curiousPeople ridicule the idea that there is mercury in vaccines, but it's in there, in the preservative known as thimerosal. It is present in the vaccines administered to our children, and also in the vaccines being given to our soldiers when they are sent abroad to fight in our wars.
Here's the chemical structure of thimerosal (Hg is the mercury):
Dr. Boyd Haley, currently the chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky, was a soldier himself. He was vaccinated in the 1970's prior to being sent abroad. He had a strong reaction to thimerosal, which may have provoked his interest in the chemical. Thimerosal is a known neurotoxin. Haley hypothesizes that the thimerosal causes Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) in soldiers, and autism in children. He is a leading expert in diagnostic testing involving mercury toxicity.
Gulf War Syndrome turns out to be a variant of Lou Gehrig's Disease. Haley says that in many cases GWS sufferers turn out to have ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Gehrig%27s_Disease . ALS causes progressive deterioration of motor neurons. At the wedding I just attended there were two men who suffer from ALS. One of them has outlived his medically projected life expectancy by using alternative therapies. He was supposed to have been dead a year ago, and can still walk, though his arms don't work at all. The other man is in a wheelchair and still has some use of his arms. I hadn't read up on this prior to the wedding, but if I had I would have asked these men about their vaccination histories. I believe they both served in the military.
The reason that Haley came to suspect thimerosal as a cause in Gulf War Syndrome, is that French soldiers who were not vaccinated did not develop Gulf War Syndrome. American and British soldiers who did develop GWS were those who were vaccinated. This pattern was apparent regardless of where the soldiers served, and what chemicals they were exposed to during the war. Haley suspects thimerosal as the causal agent.
In the video (linked below) Haley lists scientific findings that support his theory that thimerosal causes ALS, autism and GWS:
-autistic kids can't excrete mercury
-thimerosal inhibits the production of methyl B12 (autistic kids can't make methyl B12)
-glutathione levels are low in autistic children (this is the metabolic compound that helps eliminate mercury)
-autoimmune compromised mice injected with thimerosal develop autistic behaviors
The Institute of Medicine meeting in 2004 dismissed all this data, and concluded that we shouldn't research this correlation. Because of the IOM finding, there is no funding research on the question. Even the NIH's hands are tied.
Here's the Haley interview on the web:
http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/Origins-of-Autism-15861.aspx
Haley considers the IOM's decision criminal because it dismisses a supported and plausible theory, and removes all funding for this very important question. I have to ask: Why? Who is benefitting from us turning a blind eye to the possibility that we are poisoning our children and military men? Well the profit from the vaccine sales goes to the pharmaceuticals, of course. And it goes by way of the unquestioned path of taxation, then government expenditure "for our own good". What hold do the pharmaceuticals have on the IOM? I don't know. But because the scientists can't let go of this question, eventually the answer will be exposed.