The Straight Dope weighs in...
Jun. 8th, 2007 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishDid mercury in vaccines cause autism? Do vaccines cause autism?
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070608.html
I've been reading Cecil Adam's column in book form since college, and from his website recently, and I'm inclined to trust his judgement. I know all of my kids had the same vaccinations; Avalon was actually in a study for a combination vaccine (same stuff, just combined in one shot). Angus is mildly autistic (Asperger's) and the other two aren't. He was born in 1998, before thimersol was pulled out of vaccines - however, given that he has quite a few family members with similar behaviors, I'm more inclined to think it's genetic in his case. I'm on at least one mailing list I'm thinking of dropping because every issue, while having some handy information concerning education or coping at home, contains at least one (slightly hysterical in tone) article or presentation - usually by doctors - concerning this.
And I've seen more than a few accounts of parents doing chelation treatments on their children (which some children have died of) and claiming that 'a lot of mercury left the body' and there were marked improvements afterward. Since the amount of mercury in vaccines was so minscule, what that says to me is that was a case of heavy metal poisoning from some other source, and not autism at all. Then again, my child is not nearly as severely impaired, and I'm not so desperate to find a "cure" when there isn't one.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/070608.html
I've been reading Cecil Adam's column in book form since college, and from his website recently, and I'm inclined to trust his judgement. I know all of my kids had the same vaccinations; Avalon was actually in a study for a combination vaccine (same stuff, just combined in one shot). Angus is mildly autistic (Asperger's) and the other two aren't. He was born in 1998, before thimersol was pulled out of vaccines - however, given that he has quite a few family members with similar behaviors, I'm more inclined to think it's genetic in his case. I'm on at least one mailing list I'm thinking of dropping because every issue, while having some handy information concerning education or coping at home, contains at least one (slightly hysterical in tone) article or presentation - usually by doctors - concerning this.
And I've seen more than a few accounts of parents doing chelation treatments on their children (which some children have died of) and claiming that 'a lot of mercury left the body' and there were marked improvements afterward. Since the amount of mercury in vaccines was so minscule, what that says to me is that was a case of heavy metal poisoning from some other source, and not autism at all. Then again, my child is not nearly as severely impaired, and I'm not so desperate to find a "cure" when there isn't one.
