http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?8f5d9015-3240-4a05-8e34-feb69a6af064

The article “Thimerosal Veto: Saving Vaccines from Trial Lawyers” by Andrew Walden of Hawaii Free Press is clearly one sided and very poorly investigated.

It requires very little effort to show his lack of research in this piece. He is correct in stating that the MMR does not contain Thimerosal. Even minimal exploration into the vaccine schedule would have resulted in the discovery that the MMR is given at 12 months along with other vaccines that containing Thimerosal.

In addition, vaccines administered as recommended prior to that would have previously exposed infants to 187.5 micrograms of mercury.

There are many more examples of his lack of imagination. His use of the word “presumed” regarding the excretion of mercury is not reassuring. Studies that show Thimerosal is extremely toxic are too numerous to mention, but see the work Dr Thomas Burbacher from the University of Washington published in early 2005 on his research with macaque monkeys. This research shows that the mercury exposure in vaccines may in fact leave the blood quicker than mercury from fish, but the vaccine mercury is crossing the blood brain barrier and resulting in 2 to 4 times the amount of inorganic mercury in the brain than that from fish. The risk is not theoretical.

No one is being asked by advocates of mercury free vaccines to fear ethyl-mercury - those are his words. Anyone requesting mercury free vaccines does so not out of fear, but common sense. Comparing ingested mercury from fish with, to use his term; “small amounts” of mercury from vaccines is apples to oranges logic.

Mercury in fish is bound by other elements like selenium, and pass through the digestive system where most of the bodies detoxifying protections are located. Injected mercury from vaccines bypasses all of these protections.

The “small” 62.5 micrograms of mercury given to my son at 8 weeks of age, being 12.5 pounds, equates to 1000 micrograms injected into a 200 pound adult. If Mr. Andrew still thinks that is small, maybe he would like to try it himself. Just go out this fall and get 40 flu shots all at once and that will do it.

These were not “one time” exposures. Most kids got 25 mcg at birth, 62.5 mcg at 8 weeks, 50 mcg at 16 weeks, 62.5 mcg at 6 months, and so on.

I am also interested in the “dozens of medical studies looking into their allegations and rejecting any causal link between autism and Thimerosal”. I am aware of the 2004 IOM report and its “epidemiological” studies. The only study done relevant to exposures to children in the U.S resulted in a neutral conclusion, neither confirming NOR denying a link between Thimerosal and autism.

Lastly, claiming that trial lawyers are driving the push for mercury free vaccines is deplorable. Although they may have an interest, it has been parents, doctors and researchers like Professor Boyd Haley of the University of Kentucky and Dr. Mark Geier and his son David Geier who have been leading the way.

We have been doing this work at our own expense, for the protection of all children and the future of our great nation. His insistence that litigation is our motivation is insulting.

Tim Kasemodel is a resident of Wayzata, Minnesota. He can be reached via email at mailto: