AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Thursday January 3, 2002
SPECIAL EDITION


INDEX:
*   Secert CDC study: Thimerosal an autism risk
* Press Release Containing Link to the Unreleased CDC report

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Secert CDC study: Thimerosal an autism risk

An unreleased confidential report by Center's for Disease Control (CDC)
scientists reveals that exposure to significant amounts of mercury during
the first months of life significantly increases a child's risk of
developing autism, according to an attorney with the law firm of Walters &
Kraus. The firm is a part of a coalition of law firms, representing families
in at least 25 states, that has filed lawsuits in an attempt to force drug
companies to investigate the possible link between mercury and developmental
disorders.

Attorney Andy Walters says that the unreleased CDC report, obtained by the
SAFEMINDS advocacy group, found a 2.48 times increased risk of autism in
children exposed to more then 62.5 micrograms of mercury before they were 3
months of age. In a press release, Walters and Kraus notes that "in the
United States, courts of law have generally held that a relative increased
risk of 2.0 or higher is sufficient to substantiate that a given exposure
causes disease." Walters says that in many of the cases that his firm has
evaluated, autistic children have received more than 62.5 micrograms of
mercury through pediatric vaccines.

A report made public by the CDC in the fall claimed that the thimerosal, the
mercury containing preservative used in many vaccines, could not be linked
to autism, while calling on Physicians to avoid thimerosal containing
vaccines when possible. However, according to Walters & Kraus, the
confidential CDC report states: "As for the exposure evaluated at 3 months
of age, we found increasing risks of "neurological developmental disorders"
with increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal... within the group of
"developmental disorders"... for the subgroup called "specific delays," and
within the this subgroup for the specific disorder "developmental speech
disorder," and for "autism" "stuttering" and "attention deficit disorder".

Walters says the report's contents, and the fact that it was kept secret,
are "shocking, but unfortunately not surprising, given the political
influence of pharmaceutical companies and the tremendous liability they face
if they are forced to compensate thousands of families for the costs of care
that these children require".

Press Release, Walters & Kraus, 2001

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PRESS RELEASE

An announcement was made today by the law firm of Waters & Kraus, the firm
that filed the first known lawsuit alleging that a mercury preservative in
children's vaccines caused neurological damage to an infant ultimately
diagnosed with autism. Waters & Kraus is leading a consortium of ten firms
in as many states that are actively prosecuting cases of this nature (firms
listed below). Andy Waters, the lead attorney in the cases, announced that
his firm is now in possession of a previously unreleased confidential report
authored by Centers for Disease Control scientists which studied autism as a
potential neurological injury caused by mercury in children's vaccines. A
different version of the report was made public and has been cited by the
recent Institute of Medicine study as inconclusive on the issue of whether
the mercury-based vaccine preservative known as Thimerosal has contributed
to cause a nationwide epidemic of regressive autism and other neurological
disorders in small children.  The confidential version of the study,
however, clearly demonstrated that an exposure to more than 62.5 micrograms
of mercury within the first three months of life significantly increased a
child's risk of developing autism. Specifically, the study found a 2.48
times increased risk of autism _ that is to say, children with the exposure
were more than twice as likely to develop autism as children not exposed.


Click here to view the full report
Secert CDC vaccine study Thimerosal an autism risk
(27 pages formatted in TIFF)



