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Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic: A Medical Controversy

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In the 1990s reported autism cases among American children began spiking, from about 1 in 10,000 in 1987 to a shocking 1 in 166 today. This trend coincided with the addition of several new shots to the nation’s already crowded vaccination schedule, grouped together and given soon after birth or in the early months of infancy. Most of these shots contained a little-known preservative called thimerosal, which includes a quantity of the toxin mercury.

Evidence of Harm explores the heated controversy over what many parents, physicians, public officials, and educators have called an “epidemic” of afflicted children. Following several families, David Kirby traces their struggle to understand how and why their once-healthy kids abruptly descended into silence or disturbed behavior, regularly accompanied by severe physical illness. Alarmed by the levels of mercury in the vaccine schedule, these families sought answers from their doctors, from science, from pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines, and after all from the Center for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration-to no avail. But as they dug deeper, the families also found powerful allies in Congress and in the small community of physicians and researchers who consider that the rise of autism and other disorders is linked to toxic levels of mercury that accumulate in the systems of some children.

An important and troubling book, Evidence of Harm reveals both the public and unsung obstacles faced by desperate families who have been opposed by the combined power of the federal government, health agencies, and pharmaceutical giants. From closed meetings of the FDA, CDC, and drug companies, to the mysterious rider inserted into the 2002 Homeland Security Bill that would bar thimerosal litigation, to open hearings held by Congress, this book shows a medical establishment determined to deny “evidence of harm” that might be connected with thimerosal and mercury in vaccines. In spite of everything, as research is beginning to demonstrate, the questions raised by these families have significant implications for all children, and for those entrusted to oversee our national health.

Avoiding hyperbole Even as writing about a conceivable medical catastrophe is no easy task, but David Kirby has created a fine balance of investigative and personal detail in Evidence of Harm. Combining stories from the parents of autistic children with reports, speeches and studies from researchers, pediatricians and government officials, he creates a picture that is as terrifying as anything dreamed up by Hitchcock.

The topic at hand is determining whether high levels of organic mercury present in an inexpensive preservative used in vaccinations can cause either autism or autism-like symptoms. Kirby’s in a delicate position, searching for the truth between frantic parents (he makes a speciality of the founders of political action group Safe Mind) and the self-protective pharmaceutical industry (the author thanks the nameless person who placed a pro-Eli Lilly litigation rider into the Homeland Security Act of 2002). He’s also honest enough of a reporter to admit to the temptation of deciding mercury is the culprit in the back of a range of disorders, even in light of some inconclusive test results. The ultimate truth isn’t clear, and Kirby is direct about each of the reasons his sources have for their biased opinions.

Even as one of the straight research reports will likely to go over the head of anyone not well versed in the terminology, the book is never dull–there is a continual urgency in the material that resists pedantry. On the other hand undecided the experts, readers will likely land firmly in one angry camp or the other. Jill Lightner

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