Re: Parents use religion to avoid vaccines
As for Mercury, there are other sources for pregnant women…
http://www.ewg.org/reports/autism?gclid=CNbflsSQm48CFRqwOAod2U2yUg
There is a subset of children who may have a decreased ability to defend against foreign agents such as mercury…
“Newly published research and follow-up testing by former FDA senior research scientist Dr. Jill James, now of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has uncovered a unique and consistent metabolic imbalance in autistic children when compared to normal healthy children (James 2004a, 2004b). This impairment manifests as a severe deficit in the body’s most important antioxidant and metals detoxifier, glutathione. When compared to normal health children, autistic children showed a significant impairment in every one of five measurements of the body’s ability to maintain a healthy glutathione defense. These findings are strong evidence that if these children were exposed to a potentially toxic dose of mercury or other compound they would be much less able to mount an effective defense.”
So I agree the Feds have done a bad job of it… And it screams of bias.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0616-31.htm
More research obviously needs to be done. But on the other hand, taking into account the fact that even if there is a connection, the possibility and risk is so small, that the benefits of immunization FAR outweigh any of the unknown risk.
And according to the link, the supposed causative agent, thimerosal, is no longer used.
Here, a link from the same site talks about why the coneection between Mercury and Autism doesnt make sense.
"A study published in 2002 of infants who were 6 months of age or younger compared the levels of mercury in the blood, hair, urine, and stool of 40 who received vaccines containing thimerosal and 20 who received vaccines without thimerosal. The study found:
Mercury levels in blood and urine were low in all infants studied and in many cases too small to measure. There was no observed dose-dependent relationship between the level of thimerosal received through vaccination and the level of mercury in the body.
Mercury levels in blood did not exceed, at any time, the blood levels that correspond to Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for exposure.
Mercury levels in the stool of infants receiving vaccines containing thimerosal were relatively high compared to mercury levels in the stool of infants who were not exposed to thimerosal, providing evidence that mercury from thimerosal is eliminated in the stool of infants.
The researchers concluded that, “Administration of vaccines containing thiomersal does not seem to raise blood concentrations of mercury above safe values in infants.”