In the United States, courts of law have generally held that a relative
increased risk of 2.0 or higher is sufficient to substantiate that a given
exposure causes disease.  As but one example, in the case of Cook v. United
States, 545 F.Supp. 306, at 308 (Northern District _ California 1982) the
Court stated that, "in a vaccine case, a relative risk greater than 2.0
establishes that there is a greater than 50% chance that the injury was
caused by the vaccine." Waters indicated that, in many of the cases his firm
has evaluated, including the case filed in a Texas state court on behalf of
the Counter family, the affected child received more than 62.5 micrograms of
mercury through pediatric vaccines in the first three months of life. The
confidential report, which was obtained by the SAFEMINDS support and
advocacy group, states: "As for the exposure evaluated at 3 months of age,
we found increasing risks of 'neurological developmental disorders' with
increasing cumulative exposure to thimerosal ... within the group of
'developmental disorders'... for the sub_group called 'specific delays,' and
within this sub_group for the specific disorder 'developmental speech
disorder,' and for 'autism,' 'stuttering' and 'attention deficit disorder.'"
The report also contained the graph depicted below which illustrated the
report's findings of a child's increasing risk of developing the
neurological symptoms of autism after receiving increasing amounts of
thimerosal.Graph 3:      Relative risk - 95 % CI  of Autism after different
exposure levels of thimerosal at 3 months of age, NCK & GHCWaters pointed
out that the confidential study's lead author, Thomas Verstraeten, has since
left the Centers for Disease Control and is now employed by GlaxoSmithKline,
a manufacturer of thimerosal_containing vaccines for many years that is a
defendant in numerous suits pending nationwide.  "We have asked
GlaxoSmithKline to provide Mr. Verstraeten's deposition in order to
understand if conflict of interest issues may have played a role in the
CDC's decision to keep this report confidential, and specifically, their
failure to reveal it to the Institute of Medicine."Waters called the
report's contents and the fact that it was kept from the public as
"shocking, but unfortunately not surprising, given the political influence
of pharmaceutical companies and the tremendous liability they face if they
are forced to compensate thousands of families for the costs of care that
these children require." Waters added that "no amount of money can give
these children back the potential that they were born with, and no amount of
money will comfort the parents that watched helplessly as their children
literally just slipped away."  The purpose of the lawsuits his firm is
currently prosecuting, said Waters, is "to bring to the surface the truth on
this issue, a truth that government agencies seem unwilling to admit,
perhaps for fear that parents will stop vaccinating their children, and to
force the companies that profited from this disastrous mistake to shoulder
the responsibility that so many families now bear on their own, often
without even the aid of health insurance benefits." Media inquiries should
be directed to Melissa Miles at 214-357-6244.Client inquiries should be
directed to Victoria Gibson, toll-free at 1-866-829-7529, or to the firms
listed below.Other firms working with Waters & Kraus to prosecute individual
cases involving thimerosal exposure are:ANDERSON & KRIGER, APLC40925 County
Center Drive, Suite 210Temecula, California 92591Telephone:
909.296.5090DOGAN & WILKINSON726 Delmas AvenuePascagoula, Mississippi
39567Telephone: 228.762.2272 DORAN & MURPHY, LLP1234 Delaware AvenueBuffalo,
New York 14209Telephone: 716.884.2000EVERT & WEATHERSBY, L.L.C.3405 Piedmont
Road, Suite 225Atlanta, Georgia 30305-1764Telephone :
404.233.8718HENDRICKSON & LONG214 Capital StreetP.O. Box 11070Charleston, W.
VA 25339Telephone: 304.346.5500JONES, MARTIN, PARRIS, &TESSENER LAW OFFICES,
PLLC410 Glenwood Ave., Suite 200Raleigh, North Carolina 27603Telephone:
919.821.0005LEACH, SCHWARZ &STRASSBERG11 Bala Ave.Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania
19004Telephone: 610.668.7964MARTZELL & BICKFORD338 Lafayette StreetNew
Orleans, Louisianna 70130Telephone: 504.581.90653555 College AvenueWISE &
JULIAN, PC3555 College AvenueAlton, Illinois 62002Telephone: 618.462.2600

To View this CDC Unreleased reportit will be found in the 2nd paragraph:
click on the link that states: Click here to view the full report (27 pages
formatted in TIFF) or click below
Secert CDC vaccine study Thimerosal an autism risk
http://autismawakeninginia.bizland.com/secertcdcvaccinestudythimerosalanauti
smrisk/

This story and the link listed above is found here at:
http://autismawakeninginia.bizland.com/secertcdcvaccinestudythimerosalanauti
smrisk/

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