Tuesday, January 22, 2008 1:51 PM EST

Critics say the premise of a newly published study that discounts thimerosal's link to autism is flawed.

LEARN MORE Archives of General Psychiatry  Moms Against Mercury  FDA on thimerosal free vaccines  CA law on influenza vaccine  CA law that removes mercury from childhood vaccines

The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, finds that the number of autism cases among California children continued to increase from January 1995 to March 2007 despite the discontinuance of the mercury containing preservative in vaccines.

Therefore the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS) concludes that, “The DDS data do not show any recent decrease in autism in California despite the exclusion of more than trace levels of thimerosal from nearly all childhood vaccines.  The DDS data do not support the hypothesis that exposure to thimerosal during childhood is a primary cause of autism.”

Critics say the premise of the study is wrong.

Rick Rollens tells IB News, “The conclusions in the study are flawed and premature, and does nothing to exonerate vaccines, particularly mercury containing vaccines, as a cause of California's autism epidemic," he said.

Not until Governor Schwarzenegger of California mandated the preservative be removed from childhood vaccines in December 2006 under penalty of law did the real recall begin, says Rollens.

Prior to that, a “formal request” was made by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1999 to vaccine manufacturers “for a clear commitment and a plan to eliminate or reduce as expeditiously as possible the mercury content of their vaccines.”

IB News posed the question to the California Department of Developmental Services about the premise of the study-that thimerosal was removed from vaccines by 2001.

Records show that fearing an influenza vaccine shortfall, California as late as 2006, allowed that traditional thimerosal-preserved vaccines would be continued for all pregnant women and children under the age of three.

Rollens says no one knows how even “traces” of mercury found in thimerosal may impact a child’s developing nervous system. According to Carson, “There is zero tolerance for lead, why not thimerosal?”

The majority of children with autism enter California's developmental services system between the ages of 3 + and 9 years old.

Rollens says do the math.

“If by 2009-2010 there has not been ANY change in the rate of increase of new cases of autism entering California's developmental services system, then we can scratch mercury in vaccines off our list of agents contained in vaccines as a cause, and; then begin concentrating on the numerous other poisons and toxic agents in vaccines such as aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG, live viruses,etc., and most importantly,  the interaction of these and other toxic agents contained in the 34 doses of vaccines children receive from birth to two years old today” he says.

Thimerosal is a neurotoxin that alters learning and social development. Autism is a chemical imbalance in the brain that affects more boys than girls. The cause remains a mystery.  Today estimates are 1 in 150 children suffer from autism in the U.S.

At a 2000 meeting of top government science and health officials, Robert Kennedy Jr. uncovered through a FOIA request some of the following comments about CDC research into the thimerosal-autism link:

“We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits,” says one participant.

“”The research results will have to be handled” says another and another says the research is,“statistically significant.”

The good news according to Rollens is that California’s reporting system is the “gold standard” for tracking autism, Asberger syndrome, cerebral palsy and other developmental disorders.

Posted by Dan R Laks Tuesday, January 22, 2008 6:59 PM EST To learn more about mercury exposure and neurodegenerative disease, check out my master's thesis (UC Berkeley) at More ... Read more at news.injuryboard.com