Mr. Chairman, I express thanks and appreciation to you and the committee for giving me this opportunity to speak regarding vaccinal thimerosal and the possibility of its etiological significance in the development of autism and related syndromes. Numerous anecdotes describe the temporal association between a specific vaccination episode and the onset of regression into autism. Many commentors would have us presume that this association is merely temporal. Furthermore, the possibility of mercury-related causation is increased by a wide body of literature describing known mechanisms of neurotoxicity. This leads to an important question.
Many factors can affect liver function and glutathione availability in infants and toddlers.
For instance, a recent or chronic-active infection can deplete glutathione. Similarly, thalidomide and Pink Disease provide human examples wherein only some individual within exposed populations developed adverse effects. The report mentions higher guidelines by the FDA and CDC and suggests that the EPA level, which was lower than the other two, is unnecessarily low. In other words, the rhetoric in the hepatitis control report suggests that a higher level of mercury exposure ought be acceptable for infants and toddlers. But vaccinal ethylmercury is not first filtered by the maternal liver or placenta, as was the mercury-poisoning incident used in the EPA calculations.