerous research
articles that clearly describe the toxicity of thimerosal, even enough to warrant the removal
of this material from small animal vaccines in 1992. In the early 1980s Russian researchers
did work that caused them to conclude that thimerosal has no place in vaccinations. Consider
the actions that our own government has taken regarding thimerosal in across-the-counter
medications. Among others, the FDA has taken from the market mercurochrome, merthiolate, and
contact lens solutions which contained thimerosal. Research keeps coming out now that the
thimerosal issue is common knowledge to scientists that shows that many biochemical pathways
and many cell types are extremely sensitive to the toxic effects of thimerosal. Research that
I have been involved in has shown that the amount of thimerosal that is needed to cause
neuronal damage is easily reached in infants given the normal vaccine procedures. In fact, it
would be quite predictable that damage would be done when infants are given on at least 3 days
of their life before 1 year of age vaccine exposures to mercury that are 30-70 times above the
EPA recommended safe level. I, in collaboration with others, have measured the mercury levels
in the birth-hair of normal and autistic children that was primarily contributed from the birth-
mother's dental amalgams. What we observed was data that clearly showed that autistic children
do not excrete mercury as do normal children. This results in a much lower blood levels of
mercury and therefore lower levels of birth-hair mercury level in autistic children. The lower
blood levels are due to the mercury rapidly being taken up by the cells and not effectively
excreted in autistic infants. Further, the observation that the more severe the autism the
less mercury in the birth hair was additional proof of retention of mercury in the autistic
child. Therefore, autistic children represent a subset of the population that cannot
effectively excrete mercury and, being unable to detoxify themselves are more susceptible to
mercury's toxic effects. The other connection between thimerosal toxicity and autism comes
from the observation that 4 of every 5 autistics are boys, a distinct gender bias. This ratio
may be explained by the effects of estrogen versus testosterone on thimerosal toxicity. In our
studies the female hormone was protective against toxicity whereas the testosterone
dramatically increased the neuron killing capability of the thimerosal. This explanation was
supported by the observations by a Dr. Baron-Cohen in England who reported that the amniotic
fluid of mothers who gave birth to autistic children differed from the same fluid from mothers
of normal children by only the elevated presence of testosterone. This can be evaluated that
autistic children, on the day they are born, have higher testosterone levels and can be much
more sensitive to the thimerosal exposure from the first Hepatitis B shot they receive that
day. However, there is a push for research showing thimerosal safety by certain groups who
were positioned to be responsible for vaccine safety or who are directly involved in the
manufacturing of vaccines. There are two papers regarding this issue (published in multiple
sites) that have been released recently that I feel need discussing. One, called the Danish
study, contends that removal of thimerosal from their vaccines was followed by an increase in
autism thereby proving that thimerosal was not causal for this disease! An amazing claim when
one considers the toxic potency of thimerosal. However, according to their own records, the
rate of autism in Denmark before removal of thimerosal was about 0.2 per 10,000, an amazingly
low rate! Note that this is lower than the pre-epidemic rate in the USA which was about 3-5
per 10,000. The current elevated rate the Danish report after the removal of thimerosal went
up to 2-5 per 10,000 compared to the current USA rate of 67 per 10,000. Comparing the Danish
rate to the USA or British rate is like comparing apples to cows! Therefore, a quick review of
the Danish autism data system was done and it showed that they kept very poor records, loosing
autistic children from their early records, which likely accounts for their initial
exceptionally low rates. It appears as if the recent keeping of more accurate records and the
inclusion of other changes (such as changing the description of other diseases as now being
autism) was the reason for recent apparent increase in recorded autism cases, not the removal
of thimerosal. Common sense requires that one question any argument where the removal of a
potent neurotoxin like thimerosal increases neurological problems. Looking at the broad
picture, it should be noted that the Danish never vaccinated their children on the day of
birth as we have done in the USA. Instead they waited several weeks to months before the first
vaccination and never approached the number of vaccinations or mercury exposure levels that
USA infants have been given before age one. Therefore, considering the autism rates in Denmark
today (2-5 per 10,000) versus the USA rates (about 67 per 10,000) one could logically conclude
that the lower rates in Denmark are due to exposing their infants to less vaccine derived
mercury and exposing them only have a period of maturation. The second study needing
discussion was presented in Lancet by Pichichero et al. where they used about 36 children and
measured the decrease in blood mercury levels and also monitored fecal excretion levels after
vaccinations containing thimerosal. Their conclusions were that the mercury from thimerosal
cleared the blood with a half-time of 5 days or less and therefore was not around long enough
to cause toxic problems. They also found nanogram levels of mercury (ppb) in the feces and
stated this as proof that the mercury was being removed by fecal excretion. I evaluated this
paper with Mark Blaxill, a statistician, and we noted that, using the amounts excreted in the
fecal material, that it would take much longer than 5 days to remove the mercury that was
found decreased in the blood. We determined a minimum of about 74 days to greater than 1,339
days to excrete the amount of mercury in the feces that a USA child receives in their first
six months (187.5 mcg). Therefore, the mercury that Pichichero et al. reported decreasing in
the blood of infants given thimerosal within the first 5 days is primarily being removed from
the blood by being taken up by the infant's central nervous system cells and other tissues. It
is not being excreted in the feces or urine! In summary, there is sound scientific data
available to indicate that thimerosal in vaccines would be the most likely suspect in the
recent epidemic of autism. Epidemiological studies using the VAERS data-base from the CDC
presents strong evidence to conclude that the hypothesis that thimerosal exposures are the
etiology of autism is correct. Studies comparing autistic to normal infants show that there is
a major difference in the way these two groups excrete mercury. Even normal children show
great differences in their ability to excrete mercury. It appears as if autistic children do
not effectively excrete mercury and are therefore more sensitive to its toxic effects. There
are many individuals, organizations and agencies that will be embarrassed by this observation
as they did not consider the safety testing of early vaccinations before they encouraged the
mandated vaccine policies that lead to the toxic mercury exposures in infants that greatly
surpassed EPA recommended levels. This has lead to the publication, supported by accompanying
news releases, of articles that seem designed to come to conclusions that hold thimerosal as a
harmless agent when given to infants. These articles never suggest any other hypothesis for
the epidemic of autism. In the end, thimerosal will be removed from all infant vaccines and
the truth will come out. Until then, our legislators have to recognize that the great increase
in autism and related disorders will impose a huge cost on our medical welfare system. It will
also cost immensely in the loss of healthy, happy lives and a corresponding increase in the
misery of the autistic children and their parents and family.