Recently, FAIR Autism Media was contacted by
Bloomberg Press to comment on the Fombonne study & article in the
Journal of Pediatrics. Dr. David Ayoub offered his comments to the
reporter.
Erik
FAIR Autism Media
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By Michelle Fay Cortez
July 5 (Bloomberg) -- Use of mercury in vaccines doesn't
cause autism among school-aged children, a study says.
Advocacy groups had suggested that mercury used as a
preservative in some immunizations may be linked to autism, an
umbrella term that covers a range of developmental and
communication disorders that affect three to six of every 1,000
children born in North America.
The Montreal study found that autism rates rose steadily
among school-aged children who had been vaccinated as infants,
even though the preservative was not included the shots during
the last two years examined, said Eric Fombonne, director of
Pediatric Psychiatry at Montreal Children's Hospital
``If you look at the rates of autism in the study, there is
a smooth linear increase in the prevalence from the group born
in 1987 to when the study finishes with children born in 1998,''
said Fombonne, the lead researcher, in a July 3 phone interview.
Had mercury played a role, the rates of diagnoses should have
fluctuated, he said.
The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, examined
rates of the disorders among 27,749 children at 55 schools in
Montreal. Thimerosal was removed from vaccines in 1996 when
manufacturers combined five immunizations, including polio,
which is inactivated by the preservative.
Fombonne has worked as an expert witness on behalf of
vaccine makers defending lawsuits in the U.S. that allege that
mercury causes autism. While none of Fombonne's research is
industry-funded, the study was immediately criticized as biased
by David Ayoub, an Illinois radiologist.
`Heavily Biased'
``This is just another heavily biased study by an author
with a long track record of financial ties to the drug industry,
and whose previous views on the epidemiology of autism have been
discredited,
Foundation for Autism Information and Research, in an e-mailed
response to questions.
Ayoub said Fombonne's effort ignored several papers that
link mercury and autism. The omissions and Fombonne's testimony
on behalf of drugmakers raises issues about his ability to
independently analyze the study data, Ayoub said.
The study shows a four-fold increase in autism rates during
the 10-year period examined, Ayoub said. In addition, some
children may have been exposed to mercury from other vaccines,
including hepatitis and flu shots given to children and pregnant
women after 1996 that still contained mercury, he said in an
interview.
Symptoms
Autism symptoms include regression in speaking skills and
may develop after children are given vaccines, leading some to
link the events. Fombonne said the increased autism rate is more
likely tied to changes in the definition of autism, greater
awareness of the condition and rising numbers of services for
patients has boosted the number of children diagnosed with the
condition each year.
This isn't the first study to eliminate mercury as a
possible cause for autism. The U.S. government-chartere
Institute of Medicine in Washington issued a report in May 2004
concluding from a review of previous studies that no evidence
linked autism with thimerosal-containi
that no longer contain the mercury-based preservative.
The rates of disorders ``among children born in an era
where there was no exposure to thimerosal is significantly
higher than in the years before, when there was high exposure,''
he said. ``That's really a convincing argument that there is no
relationship between the two.''
--Editor: Gienger (scc/rjg)
Story illustration: For more medical science stories, see:
{TNI MEDICAL SCIENCE <GO>}
To contact the reporter on this story:
Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at (1)(763) 416-0609 or
mcortez@bloomberg.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Robert Simison at (1)(202) 624-1812 or
rsimison@bloomberg.