Thursday, November 30, 2006

Mercury as a cause of autism

Town Musician

Alyssa Abkowitz wrote an article on 10/25/06 in "Creative Loafing Atlanta" entitled: "CDC launches study to find causes of autism. Atlanta to be included in five-year project." The idea that the CDC wants to investigate the causes of autism is certainly a good one. What is not so good is their plan to exclude mercury from their investigation. Today I included my two-cents worth in the publication's comment field. I feel that it is worth repeating here with some added information:

I find it very strange that mercury-testing is not being included in the study. First of all the Thimerosal link has not been disproven to my satisfaction. Second, there are all kinds of ways a child can be exposed to mercury without receiving it as an injection. The baby may have been exposed through the mother and her flu- or Rho-gam shots. The mother may have received amalgam fillings while pregnant. She may have spilled a mercury thermometer and used a vacuum to disperse it for maximum damage. An old house may still have mercury paint fumes in it. Sometimes exterior paint is used indoors because people don't know any better. Exterior paint still contains mercury sometimes. Breaking fluorescent light bulbs also exposes you to plenty of mercury. And all this happens without being exposed to even one bite of tuna. The amount of mercury in fish has to do with the mercury environment the fish grew up in. If it came from the San Francisco Bay, right there you would have a nicely poisoned fish. It is beyond me how one very poisonous substance is systematically being excluded from investigation when all kinds of other little hazards get the full treatment. The newest one is polonium. It takes very little polonium to kill, as we found out recently (remember the Russian spy story?). I commented on that in my previous blog. Maybe it will awaken the population to other poisons. All suspected causes for autism have to be included. When I was taught to analyse a substance for what chemicals it contained, I would not have gotten away with only testing what was convenient and easy. Same goes for autism. Look for all the culprits, not just the ones that do not self-incriminate.

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